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If you are tired of waking up feeling exhausted, you’re not alone. It's not surprising that poor sleep affects around 76% of UK adults.

Not getting enough sleep impacts everything – our mood, our ability to focus, and even our metabolism. It's not about weight, but more about how our bodies create and use energy from our food.

So, let’s talk about winding down.

Most people, including myself, have little to no transition from being awake to trying to sleep; therefore, the hour or two spent in bed tossing and turning serves as our brain's cool-down period from active stimulation to sleep mode. 

So here are a few things you can do pre getting into bed to help ease your brain in.

Firstly, establish a sleep timeline:

Set a sleep alarm to go off 30ish minutes before you want to go to bed; when it goes off, hit snooze, then use the 7-minute snooze countdown for your final moments of screen time.
When it goes off again, put it down and walk away! Spend the remaining time doing the below...

Do Mundane Tasks:

Empty the dishwasher, pack your bag for the next day, ball up socks – anything you want, as long as it's simple and you don't need to think too much.

Do things inefficiently.

The overall goal here is to have a longer period between deciding to go to bed and getting into bed, so don’t rush. For instance, instead of grabbing everything at once and heading to your room, take your time and prolong the journey to bed.

Sleep Associations.

Mental anchoring is a ‘smart people’ term where one experience becomes a mental trigger for another, so find things you can do, see, smell or wear as part of your routine. The idea is to create a connection that your brain will then associate with you going to sleep. 

Don’t hate me.

This isn't a "pre-bed thing", and it's rude, annoying, maybe even mean of me to say: when you are in bed, you should only sleeping and do that 'other thing' people do in bed. 
Getting into bed and snuggling down sends the strongest signal to your brain that it's time to sleep; however, if you spend too much time just relaxing in bed, it can confuse your brain into thinking it's time for TikTok instead of sleep. (I live in a London flat share, so I can’t stick to this, but it really is a big one.)

Conclusion:

We can't and wouldn't  tell you how to live, but remember you came to us!

If the above doesn’t work for your lifestyle or you just don’t want to do it, that’s cool; maybe you should just try our snooze gummies instead?
They are packed with nootropics chamomile, lemon balm and saffron to give your brain and body a head start. I take mine about an hour after dinner as a second dessert because they taste delicious, but you find your own rhythm.

If you are interested in learning more about the science behind Sleep Hygiene, This Article by Psychologist Emily Nason is a nice, short and approachable read.