12 Winter Sleep Hacks

1.      Sleep Cues & the Circadian Rhythm

Bodies love a rhythm. The trick to easy sleep is to find your grove. There are ways to support our natural physiology so that our body comes to expect sleep, even work to induce it naturally so we can melt into dreams easefully.

Fostering our natural circadian rhythm involves creating sleep cues that happen at the same time each evening and in the same order. Bodies love a rhythm. Find out the best time for lights out for you that gives you at least 8hrs before you wake up.

The circadian rhythm is more effective when we aim to be asleep before midnight and get up at the same time each morning. An added bonus to dropping off before midnight is that we also benefit from the most restorative sleep.

Winter naturally encourages more sleep if we go with the opportunity to receive less light. Darkness causes the release of melatonin, the hormone that induces sleep. A lack of it is often what causes difficulty dropping off. As part of a daily sleep routine, one tip is to make a switch to low lighting and avoid the blue light of digital screens. This is important for at least 2 hrs before bed for boosting adequate melatonin production.

Bodies love a rhythm.

Once established you will automatically engage what’s needed for you to ease into sleep effortlessly. Listed below are a number of ideas you could adopt as part of your set of sleep cues.

2.      Get Physical & Release Stress

What we do by day also has an impact on how well we sleep at night and it could be as simple as to get moving more. Physical activity improves sleep quality and quantity. It gets the blood flowing and clears out wastes and toxins, giving the body less work to do while you sleep, concentrating more on repair rather than detoxification.

If you go to bed full of a whole lot of stress hormones and adrenaline it will interfere with your ability to sleep well. Additionally, the liver will be overworked and demanding attention. A sign of an overburdened liver is puffy under the eyes first thing in the morning.

A brisk walk or run, some yoga or dancing work wonders, even 10-20 minutes a day helps. Find what works for you.

3.      Nature, Awe and Wonder

Getting outdoors daily gets us into the elements. Natural sunlight, expansive sky, birdsong and wind in the trees.  Bringing our awareness to our experience of these elements is fantastic for fostering greater self-awareness, and also takes us out of our head and into our body.

The more we notice nature around us, the more we can be taken in by its beauty, and beauty feeds our soul and gives us a sense of gratitude. We can intentionally seek out these beautiful moments, such as an evening sunset and the dusky chorus of birds.

We can also get to know the local flora and fauna by observing the seasonal changes in buds and leaves, flowers and seeds. It’s fascinating to watch what happens next and greet the same familiar faces each and every day.

This natural daily boost and soul soothing lightens the load and creates more ease when the day comes to an end.

4.      Muscle Relaxation

Often body tension can be the result of a busy or stressful day and it can be hard to properly let go and relax fully. One easy way to sooth out those muscle knots and spasms is to soak in a hot salt bath.

Did you know that it is actually impossible for muscles to relax in the absence of magnesium?

The magnesium in Epsom salts soaks in better through the skin than as a supplement. Plus soaking for 30 minutes causes toxins to be released through the skin. The hot water itself is also relaxing as is what you do in there.

Take a book, perhaps some candles, essential oils or even a relaxing Podcast. I like Beth Kempton’s Calm Christmas.

5.      Digital Detox

Switching off mentally after a mentally stimulating day is massively supported by creating some distance between ourselves and our phone, which let’s face it, has become almost an extension of our body. Could you experiment with putting it on ‘Do Not Disturb’ after 7 or 8pm and leaving it in another room?

Same goes for the laptop and TV, the bigger and closer the screen the more light emitted. It’s the blue light  from them that interferes most with our melatonin production and hence our ability to drop-off with ease.

Additionally, it’s nice to switch off from being a receptacle of other peoples creativity, interests and demands got attention. Leave space for your own naturally processing and creativity to flow.

6.      Nutrition & Fasting

Fostering easeful sleep is all about making it as easy as possible for your body to do the natural thing. We’ve covered going easy on the mental stimulation, giving your brain a rest, we also need to ensure that our digestive system is resting and not demanding energy and heat.

A two hour cut off before retiring is a useful guide, however, aiming for a 12 hour fast, say from 7pm – 7am is even better. With our body and brains activity at a minimum, it’s easier to sink into relaxation.

Nutritionally, calcium and magnesium rich foods are helpful such as bananas and tahini. Golden milk made by simmering turmeric and spices in a pan is also a great ritual to add to your personal sleep sequence. It’s not just the soothing milk that helps, but also the ritual itself. Another cue for your body to read as ‘time for bed’.

