The past couple of weeks I have been so tired, I literally just want to sleep all of the time. There is a lot of pressure in my life at the moment and our family holiday could not have come at a better time. With my most recent patterns I have not been remembering my dreams so much – I think this is because I have been having a lot of deep sleeps. When I do remember them I love looking them up. Keeping fit and getting the right amount of sleep to cope with the stresses of the day is hard work – I call this sleep-fit!
Sleeping patterns and getting sleep-fit
Sleep-fit is something that doesn’t come easy. With young children in the family I find it hard to get a good nights sleep, the recommended eight hours that is. My sleeping patterns have been all over the place since having children too as my sleep has revolved around their sleep. When they were babies sleeping patterns were every 4 hours, with feeds and cuddles in between. Nowadays I can get eight hours sleep, but I really have to force myself to do it. I am really aware that my routine in the evenings is not very good, we eat late and there is just so much to do that I do not get to bed, some nights, before midnight. Isla gets up, most mornings, around 6am so that’s two hours off of my sleep before I even get started.
I will be trying to get sleep-fit by doing the following things:
No phones
I do not keep my phone near my bed and I am really aware of how often I look at my phone for no reason. I can live without it, especially before bedtime. So I leave it out of the bedroom. It is a no-phone zone! There is research to prove that looking at your phone before you go to sleep can actually prevent you from getting to sleep, as quickly, so it’s not a bad idea to keep it away from the bedroom in the evening.
Eating earlier
One of my major negative impacts on my fitness and my sleeping patterns is the fact that some nights we do not eat until 10pm. It is ridiculous. But, because of children and going to the gym or a fitness class, we literally do not get to eat until that late. It is not healthy, good for fitness or good for your sleeping pattern to eat so late. I am going to be making a big effort to eat earlier and work my fitness around mealtimes. Not the other way around.
Making room for eight hours
If I do not go to bed until midnight, I immediately know I will be getting six hours or less. So why do I go to bed at midnight? I am going to make a conscious effort to get to bed on or before 10pm when I know we have to get up in the mornings, like a work/school day so that I get my eight hours of sleep. When my body gets used to the pattern of eight hours, this will hopefully mean I get to remember my dreams more.
My favourite dreams
Comfortable bedding
If the bed isn’t comfortable for you, the mattress is too hard or too soft and equally you do not have the right amount of blankets/pillows then you will not have the best nights sleep. Its a Goldilocks approach – get it “just right” to get the optimum sleep.
Do something relaxing
A nice hot bath, with Lavender bubbles for example will help your body to relax and rejuvenate after your workouts and busy days. Read a chapter of a book or I might start playing my piano for half an hour in the evenings as that relaxes me too. I need to find at least half an hour of time a night to unwind and do something that takes my mind off those everyday stresses.
So I will let you know how sleep-fit goes after a couple of weeks and if it is helping. Do you have any other good tips to get a better nights sleep and get sleep-fit?
Alarm clock image by ShutterStock.
