March is the perfect time to shine a spotlight on sleep—it’s Sleep Awareness Month! Feeling drained or sluggish? It might be time to rethink your sleep habits. In this blog, I’ll discuss the best practices I recommend to patients, from setting up a restful environment to maintaining a consistent routine and monitoring your diet. Let’s explore simple, effective ways to help you wake up rejuvenated and ready for the day.
First and foremost, sleep hygiene refers to your consistent cycle or routine with the ideal habits allowing for optimization of circadian rhythms, our natural 24-hour body clock. This is so important for effective sleep cycle. Ideally, an adults need anywhere from 6 – 8 hours where children can be anywhere from 10-12 hours. The process of a regular cycle of sleep and waking, hormone release, and body temperature drives the circadian rhythms. The sun, daylight, triggers the body to wake while the night sends a sign to sleep and produce melatonin. The internal clock are cells located in the brain known as suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This is part of the brain called the hypothalamus.
Where you sleep is as important as getting the sleep. Make your bedroom a sleep haven, not an entertainment zone. Watching TV, scrolling the internet, or reading in bed disrupts your ability to relax and unwind. Instead, focus on building an ideal sleep environment: keep the room dark and set the temperature between 65° and 68°F. For an extra boost, try wearing warm socks. This triggers vasodilation — the widening of blood vessels — which helps cool your body’s core temperature, a key signal to your brain that it’s time for sleep. With these small changes, you can reclaim your nights and wake up feeling refreshed.
The next component to good hygiene is your daily routine. Creating a daily routine with consistency of bedtime and wake up times is important. This will lead to you falling asleep faster, waking more refreshed, and making transitions through the day easy. For a daily routine begin the start of your day by drinking a tall glass of water before that first cup of coffee. Yes, sleep is dehydrating. The second part of this equation is your vitamin D levels. As mentioned in other blogs, this is formed by getting outside. This component is important to help with the circadian rhythm. So, get outside for 20 – 30 minutes each day.
Finally, timing and type of food you consume affects your sleep. I always support the proven rule 10, 3, 2, 1:
- 10: Eliminate caffeine 10 hours before sleep.
- 3: Cut alcohol 3 hours before bed.
- 2: Stop working 2 hours before bed.
- 1: Stop screen time 1 hour before bed.
Remember, sleep hygiene that works for you may not be the best for the person. This is a task of trial and error to achieve what is best to get the optimum results, A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP. Quality sleep is defined as restful, uninterrupted, and restorative slumber, characterized by falling asleep within 30 minutes, waking up no more than once per night, and spending at least 85% of time in bed asleep. It means achieving sufficient deep sleep and REM cycles, resulting in waking up refreshed, alert, and energized.