Alright lovely people, this is a thread about sleep.

Lots of people having trouble sleeping at the moment. Sleep is so important for your brain; it’s good for your emotional, mental, and physical health.

The thread is aimed at health service staff, but will apply to others too!

Sleep is a state of altered consciousness that your body goes into to rest and recuperate. It’s when you recharge.

Irrespective of what you think, you need 6-8 hours of sleep in each 24 hour period. Everyone thinks they’re special on this and can operate on less, they can’t.

Your sleep wake cycle is controlled by three things: your internal body clock which secrets hormones at different times of the day and night, the amount of time since you last slept, and your behaviour. Understanding this helps you get better sleep.

Where possible, it’s really important to sleep when it’s dark and be awake when it’s light. This is because your body produces melatonin when in darker settings, encouraging sleep.

If you’re working nights, using an eye mask is brilliant. Buy a decent one, they aren’t expensive.

When you’re awake, get out of bed. Your bed should only be for sleep and sex (you can also have sex elsewhere if you choose). This is a behavioural thing, your brain should only associate bed with sleep.

Keep a routine!
This is so important. Go to bed at a certain time, get up at a certain time, even if you’re still tired. This also goes for working nights. If it takes you ages to get to sleep, then go to bed earlier. When you get up, put on daytime clothes.

Your routine should also include rituals around preparing for sleep. Washing your teeth, reading in bed, putting on PJ’s etc. Irrespective of how tired you are, take at least 20 minutes to do this, it gives your brain time to slow down.

If you’re a health service employee on shifts, pay attention to your meal choices before sleep. Cereal is a good option but can be full of sugar.

Make sure the room you sleep in is cool. People often say they like to be cosy and warm in bed, but the room itself should be cold. Getting cold and then being cosy encourages your body into sleep.

Alcohol, sugar, and caffeine are going to impact both the quality and quantity of your sleep. No, you’re not special; yes, this does effect you too.

Pay attention now:
Alcohol doesn’t help you sleep. It makes you drowsy, not sleepy, there’s a huge difference.

When you’re in bed, read for a little bit or just lie there with the light on. People often say that as soon as they turn the light off, they’re suddenly wide awake. This is because they aren’t taking enough time to wind down.

If you find that your lying awake pondering the problems of the universe, get up and write down everything that’s in your head. Get it out of your head and onto the paper. And do it out of bed, a different room. That way you’re putting the problems out of your bedroom.

If you’re waking up during the night and can’t get back to sleep, try getting up for about 20 minutes. Let your body cool down, have a glass of water, stay off your phone, then go back to bed. You’re basically resetting yourself for returning to sleep.

All of the stuff here is evidence based. I don’t recommend meditations or AppStore aromatherapy etc to people, although some find them useful. This is stuff I know works because I’ve used it in my practice