We all know the importance of getting our beauty sleep, but who can honestly say they get their seven to nine hours of sleep a night? With calendars full of events, kids’ irregular sleep schedules, and general life stressors, getting a restful night’s sleep can be nearly impossible.
Add in the fact that your hormones can even block your natural melatonin levels, making it biologically trickier to get a restorative rest. If you’re thinking that you’re in the sleep debt minority, a recent study conducted by YouGov and Holiday Inn Express showed that 91 per cent of Australian women struggle to sleep. To combat this growing sleep crisis, marie claire have spoken to Australia’s leading sleep expert, Olivia Arezzolo.
Expert-Approved Ways To Improve Sleep
Incorporate Scent Therapy
When you think about setting the scene for a restful evening, blocking out light and noise are top of the list. But infusing your bedding or room with the right scents can make a noticeable difference to your sleep quality. Arezzolo reveals that Lavender “has been clinically shown to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (your body’s rest mode), reducing cortisol and calming your mind.”
Incorporating a calming blend of essential oils helps to relax your mind and body and sets you up for a soothing sleep. In Essence offers their synergistic blend of lavender, mandarin, Roman chamomile, and valerian in three forms for your ease. You can opt to create a comforting cloud of scent with their diffuser-friendly Sleep Blend ($42.45 from In Essence), mist your room with a lingering Sleep Mist ($32.95 from In Essence) or even carry the scent with you as a relaxing ritual by massaging the oils into your pulse points with the Roll-On ($26.45 from In Essence).
Getting Out Of Bed
Yes, we know it sounds wild to suggest getting out of your warm, cosy bed (especially in the middle of winter). But Arezzolo suggests that lying in bed awake in the early hours of the morning can actually increase your anxiety. Getting up is a way to “shift your focus and interrupt the mental rumination”. Of course, don’t get up and immediately start doing all the chores you’ve been putting off, but perhaps read a book, reset your diffuser and start doing some light sleep-inducing stretches to help you drift back off.
Reframe Sleep
If you’ve gotten yourself into a pattern of restless nights, it could be time to reframe the way you sleep. Arezzolo shares a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia technique, where participants are encouraged to reframe the way, they perceive sleep. Specifically recognising that “sleep isn’t wasted time” but more so a “tool for peak productivity, cognitive clarity and energy.”
Understandably, shifting your perceptions can be challenging, but making changes to your physical environment can help ease this mental shift. Limit your bed to being a place solely for rest to improve your ‘sleep efficiency’. Consider making small adjustments to your bedroom environment, such as investing in high-quality silk sheets or refreshing your sleep wardrobe.
Better sleep might feel out of reach, but with a few small changes you’ll soon be having a sound peaceful night’s sleep.
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