Getting quality sleep is so important,
especially as the busy holiday season approaches earlier.
Sleep scientist and co author of Sleep for Success.
Doctor Rebecca Robbins joined me with tips on how
to get the best sleep during the holidays.
What's the advice for people to grab these pillows?
Everyone has these, by the way, you kind of need this when you're going on a plane.
What should we do in the days before the trip to make sure our sleep isn't disrupted,
especially if you're traveling internationally or across a couple time zones.
You really want to start preparing in a couple, a couple days before the trip.
So not day of
ideally not day of um say you're traveling to the West Coast,
you wanna move in kind of 50
minute increments in the direction of the time zone that you're traveling in.
Same thing would go for Europe.
So if you're, you're going to spend the holidays in London or Paris,
then start to move in small increments about 15 minutes each day.
But if you're traveling locally,
it's never a bad idea just to double down on healthy sleep hygiene,
making sure you're getting enough sleep good quality sleep,
consistent timing of sleep.
So falling asleep at the same time
and waking up at the same time to kind of buffer yourself as we enter the holiday.
Craziness. I love the 15 minute increments advice. That's great.
What about jet jet, jet lag? How do you avoid that
if I had a cure for that?
Um So the challenge with jet lag is because our
internal circadian rhythm is of course aligned with our internal.
Um our internal clock is aligned with our
home destination pattern of light and darkness.
And so when we jet across multiple time zones,
our internal clock is lagging behind in our home time zone.
So the best ways to avoid it are like we talked about prepare,
start to move your sleep schedule in the direction of your destination.
And then when you arrive a lot of the healthy
sleep strategies that work for all of us work,
especially when we're traveling, try not to indulge in too heavy a meal,
close to bedtime, get plenty of access to outdoor fresh, natural light,
keep alcohol to a minimum.
All of these things of course can be a little bit challenging during the holidays.
But um all the all the better to keep us healthy through this.
Um The busy time are there certain foods
we should try to avoid? You mentioned alcohol, lighter meals.
Anything we should try to avoid when it comes to food? There is a really strong
kind of uh relationship between nutrition and, and sleep.
So the general recommendation is having a really hearty breakfast,
a hearty lunch and then a lighter dinner that's not too close to bedtime.
And the Thanksgiving actually would have, you have a, you wake up, have a, you know,
light, nice, light breakfast
and then in the afternoon have your, you know,
you know, nice heavy Thanksgiving dinner.
And many people avoid, you know, a proper dinner time, too close to bedtime.
So actually, that's kind of ok from the standpoint
of our sleep.
But generally speaking,
trying to avoid anything that's too spicy or too kind of complex.
That would be difficult to digest
and give yourself as much of a buffer between
the time you stop eating and then your bedtime
and the holidays can be so stressful.
What can people do to lower their stress levels and
make sure they get that good night of sleep.
It's all about balance.
So be a little bit thoughtful when it comes to saying yes to parties, try to say,
you know, yes to one or two and
have a,
one of my key strategies is have a time when you want to leave the
party that's close to your bedtime if you typically fall asleep at 11 o'clock,
and that party is going on until 12 1 o'clock and morning,
maybe to commit to indulging a little bit, staying a little bit later.
Um But try to have a cut off because otherwise without those kind of mental kind of,
um, or, you know,
um, times in mind time can just fly and then suddenly you're looking at a,
you know, two or three hours past your
bed time.
So I think you can have your cake and eat it too,
but also be mindful of the last time you're drinking alcohol.
So if you indulge in a glass of wine and try to keep
it on the early side and maybe switch to a sparkling water to
your sleep less than 30 seconds.
But I want to ask,
let's say your schedule has just gone out of whack because of the holidays.
How do you get it back on track?
The best way, the biggest myth is thinking that we can sleep in and make up that way,
but that actually throws our internal clock out of sync.
The best way to make up from lost sleep is maybe sleeping in an hour that will
allow you to get a little bit more rest without too much internal kind of confusion.
Uh The best way is naps
in the afternoon when you're exhausted anyway.
Because if you're not getting enough sleep, you'll feel it in the afternoon. A
20 minute nap is a good kind of stop gap if
you're not getting enough sleep and a little bit tired.
But if you're really sleepy,
maybe indulge in a 90 minute nap and that will kind
of put a little bit more sleep in your bank account.
Great advice. Thanks again to Doctor Rebecca Robbins.