Weekly Wellbeing Activity: Healthy Sleep Hygiene

[Jess1-RO]

@Tay100 I really love the suggestion around a soft wake up! Sounds like a really great way to make the mornings that little bit easier

@Milkninja222 environment can play such a huge role in quality sleep. Definitely agree with the suggestion around temperature!
It sounds like finding calm with the people you are around right before sleep has been a really helpful wind down to sleeping

[statuscaring]

What a great time this thread has come up! /
For me, recently I've been really struggling to fall asleep and when I wake up I am completely exhausted still.
I will try @Milkninja222 suggestion of reading, and being mindful to read slowly as well, rather then past paced and rushed which i think will keep my mind too active.
@Tay100 How interesting, I will definitely try this tomorrow morning. DO you have a specific alarm tone that is recommended for a soft tone?

[Tay100]

Thanks Jess-RO! It also helps you complete and ease out of sleep cycles properly too, I hear!

[Tay100]

@statuscaring that's great to hear, and feel free to adjust how/how long you wake up gently for!
I recommend a rhythmic tone with calming music- the ones in the settings are ok but if you want more meditative ones I'm sure Google has plenty!

[Janine-RO]

I'm really loving reading through this thread, so many good ideas! 

@Milkninja222  that's really interesting what you say about needing to be warm, I find that I almost always have to sleep with the fan on low, even in winter - I find I sleep better when I'm slightly cool, but I like having a doona to snuggle up under. I'm pretty sure the white noise from the ceiling fan helps me as well. 

Avoiding bright lights and screens has helped me massively - I always have my phone or tablet on night mode after 8pm, so there's less blue light which apparently is terrible for your circadian rhythms, I do read a lot of books on my phone at night, but always with the screen light on really low. 

@statuscaring  will be interested to hear how you go with reading more slowly and mindfully at night - keep us posted on how it goes! I've always read at night, but I try and read books I've already read before, because I have made the mistake of reading a new book, getting carried away and suddenly realising it's 2am 

[statuscaring]

@Janine-RO @Tay100
4 consecutive days of reading slowly before bed and it is really helping! Managing to fall asleep much quicker. For me I think it is because it's distracting my mind from the other 10000 things racing around, so it is taking away the time laying in bed ruminating over my thoughts. Thank you so much for this advice!!

[drpenguin]

Hii @statuscaring, it's great to hear that reading before bed is helping you fall asleep quicker! I definitely feel like trying this out especially when I'm feeling restless in bed! How much time to do you tend to read for before deciding it's time to sleep?

[Tay100]

You can even buy special glasses to assist with the blue light even more than the night mode built into devices (they look a little dorky but are super effective)! It's important as you should still have enough light to prevent eye strain from reading by dim light!
And omg yess I agree book bingeing is the best kinda bingeing don't even @ me <3

[Tay100]

No worries! Honestly, I'm just drawing from experience lolololol

Let's beat the pesky rumination together!

[statuscaring]

@drpenguin Great question. I think it depends on how much I have on my mind before bedtime. Usually only 15 minutes. Longest was over 30 mins