Back to school stress has you up at all hours? After a relaxing summer you now may be experiencing a daily nervous check of email from the school, running out at all hours to Target for that forgotten 3-ring binder, and worst of all… feeling like you can’t wind down at the end of another stressful September day.
Back to school stress needn’t get the best of us if that’s not what we want. It’s important to get some good shut-eye so we’ll awaken refreshed and ready for another morning of inspired possibilities.
Here are some helpful tips for beating the back to school insomnia blues. Hope they help you return your inner rhythms to normal soon!
1 – Exercise During the Day
Got too much energy? Burn it off. If you’re a mom of school-aged kids, there may be window of time to fit in some exercise. Pound the pavement, hit the cardio machines, and release all of your tension in a way that will do your body good.
Even if you work outside the home, make it a priority to exercise every day. Just a half-hour of raising your heart rate and burning some extra calories can make a big difference in your ability to get and stay asleep at night.
2 – Establish a Daily Routine
It’s important to stay on top of your to-do list and manage everything at daytime. This will help you avoid going into task-list overdrive at night. Schedule your most important items, and set alarms to help you stay on track.
Set times that you’ll read and respond to emails and texts. Add weekly prepping and planning time into your schedule so you’re not leaving anything out. Coming up with an effective system during the day will help you avoid worrying about it all at night.
3 – Reduce Your Obligations
As parents, we want to say yes to everything. We strive to give the best to our kids – but once we’re in over our heads, it becomes counter productive. A simple example of this is running around every day to bring your kids from one activity to the next, but never getting a free moment to relax and talk with them.
If you can’t sleep at night, this could be your mind telling you that you’ve taken on too much. Trim away the excess, and make room for connection, free time, and self-care for you and your family. It’s bound to help you sleep better if you do.
4 – Avoid Napping in the Afternoons
Stay-home and work-from-home moms may tend to let that cozy couch or bed get the best of them at around 2 or just after the kids return home from school. You might be exhausted from your busy day and the shift in schedule, but resist the urge to crash out too early.
It’s important to set your sleeping and waking schedule to match your kids’ school day. So if you feel tired while it’s light out, try to come up with another way to boost your energy. Go for a walk, eat fruit, have a small cup of coffee or so some stretches.
5 – Manage Allergies
Did you know that untreated allergies cause cortisol surges? Our body mistakes certain substances (dust, pollen, mold spores in the air) as immune attackers and gets to work fending them off. This can result in fight-or-flight hormones wrecking our sleep. We might be too-tired during the day, and get a burst of energy at night due to rising and falling cortisol.
If you’re unable to avoid fall allergens, you can slow or halt your body’s response to the itchy, sneezy system-revving offenders by taking antihistamines.
Try Claritin or a generic brand of antihistamine that won’t make you drowsy during the day. Some people who have trouble sleeping find that Benadryl does the trick if taken before bed. But the long-term safety of this may not be certain, so check with your doctor first.
6 – Use Calming Herbs to Help You Sleep
Lavender and chamomile have been long-praised for use as a gentle sedative. Add a few drops of the essential oils to a diffuser. Or, fill a sachet pillow with the dried herbs. Inhale the calm, comforting aromas before you settle down to bed for the evening.
7 – Drink Soothing Herbal Tea Before Bed
Again, lavender and chamomile are available in tea formulations. Herbal teas contain no caffeine (check the label if you’re worried) and will help relax you in preparation for sleep.
Look for herbal tea blends like Celestial Seasonings’ famous Sleepytime tea, or another relaxing blend like it. Other teas that may help settle you for sleep include peppermint, lemon balm, spearmint, and catnip. These cooling herbs soothe the stomach which helps to promote a good night’s rest.
8 – Try Relaxing Yoga
If done effectively, yoga stretches and yoga breathing help the nervous system return to rest-and-repair mode. With so much happening in our busy lives, it’s no surprise that some moms may find it hard to unwind at the end of another busy day.
Yoga nourishes the body and can do wonders for your quality of sleep. Try to work on the breathing because getting this right makes a huge difference. Also, choose a series of gentle, calming poses. Some yoga asanas are meant to stir up energy and others will help us become still. Go see what’s offered on YouTube.
9 – Enjoy Intimate Time with Your Partner
Making bedtime about relaxing conversations, gentle massage and whatever else brings you and your partner enjoyment can go a long way to help you sleep well at night. It’s a great thing when a stressful day can be the catalyst for closeness. Why not try it and see how things go?
10 – Drink a Beer or Enjoy the Non-alcoholic Version or Take a Hops Supplement
Hops flowers give certain beers (India pale ales) their signature, bitter taste. Hops is known to induce drowsiness. So if you’re not a beer person, the good news is that hops is available as an herbal supplement.
