It’s likely that if I am your coach you would of at some point heard me speaking about the importance of sleep on both physical and mental health – it’s such an unvalued element of life and health.

It comes from lots of time spent researching sleep after a period where I struggled with sleep myself and experienced first hand the devastating impact it can have on the body.

It has now become a non-negotiable for me.

My mission is to have a positive impact on the people I coach hence why I do my vest best to get my clients valuing and prioritising sleep.

And it’s tough – I coach career-driven individuals who spend hours upon hours in front of a screen often into the early hours of the morning.

So, here are 3 strategies to help you sleep smarter you can implement into your day that I am confident will improve not only your sleep but your health.

Morning: Natural Light.

Get up and out for a morning walk and embrace the light first thing. 

So many people don’t consider this to impact your sleep but exposing yourself to natural light in the morning helps with your internal body clocks.

Light is the principal control of your day-night cycle. It influences everything from sleep, metabolism and body temperature.

Not only this but you’ve managed to get some morning steps, it’ll help set you up for the day, lowers stress, you will feel like you’ve accomplished something, and it’ll help improve focus and concentration.

Afternoon: Caffeine.

Almost all of us love coffee or tea and I am no exception, but we do disregard how stimulating caffeine is.

Midday is my cut off point for coffee and this is because there is enough research out there suggesting caffeine will still be in your system as you get into bed if you continue to drink it into the afternoon.

You might be reading this saying caffeine isn’t the problem but can you go a day maybe 2 or 3 without a coffee? 

Evening: Darkness is your friend.

Now we look at the very end of the day. Darkness is your friend.

If your room isn’t completely dark at night or like me you have artificial light from outside creeping through the window invest in some blackout curtains. I recently purchased some and it has made such a difference.

I challenge you to give these a try and see how you feel and I would love to know how you get on implementing the 3 strategies to help you sleep smarter. 

If you are interested in doing some research for yourself I would definitely recommend ‘Why We Sleep’ by Mathew Walker.

You can also check my a previous blog post on the book.