- \n
- Consistent night and wake-up times:<\/strong>\u00a0Having a soothing ritual primes your body and mind for rest.<\/li>\n
- Light, early dinner:<\/strong>\u00a0Research reveals eating two to three hours before bed is best.<\/li>\n
- Regular exercise, especially yoga and Pilates:<\/strong>\u00a0Both relieve tension and stress in the body.<\/li>\n
- Essential oils:\u00a0<\/strong>Lavender helps you relax.<\/li>\n
- Slow breathing:\u00a0<\/strong>When you wake in the middle of the night, it\u2019s important not to do anything that will\u00a0inadvertently\u00a0send a signal to the brain that it\u2019s wake-up time, like turning on the lights. Instead, practise deep breathing to relax yourself back into a peaceful rest and then sleep.<\/li>\n
- Smartphone free:<\/strong>\u00a0Because devices are held so close to our\u00a0faces\u00a0they stimulate the brain even when the screen is off, so put your phone in another room. End. Of!<\/li>\n
- Hot baths:<\/strong>\u00a0A drop in body temperature \u2013 which happens after a hot bath \u2013 signals that it\u2019s time to nod off.<\/li>\n
- Eye masks:<\/strong>\u00a0The darker the room, the more womb-like it is.<\/li>\n
- No alcohol:<\/strong>\u00a0As your body\u00a0metabolises\u00a0alcohol, it disrupts slumber and prevents you from entering that deep, restorative sleep.<\/li>\n
- Podcasts\/listening to the radio:\u00a0<\/strong>Listening to voices distracts you without stimulating you, so get cosy under the covers and listen to audio books or podcasts on Google home or a smart home device.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The super sleepers\u2019 secrets<\/h3>\n
Here, we\u2019ve rounded up secrets from three hardworking Brits who identify themselves as great sleepers. They nod off without trouble and easily get enough sleep each night (or day in the case of shift workers). Try one or more of their tips to rest easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m addicted to legs, bums and tums!<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
Susana\u00a0Gamian, 43, Midwife, Royal Free Hospital, 8 hours\u2019 sleep a day<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot tell you how wonderful it is to see human life coming into the world. It\u2019s intense but it is also intensely rewarding. I love night shifts \u2013 which we do about three nights a week (night shifts are 8:15pm to 8:15am). There are no phone calls, visitors and interruptions \u2013 I just get to do my job. Then I come home and work out with my husband \u2013 we do legs, bums and tums. I\u2019ve become\u00a0addicted!\u00a0Around 10am I am craving rest, so I have a long bath, put the blackout blinds down, pop on my eye mask and then sleep until 6pm<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI set my watch for the destination before I board.<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
Carly Navin, 34, Cabin Crew at Virgin Atlantic, 7 hours\u2019 sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes your body about one day to adjust to a\u00a0one-hour\u00a0time zone change, so prepare, prepare, prepare I say! I eat three healthy, balanced meals the day before my flight and drink lots of water. I also set my watch to my destination as soon as I board \u2013 and then I try to stick to eating at the destination\u2019s meal times. I drink at least eight glasses of water on a\u00a0long-haul\u00a0flight and steer clear of too much alcohol or caffeine. If I ever\u00a0struggle,\u00a0I listen to Headspace podcasts to help get to sleep.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI listen to human voices on the radio.<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
Iain Lee, 46, Comedian, Broadcaster and Talk Radio Presenter (and I\u2019m a Celebrity<\/em> contestant), 8 hours\u2019 sleep a day and catnaps at the weekend<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cI used to do the breakfast show. I had to go to bed by 7:30pm and set my alarm for exactly 3:16am to get maximum sleep time. It didn\u2019t suit me at all. I function better in every way doing a night show (10pm to 1am). Now I don\u2019t have a set time to get up but I go to bed around 3am and listen to BBC London to nod off \u2013 I like voices rather than music. I wake up refreshed at midday; for me, it\u2019s the perfect pattern. I enjoy my days, get to work at 8pm and my brain is at its sharpest. I literally couldn\u2019t be happier.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI eat and drink snooze foods.<\/em>“<\/strong><\/p>\n
Annelies Harte, 45, PT, Third Space gym<\/strong><\/p>\n
“I do two things every night that really help to get my zeds:\u00a0firstly,\u00a0remember how your grandmother always had a cup of cocoa before bed? She knew what she was doing. Both dairy and soya milk contain the natural sleep-inducing\u00a0trytophan. L tryptophan is naturally found in animal and plant proteins and promotes the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone. And I have a meal two hours before bed with soothing foods like turkey or tuna with\u00a0veggies\u00a0for their snooze-friendly effects.<\/em>”<\/p>\n
Author bio<\/h3>\n
![\"Jane](\"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jane2-lizmacauley-copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJane Druker<\/strong> is an award-winning journalist having worked at Vogue, InStyle, Marie Claire and YOU magazine among others, she was the recipient of the Mind Award for Editing Top Sante magazine’s Let’s Talk campaign. She has edited Boots Health & Beauty, Feel Good You, Top Sante and Healthy magazine and is now freelance Editor at Large at Fit & Well magazine and contributes to Woman & Home, Sainsbury’s Magazine and GettheGloss.com<\/a> among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In these times of immunity being at the forefront of our minds, it\u2019s worth noting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2391,2392,530,872,670,2393,2125,2394,1953,1342,2395,2396,2397],"class_list":{"0":"post-8179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-features","8":"tag-annelies-harte","9":"tag-carly-navin","10":"tag-exercise","11":"tag-gym","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-iain-lee","14":"tag-immunity","15":"tag-midwife","16":"tag-rest","17":"tag-sleep","18":"tag-susana-gamian","19":"tag-talk-radio","20":"tag-third-space-gym"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Light, early dinner:<\/strong>\u00a0Research reveals eating two to three hours before bed is best.<\/li>\n