World Sleep Day March 19th. A chance for a simple sleep reset.

I see World Sleep Day, March 19th, as time to take a gorgeous moment and think, really think about my sleep. The global theme is “Regular sleep, healthy future” Sounds a bit like an ad for prunes but what’s great about it is the focus on habits.

You can use this day to be more active in how you sleep. How do you want to sleep and what do you want to change, if anything, in your sleep habits? 

Personally I can get into bad sleep habits easily. For me it's like exercise. Great intentions in January, but I can go off track in March. I can start off with a plan and then life happens. That's okay. Because I figured out that I get easily bored with routine so I now have a clever way that works for me. 

It's a reset plan. A sleep bootcamp that I do every 3 months. When the seasons change. 

And yes you absolutely can reset your sleep and train yourself to have better sleep habits. I used to do a sleep bootcamp with our daughter when she was little. Every 3 months we would realise that bad habits had crept back and her sleep pattern had changed so we needed to go back to the books and re establish the sleep rules that would work for her. 

I now do the same for myself. And I'm someone who works in sleep. I think about sleep all the time. Im always reading sleep books, tomorrow I’m even attending the UK’s, Clinical sleep conference. I’m sleep obsessed and I still need this moment to reset. 

Sleep bootcamp works for me because I'm not a rule follower. If you know Gretchen Rubin personality types, I’m definitely a rebel, so rule resets and bootcamps are a must have for me. 

This is how I reset my sleep. It might work for you.

First of all I laugh heartily at any book that forgets the fact that I'm raising a daughter. If you have children you know that sleep doesn't always start and end when you choose it to. I happily ignore those over simplified advice tips that say things like: “to get over daylight saving time simply set your alarm 15 mins earlier every day for a week and then hey presto you will have re calibrated”. For me this is not recognising the fact that

1. I'm an adult that doesn't want to go to bed at “exactly” the same time every night. So this 15 minute reset is not relatable and

2. I have a child so my sleep patterns are not fully dictated by me

3. I'm a woman, so some nights I’m going to have delicious sleep but one night a month before my period I will stay awake all night wondering if the world will end :) 

So my boot camp includes a scan of my: Room, Body and Mind. RBM for better REM

Room - Quick review of simple things like clothes storage, can I easily tidy clothes away or is there lots of clutter? Is the room getting aired each day? Do I love my bed sheets, my bed linen detergent ? Does my mattress need turning? Is the room dark enough for the season? Am I wearing the right temperature pyjamas / socks? Am I sticking to No tech in the bedroom (except my kindle with faded backlight) Of course I’m alway trialling a new sleeper too which is fun too.

Body - What's going in and am I moving enough? What's my coffee and chocolate intake like after 2? (I'm not good at metabolising caffeine so need to be strict on this), eating habits late at night? Sunlight in the morning ? Getting outside in general? Exercise (Am I hitting those magical daily heart points enough)

Mind - Am I bored, worried, anxious, having enough fun, enough sex? What can I do to re balance? 

The boot camp is just a few days where I am more thoughtful about how I’m sleeping and i tweak the small things that can make a big difference about how I feel about myself and this in turn can make a big difference to how I sleep.

Grab a cup of tea/ water and take 5 minutes to do your scan. RBM for a better REM. Let me know what works for you. hello@siestsleep.com