At Bedpost we’re passionate about finding the right type of bed, mattress and pillow to suit your lifestyle – but there’s very little we can do to make sure you spend enough time using them to ensure you’re fit and healthy to enjoy it.
The post-Christmas, end-of-summer season in New Zealand plays havoc with our sleep cycles as we all try to cram in as much outdoors activity, evening entertainment, weekend breaks and social fun around the daytime realities of school and work.
Quite simply, it’s an exhausting time of the year during which we seem to think that we can put off a regular run of good nights’ sleeps until after Daylight Saving ends.
But we can’t. Sleep’s not like a Christmas club savings scheme where you can keep adding a little extra during the darker, colder months so you can blow it all while the sun’s shining.
Now that the school holidays and seasonal silly season are over and Christmas and New Year is out of the way, it’s important to get back to your regular sleep cycle – and you’ll know what’s right for you and whether you’re eating into your requirements.
So how do you get back on track? Here’s our 5-step programme to help you avoid summer sleep deprivation:
Find your bedroom rhythm
Don’t think you can just turn off “holiday-mode” just because the classroom or workplace beckons on Monday morning – your body needs to find its rhythm and tune in to its internal clock. That means trying as far as possible to keep to typical bedtimes to allow yourself a good amount of sleep to suit your age and lifestyle and not using the excuse of long-weekends to enjoy long lie-ins. If your body gets too used to lie-ins, it’s sure to want one on a work or school day too and the snooze button is your worst enemy.
Remember: light means awake, dark means sleep
Your body clock is already keyed in to understanding daylight and night time so you need to play along. When it’s time to go to bed, spend an hour or so beforehand with the lights dimmed – and try to avoid taking phones, TVs and laptops into the bedroom as all that blue light just wakes your brain up again. It’s always easy to slip into bad habits of bringing work home from the school or office and finishing it off in bed – but what might seem efficient and hardworking could well make you grumpy the following day.
Routine, routine, routine…
What’s especially important for children is just as relevant for adults – you simply can’t assume that we’ll all go to bed just because we’re tired. Work and school require routine, so it pays to create a framework at home to support them. Keep breakfast, activities and the evening meal at regular times and try as far as possible to make weekend routines as close to weekdays as possible.
Exercise regularly and eat well
Although we’re fortunate in New Zealand that the excesses of Christmas and New Years parties come in the middle of our outdoors summer season (pity those Northern Hemisphere folk who have to jog off the turkey and desserts in the snow and the storms!), it’s still easy to fall into unhealthy habits. And there’s nothing less likely to give you a good night’s sleep than heading to bed after a large meal or having drunk too much alcohol or without having worked up a sweat at least once during the day.
Make the bedroom an attractive proposition
Fresh new sheets, a pillow that really suits your sleeping style, even a brand new mattress – there are plenty of ways you can turn your bedroom into a sleep room. And once you know there’s a guaranteed good night’s sleep just behind that door, then you’re well on track to getting back into a healthy sleep cycle and a refreshed work or school routine.
At Bedpost, we’re not just experts in what you sleep on – we also care about how well you sleep. For more information on your nearest Bedpost store or to discuss the right mattress, pillow and base combination for your personal requirements contact us on 0800 233 767 or Live Chat or email us via the website.
