Lack of sleep is a common malaise in our hyper-connected world and something I’ve personally really struggled with these last few years. In an effort to create a more restful environment, I recently overhauled my bedroom. While it’s certainly helped, there’s a wealth of science that say our daytime behaviours and bedtime routines are also huge factors on how well we sleep.
In an effort to understand the latest discoveries in the science of rest, I caught up with sleep expert Dr. Carmel Harrington, who gave me some of her best tips to inducing slumber.
A bed time ritual signals to your brain that it’s time for sleep. “If you implement a sleep routine the body is smart, it becomes entrained to understand that these behaviours, that this routine, is a prelude to sleep. You can train and tell the brain to start doing the thing it needs to do such as producing sleep hormones and closing our awake pathways,” says Carmel, who suggests winding down for bed an hour before sleep time. Put the tech away, turn down the lights, taking a bath and diffusing oils, which brings me to…
Scent is so important in creating a restful environment and studies have shown that lavender can help switch you into sleep mode. I pop a few drops of In Essence Sleep Oil in my diffuser about an hour before bed. “Lavender is particularly effective in calming and reducing feelings of stress allowing us to, more easily, fall asleep and stay asleep,” says Carmel. “Numerous studies have revealed lavender has related benefits which support sleep, this includes its proven ability to lower heart rate, temperature and blood pressure which are all processes the body undergoes when falling to sleep. Lavender is also effective at reducing feelings of anxiety, due to these benefits.” Other essential oils that can help include chamomile, sandalwood, valerian, jasmine and frankincense.