7.      Receive Empathy

It may be that life has rolled on without pause for quite some time, or that something out of the ordinary has occurred. Having a trusted friend or family member simply listen, without offering advice or solutions can make all the difference.

When we feel genuinely seen and heard for all our efforting, we feel understood and valued. We get that sense of mattering.

Via telephone is most accessible, however, a lunch date or walk is even better. A coach or therapist can also provide this.

8.      Old Fashioned book reading

Picking up a book is a great way to support a digital detox. You can go for some light relief or something that totally absorbs you, whisking you far away from your own trials and tribulations, and offering you some mental respite.

Good Reads is a great app. for offering you matched book suggestions, and local red telephone boxes transformed into book swaps can introduce you to all sorts of delights.

I’m reading ‘The Familiars’ by Stacey Halls, which I give 5 stars.

9.      Journaling, Lists and Brain-dumps

Some of us take ages to drop-off due to mulling over things that happened during the day, or planning or worrying about things to come. Other can wake in the night only to find their anxieties or To-Do list taking over, destroying any chance of getting back into dreamland.

This is where a notebook can come in handy. Brain-dump in bullet points or free-write for a set period of time, letting flow whatever comes out. Put the pen to paper and keep going. 5-10 minutes each evening is helpful.

If it’s forward planning that keeps you awake, make a point of dedicating some time to list what your tasks are for the following day. That way it’s all down on paper and your heads not trying to bring it forward and make sure you don’t forget it.

10.   Metabolise Your Emotions & Sooth the Nervous System

Many items on this list will be soothing for your nervous system. After a whole day of mental and emotional stimulation, sensory processing of a myriad of things and very little pause, our brains just get full.

We need a period of downtime for natural conscious and unconscious processing of the day’s thoughts and events. Something we get very little of in these modern times dominated by tech and never-ending tasks.

It is especially important if we have been triggered in circumstances where we have not been able to express ourselves authentically and have felt the need to mask what’s going on inside.

Did you know that tears contain cortisol? So having a good cry clears out that destructive stress hormone.

Experiment with different tools to sooth or release pent-up emotions. Even jumping or shaking are highly effective, as is a self-massage; simply squeezing the arms, deep belly breathing, singing… whatever feels releasing or soothing for you. I like Tomek’s Wyczesany’s free meditations on Insight Timer.

Metabolise those emotions. Create your own Menu to refer to. One of the options is sure to give you some much needed release at the end of the day, or any time throughout for that matter!

11.   Connect & Co-Regulate

We’ve touched upon the power of an empathetic listening ear, and also movement and self-soothing  tools. These things help tone down an overstimulated system because they are self-connecting. Connection is very powerful whether to ourselves, to others or to the natural world outside.

Being around other people and pets has the ability to regulate our nervous system; allow it to settle and ease. This would of course need to be around others who are in a relaxed state and so you could intentionally set up a restful evening to nestle into, perhaps with a light-hearted film, cuddles or even some pen and paper games like consequences.

Remember that one where you draw a head, fold it over leaving the neck visible, pass it to your left of the circle, then draw a body on the new neck you’ve been passed, pass on again and receive the bottom of a body so you can add the legs. Open them out and see what you’ve co-created. It’s usually brings in a giggle or two! The poetry version is also great fun.

As a family you could get together and confabulate all the ways you could spend your evenings to encourage a winding down and gentle switching off. Low energy, low demand, particularly avoiding close screen contact.

Read aloud a chapter a night from a great book. Sharing it means you get to enjoy the journey of a story together. An audio book is another alternative.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to find other people who are calming to be around. This is when a meditation app. can come in handy, or a coach. Co-regulating can also work well with people who you’re not caught up in any tensions with.

Remember we are human animals and social by nature. We need that close contact and sense of community and care.

12. Herbs

I’ve mentioned golden milk, and we all know that a cup of chamomile before bed can ease us into a restful sleep. There are also a number of nighttime teabags that contain ingredients such as lavender and linden blossom. You could grow or forage some and add to your evening routine.

A herbalist can also prescribe you a bespoke herbal medicine sleep tonic specifically designed for your needs. Whether its tension that needs ironing out, an overthinking brain that could do with a little gentle sedation, a bit of nervous system restoration, something to address adrenal fatigue, (often the culprit of early morning waking), or all of the above, a herbalist can mix up a tonic for your to take just 5-10mls nightly.

I am available to support you in finding a rhythm that works for you and encourages deeply nourishing and restorative sleep. Let the herbs do their work whilst together we find the path that fits and sticks.

www.healthneedsthyme.co.uk