The Importance of Sleep in Self Care

Does anyone else struggle with sleep basically all of the time? I feel like we are living in an age where we never have time for it! With our phones pumping endless amounts of information to us at all times right next to us in bed and our head being full of the 50 side projects everyone seems to be working on these days it can be hard to switch off! I am working together with Leesa on this sponsered post to try and find a way to increase my quality of sleep. Self-care is another buzzword at the moment that we see everywhere but let’s face it, it can’t replace sleep! I have always been a night owl so in an ideal world I’d sleep from about 4am to 11pm but I don‘t think my work would be too happy, so trying to combat this natural instinct has proved to be a bit off an uphill struggle for me and often I am running on just a couple of hours sleep. I think it’s time I finally admit that a face mask and a bit of ‘me time’ isn’t going to make up for a deficit of sleep, so I am going to commit to self-care by sleep! Here is what I am trying out to finally get a good night’s sleep:

Reading for 30 minutes before bed

I am reading less and less recently and I’m so frustrated with myself (I think I need to take my own advice from my own Tips on How to Read More). I don’t often read before bed because of the lure of my phone or the desire to finish a blog post usually proves too great! Also reading before bed makes me tired which means I never get far, which should be the perfect reason to read, it makes me seriously sleepy!

Turning my phone off at 11pm

This is the one I will struggle the most with I can’t lie. I have a bad memory so remembering to do just one more thing on my phone or chatting to friends until the wee hours always pulls at me and usually wins. I also like to watch ASMR to help me sleep and as much as this helps me to relax I have to admit that staring at a screen to help myself sleep is a bit counterintuitive. There are countless studies proving how bad screens are at interrupting sleep so I really must force myself out of this habit!

Face masks, deep conditioning my hair, and fresh Pj’s

Just because I don’t think face masks can replace sleep doesn’t mean I think I should stop using them all together! Looking after yourself in all the little ways is really relaxing and therefore helpful with sleep. Taking an hour to shower, give myself a decent skin care routine and generally look after myself really helps wind down my brain ready for sleep.

Play video games

I get that this one is a little out there given what I’ve already said about screens but hear me out. I rarely give myself time to just play a game, there’s always more important things to do, but when I do it really helps to melt all my other issues away and lets me focus totally on something fun. On days where I am stressed about things I can’t control, I think this will really help.

Investing in a good mattress

Before we moved in April we had one of the worst mattresses we’ve ever slept on! The joy of living in a furnished flat also meant staying on a mattress that had been slept on by countless others before me and boy could you tell with this mattress! Its springs would stick through the mattress and creak so loudly it could wake you up at night. Not only that but it was so uncomfortable you could only sleep on certain areas of it in order to drop off at all and we both often woke up with back pain. Since moving we’ve been using a mattress kindly lent to us by my sister but recently we finally upgraded to a mattress of our very own! Leesa make mattresses that are unlike anything I’ve tried before, it is made up of many different foam layers that adjust to the body providing the perfect balance of support and comfort. The top layer helps with airflow to stop you overheating during the night, a memory foam layer to relieve pressure and contour to your body and a final dense core support to add structure without feeling too firm. It even comes with a 100 night risk-free guarantee so if you find this doesn’t work for you at any point within that time you can return it free of charge. The mattress arrived vacuum packed in a surprisingly small box so no problems with trying to get it up the stairs (our current mattress involved a special bag and three people to get it in!

Personally for me, the matteress is the perfect mix of sinkable softness yet suportive. Since hiting the dreaded 3-0 I can’t sleep just anywhere anymore without getting aches and pains, too soft a mattress can leave me in aching but it doesn’t like a firm mattress either. The Leesa mattress has it all and it’s thicker than a standard double mattress too so always feels super cosy!

The purchase of a Leesa mattress doesn’t just help me sleep, but for every 10 mattresses sold, Leesa donate one mattress to charitable organisations, such as homeless shelters, domestic abuse and human trafficking charities. So, you are helping others in need too. To date, Leesa have donated 30,000 mattresses to charities worldwide, including 30 charities in the UK. Not only that, but they plant a tree for every mattress they sell and have committed to plant one million trees by 2025. If you want to purchase your very own Leesa mattress I have a unique code for £100 that I am passing on to you! Just enter code SHYSTRANGEMANIC at checkout for £100 off any matteress on the website (this is an affiliate link so I recive a small payment for every puchase used via this link).

Vitamins

I’m 30 now and as much as I hate to admit it my body isn’t what it used to be. I have joint issues and I am always dehydrated and vitamins can make such a huge difference, which in turn helps a sleep schedule. Working from the inside out certainly is no bad thing!

Are you an early to bed person or a night owl? Share your tips and let’s help each other on our sleep journey!