Can’t Sleep? 4 Experts Weigh In On The Secrets To Getting A Good Night’s Rest

After a year of interrupted routines and fretful nights, Meg Honigmann asks if our re-entry to society will help us finally sleep soundly

‘A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow,’ Charlotte Brontë said; no wonder that a new condition, dubbed ‘coronasomnia’ by the experts, has been identified. Last year, along with a significant portion of 2021, was recorded as an astonishingly bad time for sleep globally. Anxious nights tossing and turning have been exacerbated by the lifestyle changes enforced upon us by lockdowns.

“People aren’t as regulated in their sleep/wake life as they used to be,” says the consultant neurologist Dr Andrew Westwood. The sleep researcher and founder of Shleep, Dr Els van der Helm agrees.

“Your brain needs to compartmentalise – this is work, this is my private life, this is my time for sleep. That becomes really difficult when you’re suddenly working from home. For many, the past year felt like sleeping in the office. All of life’s contextual cues were thrown off – and these prompts are really important to signal your brain to become drowsy,” she explains.

As a consequence, some 70 per cent of respondents to Philips’ 2021 global sleep survey reported experiencing new challenges since March 2020; the British Sleep Society found that not only the amount but also the quality of our sleep has been negatively impacted. And, what’s more, a study by the University of Calgary and researchers from the Hotch-kiss Brain Institute found that women were suffering more than men over the course of the year.

An entire industry has sprung up to treat this issue. A recent report by Infinium Global Research forecast that by 2025 the global sleep market will reach about Dhs406 billion. The advent of sleep-tracking technology has only added to our fixation. “If anyone with disrupted sleep has a tracking device, I tell them to throw it away because it increases anxiety,” says Westwood. The tireless pursuit of a ‘perfect’ night’s sleep often results in the exact opposite, a medical condition identified as orthosomnia.

The Dream Team

As we re-emerge into society, we have the potential to put this period of restlessness behind us. Such moments of re-adjustment are unique opportunities to carve out habits and adopt patterns and behaviours for the new state of play.

One important approach is to flip our attitudes to day and night. A good day should help you sleep well, yet we frame a good night’s sleep as setting us up for the day. “You should start thinking about sleep hygiene from the moment you wake up,” says the neuroscientist and author Dr Tara Swart. Yet, too often the question of sleep arises only as the head hits pillow. “Aside from obvious don’ts, like looking at smart-screens before bed, that’s when you have least control,” says van der Helm. “The real influence is in how you spend your days. You want a notable contrast between day and night, with days full of activity, bright natural light, mental stimulation and positive social contact.” All elements of our daily life we are pleased to have returned to.

With things reverting to being more differentiated, the familiar weekday and weekend rhythms return. However, when you have one routine during the week at work and another at weekends, perhaps characterised by later bedtimes and long lie-ins, it culminates in exhaustion – or social jet-lag – come Monday morning. “For the body, it is equivalent to travelling across time zones,” says Westwood. Van der Helm agrees: “The more consistent the schedule, the better your sleep.” While it is tempting to ‘catch-up’ on the weekend, going to bed and getting up at the same time every day is much more beneficial to the quality of your sleep.

As we forge new habits, the ways in which we express ourselves can have as much of an effect as what we do. “If you want to be a morning person say, ‘I am a morning person’, and never label yourself a bad sleeper,” says Dr Ursula Levine.

Still Can’t Sleep? Four More Steps To Slumber

1. Set an alarm to go to bed. “Shleep is a sleep-coaching app that you can set as a reminder to start your evening routine,” says Dr Els van der Helm.
2. The brain needs signals to trigger melatonin release at night. Condition yourself. The consistent timing of meals, brushing your teeth, or using a particular scent can all signal your brain that it’s time to sleep.
3. Wake up at the same time every day. “Don’t go to bed early as you’ll disrupt your sleep with those extra hours,” warns Dr Andrew Westwood.
4. Go outside every day. When you are exposed to a lot of bright natural light, says van der Helm, “you have a bigger contrast between your day and night, which helps you sleep”.

Photography: Mox Santos. Model Wears: Dior.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s September 2021 issue