Best Practices for Promoting Better Sleep
How are you faring after the start of Daylight Savings Time? Is your sleep rhythm back to normal yet? Or are you still playing catch up for that missed hour? Are you looking for ways to promote better sleep, even when our crazy time practices do their best to prevent it?
It’s probably no accident that the time change coincides with National Sleep Awareness Week. First they disrupt our rest, then they draw everyone’s attention to it. Ha!
Fortunately for me, my sleep cycles adjust rapidly. I don’t know if it’s due to my being a super early riser or to the exhaustion I feel from keeping up with 12 children all day or to the fact I’ve never been prone to worry, but I’m out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow each night.
Sadly, this hasn’t been the case for several of my friends and family members. I asked several of them to give me their best tips for promoting better sleep, and here are the things they found helpful:
Best Tips for Getting Better Sleep
1. Maintain a Clear Conscience
One of the most foundational requisites of restful, restorative sleep is upright living. Make it your habit not to say or do anything you’ll later regret. And if/when you slip up, confess it immediately and ask for God’s forgiveness. (1 John 1:9)
2. Take a Warm Bath
Soaking in a steamy bath or taking a hot shower before bed can relax your muscles and prepare your body for sleep.
3. Listen to White Noise
Several of my daughters-in-law swear by white noise for blocking out ambient sounds that would disturb either their own sleep or the sleep of their babies. If you (like I) are bothered by the sound of static, try listening to ocean waves or rain drop recordings or soft music instead.
4. Meditate on God’s Word
Use the time you spend drifting off to mentally recite Bible verses you have memorized. I rarely make it to the end of a passage before I’m sawing logs. I suspect Satan would rather just let me sleep than let me dwell on the richness and truth of God’s Holy Word. Ha!
5. Use Light Blocking Curtains
Light from the moon, street lamps, passing cars, and motion detectors — as well as the sun if you are trying to rest during daylight hours — can really be disruptive of sleep. To guard against that, invest in light blocking blinds, drapes or window shades.
6. Try a Weighted Blanket
For as long as we’ve been married, my husband and I have slept under multiple layers of heavy cotton quilts and duvets and down comforters. We love the snuggly warmth of it all, but we also like the weight. Fast forward a few decades, and studies now show that sleeping under weighted blankets is good for your rest as well as for your mental health. But you don’t have to be as cold-natured as I am to benefit from this fact, because now you can sleep under a single weighted blanket and ditch all the extra covers.
7. Count Your Blessings
Prayer is another great way to spend the minutes it takes you to fall asleep. Try using that time to thank God for His many blessings, both great and small.
8. Cast All Your Cares on Christ
If you’ve been praying for weighty requests, though, mentally reviewing those situations right before bed may not be best for your frame of mind (unless they are constantly at the forefront of your mind, in which case casting off that burden, once again, at the foot of the cross and reaffirming God’s sovereignty and goodness may be just the thing to help you rest).
9. Drink Tart Cherry Juice
My daughter tells me tart cherry juice has been very effective in helping her rest more soundly. It’s a natural source of melatonin and also contains trytophan, both of which help regulate sleep.
9. Silence Your Phone
Set the focus function not to push through texts or notifications during nighttime hours. You might even consider charging it in another room, where it can neither tempt nor disturb you until morning.
10. Avoid Caffeine after Noon
If you can’t face the morning without a strong cup of coffee, be sure you finish your last cup before noon. Caffeine ingested later in the day can wreck havoc on your sleep cycles.
11. Get Up Early
Speaking from experience, the earlier you get up in the morning, the easier it will be to go to sleep at night. “Early to bed, early to rise” works in both directions. To enjoy the full sleep-preparatory effect of a long day, however, you may need to avoid taking an afternoon nap.
12. Spray Pillow with Lavender
The scent of lavender promotes relaxation, which is one reason they add the scent to baby wash and baby lotion. Fortunately, the same ploy can help tired mamas too, so use lavendar to its full advantage by spritzing .sheets with lavender essential oils or using lavendar scented lotions to moisturize before bed or sleeping with a sachet of dried lavender tucked beneath your pillow.
13. Limit Screen Time in the Evening
If you must be online, use a blue light blocking filter, as the blue light stimulates the part of your brain that makes you feel alert — which is the exact opposite of what you should be doing as you wind down for the evening.
14. Read before Bed
Rather than reaching for your phone or laptop, reach for a good book before time to turn out the lights. I love reading before bed, then turning the lights out once my eyelids are too heavy to stay open a second longer. Of course, here again, you’ll need to pick a genre that is not overly-stimulating. Something sedate, like poetry, non-fiction, Psalms or Proverbs.
15. Drink Warm Milk or Herbal Tea
Warm milk has long been known to have a soporific effect. Herbal teas such as chamomile and lavender also promote relaxation and may improve sleep quality. So down a cup before heading to bed and test the results for yourself. A couple of my kids like to combine the two by adding milk (and a drop of honey) to their tea.
16. Forgo Spicy Foods before Bed
If you love to eat Indian or Mexican food, better make it an early dinner so your sleep isn’t disrupted by indigestion or acid reflux.
17. Use Magnesium Lotion
Tart cherry juice isn’t the only way to boost your magnesium and promote better sleep. You can also rub a little magnesium cream or lotion on the bottom of your feet or legs if you need extra help in falling to sleep.
18. Have Sex with Your Spouse
If you are married to a willing partner, don’t overlook sex as a great promoter of restful sleep. I can readily testify to its effectiveness! If you’re interested in reading about the science behind this phenomenon, check out my book, Love Your Husband/ Love Yourself. It details the sleep connection as well as myriad other health benefits of prioritizing intimacy with your spouse. ❤️
