With so many wellness trends constantly emerging, sleep often gets overlooked as an integral part of our heath. We all sleep and yet there are a plethora of us that aren’t getting quality sleep. So much so that the major political parties have now agreed, after years of lobbying from the Sleep Health Foundation and the Australian Sleep Association, to hold an inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness.The report from this inquiry is now open for public viewing, here. Professors from the Sleep Health Foundation seemed to be satisfied with the outcome as Professor Bruck says ‘Minister Hunt seems to deeply understand the important link between overall wellbeing, including good mental health, and sleeping well.’
Despite this, don’t we all know that one person who can still seem to function of scarily low levels of sleep. Is there truth to some people not needing as much sleep as others or have they just learnt to deal with it by adopting bad habits? Research suggests that your DNA may play a role in this.
“Some are just predisposed to require more sleep. There’s not much we can do individually about our genetics”, Chervin said. “But we can do things about other factors that control how much we sleep, like the regularity of bedtime and rise time.”
Experts say 7-9 hours sleep is ideal for adults, adolescents tend to sleep longer and have more trouble waking up due to their circadian rhythm in the process of changing. If you’re struggling to get a good night sleep, here are a few tips that you may not have tried.
Listen to a sleepcast
The often forgotten brother of the podcast, sleep casts are audio recordings designed to help calm your mind and ease your body into a deep sleep. You will usually hear a melodic voice transporting you to a relaxing scenario. One of my favourites is an antique store called rainy day antiques. You can access these through meditation apps or through Spotify.
Take a warm shower
This may well already be part of your nighttime routine. But as simple as this may seem, warm showers relax our muscles and calm our mind. Taking one right before you go to bed is a great way to help get a good nights sleep.
No screen
The unnatural blue light of our phone and computer screens disputes our circadian rhythm and doesn’t allow us to sink into a deep light. Comparable to the quality of your sleep after drinking alcohol; you might sleep for a decent amount of hours but the quality of those hours will be negatively affected.
This article was written by freelance writer, Lachlan Cornell
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