Following a routine will help prepare you for a good night’s sleep (Picture: Getty Images)
The older we get, the more we begin to cherish a proper night’s sleep and revel in being tucked up in bed nice and early with a gripping book.
But achieving a good night’s sleep isn’t as easy as it may sound, and there are numerous factors that can prevent us from getting a decent amount of shut-eye.
Thankfully, there are a number of things you can do to improve the quality of your sleep — 11 of them in fact, according to a wellbeing expert.
Nicola Elliott, the founder of NEOM Organics London, has been working in the wellbeing industry for nearly two decades and during that time, she’s learned an awful lot about four things in particular — sleep, stress, energy and mood.
Nicola has compiled all of this knowledge into a new book, called The Four Ways To Wellbeing and within this she reveals tips on how we can all have better sleep.
And she claims in order to achieve this, you’ll need to follow 11 golden rules, which were devised by the NEOM team and sleep specialist Nick Witton.
Within the list of rules, you’ll find the 3-2-1 rule, which Nicola describes as a ‘useful technique’ that helps prepare you for a good night’s sleep.
Here’s a closer look at what it entails and why it’s worth giving a go…
What is the 3-2-1 rule?
It’s actually really simple and straightforward routine, but it might taking a little getting used to at first.
Essentially it starts three hours before you go to bed, and within each time frame there’s something you have to avoid doing.
So, for three hours before bed, you’re not meant to consume any food or drink any alcohol. Water or a non-stimulating herbal tea is allowed during this time.
Then two hours before bed is when you stop doing any work or strenuous exercise.
Finally, an hour before you go to bed, you stop using screens (yes, that means putting your phone away) and you also dim the lights in the room.
Why should you give it a go?
Nicola explains in her book that having a regular routine such as this allows us to feel ‘more in control of our lives’ and can also ‘lower stress’.
‘You might feel like you haven’t got time to put a routine into place or that it’s one more thing to “do” but that’s probably a sign you need one,’ she said.
Breaking down the benefits for each of the steps involved, Nicola shares how eating late at night can disrupt your sleep and keep you up for longer.
‘Eating three hours before bed is the optimum time recommended for our bodies to digest food. Eating late at night (especially if the foods are higher in carbs and sugars) stimulates our digestive system and inhibits the release of melatonin, which can interfere with our body’s ability to fall asleep at a decent hour.’
Nutritional therapist Alice Mackintosh adds: ‘Eating earlier gives the body time to stabilise blood sugar before bed, meaning we don’t get peaks and troughs that keep us up later, or disturb sleep cycles.’
How much sleep should we get each night?
According to NEOM’s golden rules, it’s a major misconception that we all need eight hours of sleep each night.
Nicola explains in The Four Ways to Wellbeing that we should all be sleeping in 90 minute cycles and aiming for either seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, nine hours of sleep, or 10-and-a-half hours of sleep.
However, she stresses that there is ‘no one size fits all’ model for sleep.
And when it comes to stopping work and exercise two hours before bed, this is all because of the impact it has on your body.
As we all know thanks to Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, ‘exercise gives you endorphins’ and these endorphins fire up your brain activity, which obviously isn’t ideal before sleep. They also increase your core body temperature which signals to your body clock that you need to be awake.
Strenuous exercise in the evening, such as running or a HIIT class could also disrupt your hormone balance, stopping the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.
‘Some form of movement is still important to help our bodies and brain unwind from the day though,’ Nicola adds. ‘Especially if you’ve been sitting in one position at a desk for long periods.’
Looking at screens before bed can majorly disrupt your sleep (Picture: Getty Images)
And finally, ditching screens and dimming the lights. Unsurprisingly, this one is to do with the blue light that’s emitted by smartphones, laptops, tablets, e-readers, and TV screens.
Nicola writes that the light receptors in our eyes ‘communicate daytime signals to our brains to stay awake’ and these receptors are particularly sensitive to blue light.
She adds: ‘Natural blue light is what helps us wake up in the morning, but studies show that too much artificial blue light in the evening suppresses the production of melatonin, the all-important ingredient for facilitating the onset of sleep.’
The 11 Golden Rules for sleep
Sleep in 90-minute cycles so you either aim for seven-and-a-half, nine, or ten-and-a-half hours of sleep.
Don’t snooze your alarm.
Give yourself 30 minutes to wake up each morning
Get at least one hour of direct sunlight before midday, ideally 15 minutes of those within the first hour of waking.
Do at least 30 minutes of movement a day.
Create an evening routine, use the 3-2-1 rule every night before bed.
Set aside 15 minutes for relaxation at any point in your day.
Make your bedroom a tech-free zone that’s as dark as possible and between 16 and 19C.
Eat three regular meals evenly spread out throughout the day.
Have your last coffee (or caffeinated drink) by midday.
LED bulbs also emit blue light, which is why dimming the lights, or switching on lamps instead is recommended in this step. You could also consider lighting candles for light.
But it’s not just your bedroom light you need to be wary of, as LEDs are often also used in fridges, bathroom mirror and other things, so you could ‘unintentionally be getting little bursts of blue light’ just by moving around your house.
And while the routine calls for dimming the lights and hour before bed, Nicola does state that ‘ideally’ it’s better to start doing this two hours before bed if you can.
As previously mentioned, there are 10 other ‘golden rules’ for sleep, which you are meant to follow consistently over a 28-day period in order to turn the habit into an automatic behaviour.
Nicola adds: ‘Remember we’re aiming for progress, not perfection. They might take a bit of time getting used to but stick with it.
‘Personally, I found not drinking alcohol three hours before bed a bit hard at first, but I really have noticed a massive difference in my sleep and energy levels from just doing it.’
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It makes a ‘massive difference’ to your sleep.
