Getting a good night's sleep

By Dr Doireann O'Leary

As children, students and parents get ready to settle back into a school routine with the summer drawing to an end, Cork’s Dr Doireann O’Leary outlines her top tips for getting better sleep.

Caffeine

If you’re not sleeping well, cut back or eliminate caffeine.

This means tea, coffee, Coke, Diet Coke, energy drinks, etc. Caffeinated drinks stimulate us and disrupt our sleep. They also acts as diuretics, makes us go to the toilet and therefore cause us to wake up to go to the loo mid-snooze.

Ideally we need to steer clear of anything caffeinated from 12 noon. Switch to decaf or green tea once it hits midday.

Smoking

There are many reasons to kick the habit and poor sleep is one of them. The nicotine acts as a stimulant and very much disrupts sleep.

Alcohol

Having a night cap or a glass of wine with dinner may help you nod off but it won’t result in restful, restorative sleep. Once the effect wears off, you’ll wake up and feel dehydrated.

Temperature

In order to sleep well, body temperature needs to be optimum. The room should be cool and well ventilated. Body temperature rises overnight so it’s important the room is kept cool.

Darkness

The room needs to be dark and remain dark overnight. We need darkness to stimulate our sleep hormone melatonin. Blackout blinds can help but eye masks are also very handy and offer a quicker and more affordable solution.

Phone/screen use

Ideally our beds are used for sleep only. But if you must look at your laptop or phone in bed coming up to bedtime, switch the screen settings to night mode; the warmer colour on screens during night mode poses less of an insult to our ideal night time physiology.

Quietness

It’s important your sleep environment is peaceful and quiet. Sometimes it’s impossible to control outside influences to your sleep environment but using ear plugs can help.

Routine

Having a bedtime and wake-time that you stick to is proven to help you sleep better. If your favourite show is on after your bedtime, watch it on catch up. Weekends are often disruptive and result in sleep inertia, so sticking to your routine as much as possible is best.

Stress

Stress is a huge reason for poor sleep. Managing stressors throughout the by maintaining healthy habits like exercising, eating well, and taking supplements like Zenflore which helps reduce stress is important for good sleep. Furthermore, don’t schedule potentially stressful phone calls or check emails close to bedtime. They can be tackled in the morning.

Fresh air

Getting out under the sky at some point during the day can help your melatonin production at night time. It’s going to become trickier to see actual daylight but maybe ask a colleague to go for a walk at lunch hour with you.

The benefits of fresh air are endless and better sleep is certainly one of them.