Have an early night
A recent Guardian article stated Sleep is fundamental to good health, both physically and mentally. People who are sleep deprived have less energy, more difficulty focusing on tasks, and will find it harder to maintain optimal physical fitness. They may also find it more tricky to turn new information learned during the day into stable and long-lasting memories’. Our bodies run on a diurnal body clock, meaning in a 24-hour period we have one block of sleep and one block of waking. This body clock is naturally trained by sunlight, but in the modern world it is often retrained to suit the routine of our lifestyle. So if you are finding you have to get up at 6.30am, you need to figure out howmuch sleep you need and adjust your routine. Let’s say you need the typical eight hours, so you need to be asleep by 10.30pm, and should begin your bedtime routine at around 9.30pm. That doesn’t mean getting into bed at 9.30pm, but beginning the process of relaxing (for example, finishing marking and turning off stimulating media). There is an established link between high stress levels and poor sleep and, like the caffeine cycle, this is probably cyclical. The hormone cortisol (nicknamed the stress hormone) is also the hormone responsible for waking us up in the morning – so having high levels of this hormone circulating in your body before bedtime can be incredibly disruptive. In turn, evidence suggests that poor sleep can contribute to us perceiving events as more stressful than we would otherwise. It is difficult to avoid stress but you can try to be mindful of how you deal with it. Make time to do whatever it is you find most effective at de-stressing, whether that’s exercising, chatting with friends or taking a long bath. These things may appear to be indulgent when you have a busy schedule, but they will help you cope with stress in the long run. And finally, prioritise sleep. If you are getting enough sleep, you will be less likely to experience as high levels of stress.’ You could try a sleep app. ‘Live Science’ recommends ‘sleepbot’; ‘Motion X 24/7’; and ‘sleep cycle’.
As a starting point, allow yourself at least ONE early night during theworkingweek.
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