The long dry summer hours can lend themselves to relaxed and restful evenings filled with hobbies or more time with family. As autumn reaches us, we often experience a natural rise of seasonal bugs. There may be more ills and chills at this time of year within households, and it is often a time we may struggle to stay well.
Finding wellness and sleep amongst daylight savings
Keeping well requires effort and energy to support our immune health for our emotional and physical well-being. Including your much-loved hobbies and all the things that help you to de-stress, rebalance and find contentedness in your day or week. It not only helps boost our inner well-being but supports our sleep and stress levels.
Our lifestyle, environment, diet, sleep quality and stomach flora (gut microbiota) all work together to nourish and support our immune defence. This is our protection from seasonal bugs, ills and chills.
The stomach flora increases the production of beneficial gut bacteria and happy mood neurotransmitters, like serotonin our bliss and relaxation-inducing neuron, when you have a good night’s sleep. This can help combat seasonal blues and maintain your mood.
Our sleep clock and sleep quality
As the clocks slip back, the evenings start to shorten with the upcoming seasonal changes, our vitality, energy levels and immunity can be adversely affected. But as the year’s pace carries us along in our usual hectic pace of work, family and extra commitments, this often becomes our normal.
How do we begin to include some change and improve sleep quality? See our top sleep tips below for a peaceful night’s sleep.
The top tips for re-setting our sleep clock
- Regulating your sleep patterns – going to sleep at a set time helps your body regulate its natural sleep clock and circadian rhythm.
- Getting up at a similar time every day also helps re-set a healthy sleep clock pattern. On weekends when you want to sleep in, it is recommended not to sleep in for more than an hour after your regular Monday to Friday work time for when you are trying to establish healthy sleep patterns.
- Reducing light exposure before bedtime helps us release melatonin, acting as a natural sleep-inducing agent for us. Our total light exposure affects our circadian rhythm and synchronises or hinders our internal clock.
- As an essential part of your daily routine, introducing sleep hygiene will help with a restful night’s sleep. Develop a sleep plan that works for you. Examples to add to your bedtime routine include having a warm bath or shower, a book or maybe lights off and relaxing before getting ready to sleep. Establishing a bedtime routine has a whole-body effect on your immune system, energy levels, body comfort, gut health and mood.
- If using naps, keep to power naps of 30mins during the day to not interrupt your night-time sleep quality.
The herbs for a restful night’s sleep
Herbs, such as Passionflower and Wild Cherry for unwell or unsettled children that may also need chest and lung support, can work well to soothe for a good night's sleep. Other effective options can be Lavender, Magnesium and Valerian if needing more support for a good night’s rest for adults. Or Withania (Ashwagandha) and L-theanine for daytime stresses can help calm benefit a tired adrenal and nervous system.
The best sleep routine for you
Incorporating a consistent bedtime routine to let our body know it is time to wind down helps us set up a long-term picture of sleep and better sleep hygiene during the more difficult months of the year, such as seasonal change autumnal daylight savings. Re-setting our sleep clocks can help us rebalance and keep well for the upcoming autumn and winter months, alongside the year ahead.
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