Another possible herbal sleep solution is Valerian. This herb is mildly sedating and the effects are cumulative, like some pharmaceuticals. If you don’t see a difference from taking Valerian immediately, continue the recommended dose as listed on the bottle, and wait a few weeks.
11 – Schedule a Professional Massage
We can’t always get a proper massage from our partner, or maybe there isn’t anyone available to help us out. Professional massage will help you sleep well and is deeply cleansing and restorative to the body, at a cellular level.
Your massage therapist may also incorporate essential oils as part of the treatment. Luxuriate in this very legit form of self-care, and know that this is what your body needs to reach a rested state of inner healing and feel refreshed in the morning.
If you’ve never had a massage before, you may experience some detox side effects. These may include cold and flu-like symptoms, sadness, extreme sleepiness and even tears after a session. Know that if you continue to schedule routine massages by a professional, these are likely to go away as your body adjusts and clears away the toxins.
12 – Block Blue Light
Set your device’s screen to block blue light before bed. Light from the blue end of the spectrum is said to disrupt hormone function. Choose a red-toned LCD screen as you wind down your day. This will help you get to sleep when you need to.
13 – Don’t Text, Call or Email after Hours
Avoid having stressful conversations after, say, 8p.m. This includes taking calls, responding to emails and texts, engaging on social media forums, and anything that can potentially rile you up and get your mind going in circles.
Give yourself a time limit for these types of activities. Let people in your life know that you don’t respond to messages after a certain time. Or simply don’t respond, and they will eventually figure it out.
14 – Craft Your Way to Calm
Settle down for the evening with a comforting activity, like knitting, crocheting, writing or drawing. Choose something to do that doesn’t involve a big mess to clean up or lots of little parts to deal with.
Handicrafts are said to relax the nervous system and move us out of obsessive thinking. This will definitely improve your ability to sleep.
15 – Set a Comfortable Air Temperature
Try raising or lowering the heat or air conditioning. Choose a setting that will help you relax. Don’t spend hours tossing, turning and flinging the covers on and off yourself in an effort to get some relief. Figure out the best room climate for you and stick to it.
16 – Try a Sleep Mask, or Darkening Curtain Panels
Some people’s sleep rhythms get thrown off when light enters their sleeping quarters. Are street lights, lights from electronics, or another source causing your body to awaken at inappropriate hours? Block light from the outside with darkening curtains. If all else fails, deliver darkness by way of a sleep mask.
17 – Avoid Caffeine after a Certain Time of Day
Each person’s caffeine tolerance is different. Yours may change based on other factors.
It’s possible that if you’re limiting calories, caffeine could be affecting you more severely. Reduce your caffeine intake, or enjoy your joe earlier in the day, to see if this helps you get and stay asleep.
18 – Avoid Sweets after Hours
Sugar causes blood sugar levels to spike and drop. Lots of people who eat sugar feel calm and drowsy as the sweet substance takes effect. Later though, they wake up as their blood sugar falls.
If you often wakeup around 3 a.m. and you normally indulge in sweets after hours, see if you can’t switch to a healthier, sugar-free snack. Plain yogurt, toast or crackers and a bit of cheese could take the edge off your hunger without sending your sugar levels soaring and plummeting.
19 – Avoid Spicy Foods with Dinner
Hot peppers like cayenne, jalapeno, and habanero stimulate the body systems. If you enjoy them as part of your dinner, you could be looking at a night of tossing and turning. Cool the fire with a dairy product. Better to avoid spicy foods altogether if you’re looking to catch some good shut-eye.
20 – Manage Digestive Issues
You may be sensitive to certain foods which can cause or contribute to insomnia. Anything with seeds or skin has the potential to trigger digestive upset. Think tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sesame seeds, strawberries.
Greasy foods too, can be hard for your body to process. Chocolate contains caffeine which causes wakefulness.
21 – Try a Gut-calming Probiotic
Another way to help digestion is by taking an enzyme supplement (believe or not, Beano really works!) and by adding a probiotic to your daily diet. You can also get some good digestive support from eating plain yogurt which contains active cultures. A calm tummy equals a sleepy body that’s ready for slumber.
22 – Nourish Your Spiritual Health
It’s nice to give ourselves the gift of an evening gratitude practice, some quiet journaling or prayer before bed. This type of activity has the effect of calming your mind and body so you can rest easy when it’s time for sleep.
Try the above sleep-inducing practices to see if they work for you. If your insomnia persists and is impacting your ability to function, talk with your doctor about other options.
This information is not intended to serve as medical advice. If you’re experiencing symptoms of any kind, consult a medical professional.
