Better Sleep: Part 1
We all know how important personal hygiene is before going to sleep each night. We brush our teeth, wash our face, and maybe even have a bit of a bedtime routine, but are we actually doing things to optimize the quality and quantity of our sleep? Sleep hygiene are practices and habits that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis. Sleep hygiene is crucial for dancers to ensure optimal performance and recovery, injury prevention, and overall well being.
As a dancer, you are often practicing until late in the evening and coming home from practice hungry, so late night meals and crashing in bed scrolling on your phone may be your normal routine. I hope these specifically curated sleep hygiene tips for dancers can help you retrain your habits to optimize your dance training and overall well being.
Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule
Before we dive into enhancing sleep quality, it’s important to look at your sleep quantity. Are you getting enough sleep? Let’s all aim for 8 hours a night! Optimizing the hours of sleep before midnight is also crucial. Our body’s internal clock is influenced by sunlight so try your best to not fight the natural rhythm of the sun. In addition to the hours of sleep you are getting, having a consistent bedtime and wake up time helps regulate your body's internal clock, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up refreshed. As much as possible, try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends!
Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine
Developing a before sleep routine helps signal to your body that it's time to relax and unwind. It is important to give yourself time to relax and transition from your dance routine to bedtime. This can include activities like reading, taking a warm shower or bath, practicing relaxation exercises such as yoga or stretching, meditation, or listening to calming music. A relaxing bedtime routine also means avoiding (or at least limiting) stimulants such as caffeine close to bedtime. These substances can interfere with your ability to fall asleep and disrupt your sleep quality. Limiting food and water intake close to bedtime can also help ensure a less interrupted sleep. Eating a heaving meal close to bedtime can lead to symptoms of indigestion or acid reflux, as well impairing the body’s ability to fully unwind to sleep as it’s busy digesting and processing the large meal.
Tip: If you have dance practice until later in the evening and find you are coming home hungry and eating late at night there are two possible changes you can make. The first one is to ensure you eat enough prior to practice while also bringing plenty of protein filled snacks to have between practices. The second one is to shift your bedtime by an hour to give yourself enough time to digest and wind down if you are needing a late meal after practice.
Create a Sleep-Friendly Environment
In addition to creating a relaxing bedtime routine, ensuring your environment is conducive to sleep is crucial. To make your bedroom conducive to sleep, keep it dark, quiet, and at a comfortable temperature. To achieve this ideal environment you can consider using blackout curtains, earplugs, a white noise machine, or a fan. A large part of a healthy sleep environment is minimizing blue light exposure. Blue light comes from all our screens; our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and TVs. It is ideal to limit this electronic exposure at least one hour before bed. The blue light emitted by these devices can suppress the production of melatonin. Melatonin is an important hormone produced by our bodies that helps regulate sleep and our circadian rhythm (aka our internal clock). Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the brain. Its secretion is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light. Having excess light exposure, especially blue light, before bed decreases our natural production of melatonin. Research has shown that melatonin decreases the time it takes to fall asleep, increases the feeling of “sleepiness,” and may increase the duration of sleep. Melatonin binds to receptors in the brain (in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus) that may have a direct action to influence circadian (sleep) rhythms.
Tip: If you are unable to avoid blue light exposure in the evenings try a pair of blue light blocking glasses to help ensure your natural melatonin levels are not dysregulated.
Regular Exercise During The Day
As a dancer you are probably already doing this, but regular exercise throughout the day helps promote better sleep. Exerting your body throughout the day ensures that you are tired and ready to rest by bedtime. Even on your off day try to schedule in some form of exercise, even just a passive walk or yoga class at home. Exercise is evidently good for improving sleep, however it is important to avoid vigorous exercise close to bedtime, as it can increase alertness and make it harder to fall asleep.
Manage Your Stress
Managing your stress is crucial to improving your quality of sleep and the time it takes you to fall asleep. We all know the feeling of laying in bed unable to fall asleep because your mind won’t stop racing with every stressful thought possible. Techniques to manage stress that can be incorporated into a bedtime routine are meditation, deep breathing exercises, passive yoga or stretching, reading a light book, or journaling to help calm your mind before bed. As much as watching tv before bed may be your favorite way to calm the mind, remember the dysregulation caused by blue light exposure.
Seek Professional Help if Needed
If you constantly struggle with sleep despite following good sleep hygiene practices, it may be best to consult a healthcare professional. They can help provide you with further guidance while addressing any underlying root causes of your issues.
Sleep Supplements and Natural Support
There are so many supplements and natural supports used to improve sleep quality and quantity that they will have their own whole post in Better Sleep Part 2: Sleep Supplements and Natural Support.
Remember that everyone's sleep needs and health status vary slightly, so it's important to listen to your body and adjust these recommendations to suit your individual requirements. Ensure you prioritize getting enough quality sleep to support your dance training and overall well being.
*This is not medical advice and is only intended for educational purposes only. Please always consult your medical doctor, naturopathic doctor, chiropractor, or preferred health care practitioner prior to beginning any treatment*
References
Cheek, R. E., Shaver, J. L., & Lentz, M. J. (2004). Variations in sleep hygiene practices of women with and without insomnia. Research in Nursing & Health, 27(4), 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20025
Chung, K.-F., Lee, C.-T., Yeung, W.-F., Chan, M.-S., Chung, E. W.-Y., & Lin, W.-L. (2017). Sleep hygiene education as a treatment of insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Family Practice, 35(4), 365–375. https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmx122
Ferracioli-Oda, E., Qawasmi, A., & Bloch, M. H. (2013). Meta-analysis: Melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders. PLoS ONE, 8(5). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063773
Sargent, C., Lastella, M., Halson, S. L., & Roach, G. D. (2014). The impact of training schedules on the sleep and fatigue of elite athletes. Chronobiology International, 31(10), 1160–1168. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2014.957306
Stracciolini, A., Stein, C. J., Kinney, S., McCrystal, T., Pepin, M. J., & Meehan III, W. P. (2017). Associations between sedentary behaviors, sleep patterns, and BMI in Young Dancers attending a summer intensive dance training program. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 21(3), 102–108. https://doi.org/10.12678/1089-313x.21.3.102
