Is Covid-19 robbing your family of a good night’s sleep?

If you or your children are experiencing weird dreams, insomnia, or even nightmares during this pandemic, you are not alone.  This is an unusual time of heightened emotions and disrupted routines.  You may have been very routined before the quarantine began but now that you are home and able to sleep in a tad later, you may have given yourself permission to do things you previously were not, like staying up later to watch one more episode on Netflix.  Our brains are also trying to process and organize our thoughts during a very disorganized time in our lives.  It’s no wonder our brains are creating colorful, vivid and unusual dreams.  Everything has turned upside down and so have our sleep habits. This is true for both children and adults.  Try our top tips for sleep below and before going to bed tonight be sure to listen to our Guided Imagery Meditation.  

Set a serene space.  Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, and cool.

Wind down before bed. Set a routine that you follow every night.  This may be as simple as brushing your teeth, washing your face and crawling into bed.  For add ons to your routine, try yoga,  reading a book or practicing guided imagery meditation.

Take a warm bath or shower.  Did you know that our body temperature starts to drop when we go to bed at night?  It might sound confusing at first but stepping out of a warm shower or bath actually lowers our body temperature.  Studies have shown that taking a warm shower or bath 90 minutes or so before bedtime helps our bodies get to this ideal state.  

Don’t look at the blue light of screens for at least one hour before bed.

Try aromatherapy scents, such as lavender.  There are many options to consider, such as diffused essential oils, lavender sachets, or room sprays.

Weighted blankets can be helpful  to settle the body and provide deep pressure.

Take care of worry thoughts.  Many people have trouble quieting their minds at bedtime due to anxiety.  Set aside a consistent time earlier in the day to write down your worries in a journal and think of the worries as solveable problems.  As you lay down to sleep, if a worry pops into your head, tell yourself that you will add it to your solveable problems journal tomorrow. Many times, the worry will have resolved itself.  For the other worries, you will be more awake and better prepared to solve those particular problems.