Half of Australians feel unrefreshed upon waking, yet many don’t actively prioritise sleep.
As a single mother and divorce coach, Carla was always on the go. After putting her two young daughters to bed at night, the 39-year-old would stay up till all hours, trying to squeeze in as much extra work as she could. Having to then wake early meant she was getting by on around five hours’ sleep a night. When her alarm went off in the morning, Carla would struggle to get up. “I was really burning the candle at both ends,” she says.
Earlier this year, though, Carla decided enough was enough and began prioritising sleep. Instead of mindlessly scrolling and answering emails, she programmed her phone to go into sleep mode from 10pm to 7am, creating the space she needed to mentally switch off. Carla’s story is familiar to sleep physician Dr David Cunnington. He notes that about half of Australians feel unrefreshed upon waking, yet many don’t actively prioritise sleep.Cunnington says sleep is one of the three main pillars of health, along with nutrition and exercise. When trying to be healthy, many people “put all their eggs” in the exercise basket, for example, by waking early to hit the gym.
You then need to create space to allow sleep to happen. That has to start before hitting the hay, with Cunnington saying you need a period in which you do relaxing activities such as reading, watching TV or “just chilling” before bed. “We can’t run like mad things till 10pm, flick a switch and expect at 10.01pm to be deeply asleep. There needs to be a transition between ‘active daytime me’ and ‘quiet sleeping me’.
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