5 Ways to Improve Your Sleep While Working From Home

On the 19th of March 2021, it is official World Sleep Day! Despite what you may think, this isn’t an awareness day that encourages you to lie in bed all day and snooze off all of your day-to-day responsibilities – although if it was, I certainly would not object. World Sleep Day is a day to really think about the importance of good sleep, and recognise how much it can affect our mental and physical wellbeing. It’s no secret that the last 12 months have massively impacted the way we not only think about our mental wellbeing but also how to recognise when we are struggling and take positive action to pick ourselves up. And, you guessed it. A good nights sleep is a huge part of picking yourself back up and staying motivated while you’re spending more time than ever before looking directly at a screen while working from home.

With the above in mind, here are some top tips on how to improve your sleep while working from home, tried and tested by a Paid Social Manager who is also doing the same.

1. Reduce the time spent on your personal Social Media.

If you haven’t looked at your screentime at least once during lockdown and been utterly shocked and horrified at how much time you’ve managed to waste scrolling endlessly and unnecessarily through your social media feeds, then I can only imagine how amazing your sleeping pattern is. Not only is the screen itself stimulating, but the content on your feed is too, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Set your phone aside throughout the day until lunch breaks or evening breaks after dinner to catch up on your personal life. Take advantage of the fact FOMO (fear of missing out) is low right now while we are all staying safe at home.

2. If you can’t reduce your time scrolling, close all screens at least 30-minutes before you ‘hit the hay.’

When you finally decide to snooze, your eyes start to get heavy and your body naturally gets ready for bed. This is the perfect time to put your screen away and stop watching Netflix to avoid your brain being stimulated, and giving it the go-ahead to stay awake. Allowing just half an hour of screen-less wind down can improve how quickly you fall into the deep sleep phase of your sleep cycle.

3. Find your exercise preference and groove.

By ‘preference’ I mean whether you’re more excited for a 20-minute HIIT workout, or a slow yoga flow, and by ‘groove’ I mean finding an exercise routine that is realistic and maintainable, whether that’s getting up at 7:30am every Wednesday morning or getting outside just before it gets dark. 

Moving and using your body for routine exercise not only releases endorphins to keep your general mental wellbeing in check, but depending on the type of exercise it will either tire your body out or relax every muscle in your body. Now, that’s a recipe for a good sleep after sitting in front of a screen all day.

4. Track your sleeping pattern.

If you don’t feel you can commit to taking the more actionable steps just yet, then one of the most important things you can do is get to know your mind and body when it’s time for sleep. By using apps such as Sleep Cycle or SleepScore, you can work out how long it takes you to fall asleep, and even analyse the quality of your sleep through monitoring movement and sounds. Being able to see how long each sleep phase takes you to get into, you can find out what time you need to wind down to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep before your work alarm goes off.

5. Choose a maximum of two days a week where you will commit to working late, but every other night just don’t (unless it’s necessary).

It’s been a battle over the last 12 months to resist letting that feeling of living at work, rather than working from home, sink in. With all the time in the world to just get that one extra task done in the evening, working hours are a little blurred and it’s hard to know when to switch off. If you know this feeling, then you will also be aware it’s impacting your sleeping pattern without you even trying. Dedicate max. two nights per week where you will commit to being proactive and working late to get extra tasks in or get much-needed work admin done. If you organise and use that time properly, you’ll find you not only have time to do the things you enjoy mid-week but also your sleep regularity will improve.

To summarise, a good sleeping pattern breeds productivity and motivation while you’re working at home in an unsociable, and often limiting, environment and situation. However, there are so many small changes we can make in our day-day life to work towards feeling better in ourselves while we continue to keep safe and work from home.

Don’t lose sleep over your Digital Marketing strategy, Embryo is here to help. Get in touch with us today to find a strategy that works for you and doesn’t keep you up at night.