Why Sleep Hygiene is Important to Your Health

By Amy Tilley, PsyD

Spring is in the air— and winter is headed out the door. In Arizona, we don’t experience much of a true winter (you can’t shovel sunshine, after all!). With the month of March comes the return of daylight savings time for much of the country. While Arizona does not participate in this twice a year ritual, it does affect our overall sleep patterns and can have an impact on our physical, mental, and emotional health. 

For many people, turning the clock ahead one hour in the springtime (and then turning the clock back one hour in November) really messes with their circadian rhythms. I lived in Arizona for many years and am now back in the Midwest, where we take part in daylight savings time. The “magic” of losing an hour of sleep overnight pays a price for many on our bodies and minds. The sun rises much earlier in the day in March, and we begin to gain an incredible amount of light in the evening. In the upper Midwest, we will see daylight until 9:00 p.m. in the summer! 

What does all this have to do with our sleep patterns and how we function throughout the day? Sleep hygiene can play a vital role in helping to adjust to these patterns that most of the country sees twice a year. 

What is sleep hygiene? 

It involves establishing a set of daily habits and behaviors designed to improve your sleep quality, duration, and helps you be more alert in the daytime hours. If you have a structured routine for bedtime, you can benefit by experiencing an improved mood, more stable emotions, less depression and anxiety symptoms, and improved cognition. Good, quality sleep gives our brains a chance to rest and our body repairs tissues and heals from the day’s activities. 

Some helpful tips for effective sleep hygiene include:

• Keeping a consistent nighttime routine: go to bed and wake up at the same time each night (even on the weekends). People typically need 7-9 hours of restful sleep to feel refreshed in the morning. 
• Keep your bedroom dark, quiet, and cool. Turn down the thermostat at night and use blackout curtains to keep any outside light from coming in the room. Use a sound machine if you need some type of ambient noise to help you relax.
• Limit technology and reduce your screentime before you go to sleep. This may be difficult to do, but the less blue light you experience before you close your eyes, the better. Dimming the lights in your home can also help your body begin to adjust to darkness and helps prepare you for sleep. 
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, other stimulants, and heavy meals before bedtime.
• Do not have a television in your bedroom. This can be distracting and emits blue light when your body does not need it. 

Utilize the 15 Minute Rule: If you can’t fall asleep after about 15-20 minutes, get out of bed. Go to another part of your home and engage in a quiet activity, like reading or meditating until you feel sleepy. Do not turn on the TV! This will interrupt your circadian rhythm, by emitting the blue light your body does not need. 

“Good, quality sleep gives our brains a chance to rest and our body repairs tissues and heals from  the day’s activities. “

Not getting enough sleep or not feeling rested when you wake up can have significant impact on your overall functioning. A decline in your physical health can be a clue that you are not getting enough rest. Your body may say “STOP” by getting physically sick with the flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, or another ailment that forces you to rest. Your mental health can decline, especially if you notice an increase in symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, or a reduction in your cognitive ability to focus or remember certain tasks that need to be addressed. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body stays in high alert mode and produces cortisol, which causes your heart to beat faster and muscles to tense. We need our bodies to slow down during sleep so we can get adequate rest.

If you feel that you are not getting adequate sleep and your sleep hygiene needs improvement, talk with a doctor about your concerns. It may be helpful to keep a sleep diary so that you have a record of your patterns and symptoms when discussing treatment options with your provider. A medical team can help put a treatment plan together to help address sleep concerns, including a referral for a sleep study. 

Therapy can also help and is an important component of the treatment plan. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a great place to start establishing new routines for sleep and rest. EMDR may be a helpful tool, especially if you are experiencing vivid dreams that are disrupting your sleep. Seek out a mental health care provider to help you on your journey to better sleep hygiene and better sleep hygiene practices.

Amy Tilley, PsyD. has 20 years in the mental health and addiction recovery field. Her clinical interests include working with young adults and adults diagnosed with co-occurring conditions. Visit desertstarARC.com  or call 520-638-6000.