Sleep and the time change
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I live in the part of Canada that ended its Daylight Savings Time at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, when we turned our clocks back one hour. Well actually many of our electronic devices did that for us – but I still had to change the time on the stove clock and wall clocks around the house. I THINK I got them all … no wait, I still haven’t changed the ones in the guest room. Won’t that be fun for our next guests walking through a time zone to go to bed : )
Ostensibly–that meant we got an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night. But in reality – we likely stayed up later and our cat, dog [insert pet here] still woke us at the usual “time” for their breakfast.
We’re all operating like we have jet lag … because we do.
So I thought this would be a good time to talk about sleep habits. Here we go:
Turn off all screens – ALL screens – TV, Computer, Smartphone about an hour before you go to bed.
Is your bedroom and nice, dark, cool place – if not, make it so. Natural-fibre bedding and a properly fitted pillow can make the world of difference by creating a comfortable sleep environment. Open a window and pull the blinds or drapes.
If you have a night-light in your bathroom to keep you from smashing your knee or tripping on the rug and waking the whole house – make sure it’s red. Apparently red light doesn’t disrupt sleep. I’ve had a red night-light in the bathroom for years (before I knew it was the right colour). It is a night-light that uses Christmas tree bulbs – and red it usually the colour … though I’m not sure about the new LED “red” which is kind of a weird pink.
Coffee –do we want to talk coffee? Yes, we do. Look, some people can drink coffee and sleep. But for some, even ½ cup in the morning can disturb their sleep at night.
Is coffee keeping you up at night (or more likely waking you up at night)? Unless you want a raging headache – I wouldn’t suggest stopping cold turkey. But you could ease yourself into a caffeine-free zone (or almost) by first having ¼ decaf and ¾ caf. The next week ½ and ½. The next week mostly decaf and then the next week all decaf. Try decaf tea to mix things up. Black tea, colas and chocolate also have caffeine so stay away from those as well. Make note of any changes in your sleep patterns.
Calcium can also help with sleep. Walnuts, sunflower seed, almonds, sesame seeds, sardines and salmon (with bone) provide dietary calcium.
Sweet dreams!