A productive day begins with a great night sleep! Don't let insomnia stand in your way. Share on XHow do you sleep? Have you ever suffered with insomnia? Have you noticed how much more productive you are when you’ve had a good night sleep vs a bad night? We’ve all been there. Be it new parents with a baby keeping them up all night, or long working hours, or business trips causing you to fly through the night. We spend a third of our lives asleep, but many people struggle to sleep well.
Lack of sleep can have devastating consequences on work, life and can sometimes even be life threatening (there are countless accidents and deaths from falling asleep when driving for example). Sleep disorders are being diagnosed more and more every day. So how can you sleep better? And how could a personal assistant make a difference to your sleeping patterns and improve the quality of your day?
We lift the lid on how a personal assistant can help you sleep better.
1. Creating a Natural Sleep Pattern
The more regulated our sleep pattern, the easier sleep will stabilise. Going to sleep at different hours each day, and waking up at different hours causes havoc to our natural body clock, and in turn will affect our sleep.
Tip 1: Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle: Your PA can deal with calls/emails/admin which need to be answered and sorted after you switch off the light, or before you come back to life.
Tip 2: Avoid sleeping in, even on weekends: A late Friday night working might tempt you to sleep too late Saturday morning. Instead, use your PA to help with your evening workload to ensure that you don’t have to burn the midnight oil, causing you to sleep in longer on weekends.
Tip 3: If you are having a power nap: Use your PA to wake you up after a refreshing 15/20 minutes. A power nap can keep you going strong, but a deep sleep in the middle of the day will screw with your body clock and leave you feeling groggy and lethargic.
2. Limit Screen Time
We are obsessed with connectivity. Most people use their smart phone as an alarm clock, and thus they go to bed looking at a screen and wake up to one. This can have a real impact on sleep quality. It is now proven that screen time before bed (by use of a phone, tablet or by watching TV) can stimulate the brain and cause the sleep patterns to deteriorate.
Tip 1: Stop using screens 1-2 hours before bed: Utilise your PA to ensure that they are covering that “one last detail” so no important business gets missed.
Tip 2: Encourage more exposure to daylight: Ask your PA to bring you your morning coffee outside, or research SAD lights. This will help increase your vitamin D exposure and help you sleep better.
3. Fitness and Exercise
It can be tough with limited time during the day, and busy work-loads to find time to exercise. But the endorphins released during exercise have been proven to help with sleep. You don’t need to run a marathon each day, 20-30 minutes of exercise a few times a week will make a huge difference to your sleeping patterns.
Tip 1: Take a new sport up: Your PA can look into local clubs and exercise groups – motivating you to exercise and turn up at swimming or yoga sessions.
Tip 2: Find that time to do the sport: Your PA can ensure that your workload is covered during the time you’ve focused on your exercise schedule, allowing you to really switch off and pay attention to your body.
4. Eat and Drink Well
When we are running on empty, the tendency is to eat sugary foods and drinks – giving us that much needed boost. Or indeed reach for the coffee cup! But these high octane sugar, caffeine or alcohol diets will help fuel a restless night. Perhaps your regular client schedule revolves around calorie rich meals and entertaining. It can be difficult to say no to a second cocktail, which over time will surely add up and affect your quality of sleep.
Tip 1: Start a food diary – you might not even realise the type of dietary habits you have and how they might be affecting your sleep: Your PA can help you record your intake and manage your meals for you.
Tip 2: Consider working with a nutritionist or a specific Chef to help design new, quick and easy menus: Your PA might even be a trained chef – why not utilise their skills and ask them to cook, or pick up healthy food for you.
5. Change Your Habits
When most people suffer from a sleep problem, they tend to repeat the same habit. You might lie in bed worrying about problems and pick up your phone or turn on the TV. These habits can create longer habits that become more difficult to break. So consider how you deal with your sleeping patterns. And how you might need to change your methods.
Tip 1: Assess how you deal with stress in daily life and how this affects your sleeping. Use your PA as a kind of confidant. If you cannot sleep because too many stressful thoughts are keeping you awake, send a quick email detailing your thoughts and ask them to help you sort through what’s bothering you in the morning. This will allow you to get back to sleep.
Tip 2: Start new patterns: Ask your PA to look into new relaxation and meditation techniques you could use when struggling to sleep, and find new habits and patterns to try in your sleeping routine.
A personally assistant can have a huge impact on your life and help you sleep better. If you are looking to recruit a wonderful part time or full time PA we’d love to help you – you can get in touch with us here – we look forward to helping you change your sleeping patterns!