Secrets To Getting A Good Night's Sleep

If there’s one thing I can guarantee most of us need more of, it’s sleep. And if there’s one piece of the health and wellness puzzle that I think is underrated, underappreciated, and underutilized… yep, IT’S SLEEP! That’s why, to start your 2022 on the right foot, I invite you to join myself and Dr. Janet Kennedy, a respected sleep psychologist, and founder of NYC Sleep Doctor, on Instagram Live THIS COMING WEDNESDAY January 19, at 3 PM EST/12 PM PST, for a crash course on sleep! We'll be discussing how to reset your body clock, fix your sleep schedule, get better quality Zzzs, and more. So make sure you’re following Pure Joy Wellness on Instagram and you set a reminder to tune in on Wednesday!

To give you a sneak peek of Dr Kennedy’s extensive expertise, I did a little pre-interview with her to get her tips on how to sleep better. Here’s what she recommends… 

1. Take care of your health and surrender control of your sleep

According to Dr Kennedy, if we take care of our bodies and our mental health, most of the time sleep is going to cooperate. And contrary to what the media tells us, we’re not aiming for perfection—we’re aiming for average. 

“When we think about sleep, we need to visualize it as a bell curve. Sometimes you have those amazing nights of sleep, but those aren’t the norm, just like the terrible nights of sleep you get aren’t the norm. What we’re going for is something in the middle of the bell curve that is adequate. 

There is so much health news and clickbait out there that’s all about ‘how to perfect your sleep, how to optimize and feel your best all of the time.’ These kinds of messages lead us to do a lot of drastic things that don’t actually help us sleep—they usually hurt our sleep or at least freak us out. Sleep is a very natural process, and it wants to be left alone, rather than manipulated.

The first step to good sleep is good health. Keeping your alcohol use in moderation, limiting your caffeine intake, exercising, and managing your stress are just a few of the things you can do to care for your health, and in doing so, improve your sleep. Focus on taking care of yourself, rather than trying to control your sleep.”

2. Set (and enforce!) boundaries between your day and night

Setting boundaries is good advice for all facets of your life, but especially for sleep. Having a clear divide between work, play, and sleep is crucial, Dr Kennedy says. 

“Making sure that you have good boundaries between your day and your night can be a gamechanger for your mental health, which plays a huge role in your sleep. You don’t want everything to mush together. It’s hard, because we live in this world where multitasking is glorified. We constantly toggle our brains between work and shopping and social media and the news and maybe a TV show… our brains didn’t use to fire that way. We used to read a newspaper, go to work, come home, maybe think about work for a few minutes, and then stop. Those boundaries have gone away, so our minds are constantly in this state of hyperarousal.

We have to assert boundaries that say ‘okay I’m done with work, I’m putting it away. Now I’m transitioning to night mode and winding down. I’m putting my phone away, turning off my computer, and preparing myself for being unconscious.’”

3. Take time to cool down at the end of the day

Once you draw those boundaries, it’s important to have a period of unwinding before bed, Dr Kennedy says. This sends a message to your brain to start powering down. 

“Similar to how we cool down after we exercise, we need to take time to cool down before we go to sleep. Having a bedtime routine can really help, and it doesn’t have to be elaborate! The idea is to signal to your body that you’re moving into sleep. Above all, you want your bedroom to feel peaceful when you walk in—it should feel like you’re removing yourself from your day and entering into the night. You don’t have to have candles, music, or aromatherapy (if you have those and they help you, great). What you need most is comfy pajamas and a comfortable, clean bed. 

Once you’re settled in, I recommend reading fiction—a physical book, or maybe a Kindle that isn’t backlit. Fiction pulls your mind out of everything and takes your focus away from your problems and worries. If your mind is occupied with a problem, you’ll stay awake. Reading is like throwing your mind a bone to chew on so your body can recognize that everything is okay and you can go to sleep now.”

As always, I hope you found this post helpful, and that you tune into our Instagram Live on January 19 @ 3 PM EST/12 PM PST to get more of Dr Kennedy’s expert advice! 

Xo, 

Renata