Better sleep makes all your other goals possible.

Here are four daytime tips and one tried-and-true nighttime method sleeping well.

I experience insomnia more than I like to admit. I might go weeks sleeping just fine, and then something will get me off-kilter—an emotional conversation, a project snag, or simply jet-lag—and I find myself up in the wee hours of the morning, unable to get back to sleep. I don’t get as much done as usual the next day, so when this happens for a week or so, I find myself way behind on a lot of projects.

January is a great time for a self-care re-set. It’s common to want to get back in shape, lose a few of those holiday pounds, and generally use the deep winter months to focus inward. For me, better sleep is the one goal that will help me generate the energy I need for all my other goals.

Psychology Today reports that one in three adults fails to get enough sleep. That may not be surprising, but what is that only one in ten adults prioritizes sleep goals over other goals like nutrition and exercise. New research on the importance of sleep shows that better sleep can increase the severity of other conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. It can also increase your sensitivity to pain and even may be linked to memory disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

Even if you have a sleep routine and make sure your room is dark, there are a lot of other factors that throw off your sleep patterns. Body rhythms get off kilter from flying, or staying up too late, and even from lack of daylight with winter’s longer nights and shorter days. Simply aging can affect our sleep, especially if you are age 40 or above. Sleep patterns are tied to hormones which drop over time.

If you have any anxiety or worries, about family, finances, or even stress from projects, sleep can fail to provide the much needed respite from the issues of the day. In fact, sometimes, you can get into a pattern of waking up in the middle of the night with the day’s problems amplified. This is actually linked to the hormone cortisol, which controls the sleep cycle and is also the main hormone for stress.

It can be difficult to re-set your sleep cycle once you get into a pattern of insomnia. There is a lot you can do during the day to increase your chances of a good night’s sleep. Here are five tips for better sleep. Four of them are daytime tips and the last is a tried-and-true way to help if you find yourself unable to sleep at night.

  1. Meditate daily. It’s amazing how just 3-5 minutes of daily meditation can make a difference in your ability to handle stress and your mood. Apps like Headspace make this really easy. Besides making your day calmer and more productive, it will give you better tools for handling episodes of wakefulness at night. 
  2. Use an affirmation to dispel anxiety. If you have anxiety or fears, try writing an affirmation to re-direct negative self-talk and promote positive self-talk. Commit to saying your affirmation 25 times a day for 30 days to take the edge of feelings of negativity and start building up your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.
  3. Stop afternoon caffeine.  The effects of caffeine can last 4-6 hours in the body. I generally stop caffeine intake 8-10 hours before sleeping (i.e. no caffeine after lunch). If you are someone who, likes me, still like a hot cup of something to keep you going during the afternoon, try a hot ginger tea or other herbal teas. 
  4. Exercise. Even moderate exercise helps you sleep, and more importantly, it can increase the about of slow wave sleep. Slow wave sleep is that deep sleep that is necessary to give your body and brain a chance to rejuvenate. Try at least 30 minutes a day. On days where you can’t get a dedicated workout, try getting your exercise in smaller bits like power walking for 10-15 minutes a few times a day, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking in the farthest spot rather than right by the door to get a few extra steps in. The small things add up!
  5. Use mindfulness techniques to quiet the chatter in your mind. Mind chatter is how we describe those thoughts that spin in your head while you’re trying to go to sleep or while waking up at night. You might find your mind replaying a conversation or argument or turning over a worry endlessly with no resolution in sight. Sometimes this is called rumination, especially if this is something you do during your waking hours too. Mind chatter at night takes away from valuable time to sleep and also amplifies your negative feelings rather than resolves them. If you have unresolved issues, commit to dealing with them tomorrow. But for now, you need to get to sleep. One great way to quiet mind chatter is to focus on your breath as you count backward from 10,000. If you’re really revved up, you might want to start by counting inhale and exhales for a hundred or two until you feel yourself slowing down. Then just count down on the exhale. If you lose track or your mind takes you back to chatter, just go back to counting when you realize it and pick up around where you left off. If you work to hold this dual focus on breath and counting, you will find yourself calming down. Try to count all the way to zero but give in to sleep at any time as soon as it comes. 

See how your other goals get easier once you try these tips and get the rest you need.

Here’s to a new year with more happiness and health for all!