Description: Dr. Tina Boogren shares essential tips to achieve a restful night's sleep and start the school year energized.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Episode 2 of Season 5 of Self Care for Educators. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren. I am thrilled that you are back! Here we are. Our second episode of the season and this one's going to be kind of one we've revisited in the past. But as I said last week in our first episode, it's really essential to revisit so many of the strategies that we've already talked about before because we can kind of lose them. And especially when we are getting a new school year started, revisiting some strategies and habits that we maybe, kind of, lost or they looked different over the summer, can be really essential. And so we're going to revisit one that we've talked about before and get ourselves set up with - are you ready for it? - our bedtime routine for the 24-25 school year.
Yes! We need a bedtime routine just as much as our students and our own kids do. Here's why: when we have a set bedtime routine, it's going to help us create a habit that tells our brain when it's time to get ready for bed and this can help us get a really good night of sleep, which we know for a gazillion reasons is essential.
So let's talk about some ideas for consideration. First thing that I want you to do is make note of what time you need to wake up in the morning. And then I need you to do a little bit of math and I need you to figure out, whoo, seven to eight hours before that time. That's the ideal amount of sleep that we should be aiming for each night, seven to eight hours of sleep.
Now here's the essential part of that- that's of sleep- which means our bedtime routine needs to start a half hour to an hour before that time that we want to be asleep. I think sometimes we mess that up. I'll do that and I'll start getting ready for bed around that seven to eight hour mark and then all of a sudden I'm like, “Oh, wait, no, no, I need to be asleep right now!” And I have that moment of panic. So we're going to get our bedtime routine started about a half hour to an hour before that time that you have determined. So first figure out that set bedtime. And then what I encourage you to do is set an alarm on your phone that nudges you, that says, okay, time to time to start thinking about all of our habits, things we need to do to get ourselves really ready for bed.
So let's, remind ourselves of some things that we can. and should probably think about for our routine. Probably what all of us need to do is make sure that we put those electronics away. You know, it can feel relaxing to scroll, but the reality is what we know from the research is that it's not, that that blue light is flooding our brain while we are using those devices, which that blue light, what it's doing is it's tricking our brain into thinking that it's daytime and so it keeps our brain awake. So maybe you decide that when that alarm goes off, it's time to put your phone to bed and you put your phone to bed down in the kitchen or in your bathroom somewhere away from your bedroom.
Maybe you are a kind of person that likes to have a ritual around maybe having a cup of herbal tea. Maybe you need a light snack. Remember, we don't want to eat anything too heavy. We don't want to rely on alcohol. Alcohol feels like it's making us sleepy and it does, but it in reality wakes us back up again and leads to sleep disruption. So, know what works for you there. But I know a lot of people that, that ritual of sitting down with herbal tea, especially one that has like chamomile or lavender can really, really start to calm our mind and get us ready for sleep.
Maybe you're the kind of person that wants to, oof, take a nice warm bath before you go to bed. That can feel so wonderful. What we know is that if you're able to do this, your body heats up from that water and then it cools down quickly when that water evaporates and that creates a sensation that makes you feel tired and relaxed.
Maybe you want to listen to music. You know how important music is to me and to so many of us that listen to this podcast. While I talk about music in the morning to pump us up, we can use music in the evening to calm us down. Maybe it's not even music, maybe you utilize pink noise. That's like rain or waves or white noise that helps you fall asleep by kind of, removing other sounds and it just helps to invoke that sense of calm.
Maybe you want to do a little bit of stretching or a little gentle yoga. Maybe you want to do some breathing exercises. Those are all things that can be really, really helpful in, again, getting to that calm place. Maybe a meditation- five, ten minutes. Maybe that feels really good to you to, again, create that sense of calm.
For me, I like to read. I know that when I put my phone away and I pick up a book, that's like my greatest joy and pleasure. And at night I always read fiction. So I usually have one fiction book and one nonfiction book going at the same time. And I tend to read my nonfiction during the day when I can and I save my fiction for the evening. Because when I'm reading nonfiction, I like want to highlight; I want to take notes. I feel really stimulated by it. We're getting lost in a good fiction book, It just feels so juicy and like such a treat, and it actually makes me tired when I do it. What I utilize for that is either an actual book and a nice little nightlight, or my Kindle has a nighttime setting that seems to work well for me.
Maybe you want to write down your to-do list for the next day so that you go to sleep with that kind of off of your mind so you're not worried about that. Maybe you do a little bit of journaling. I like to journal in the evening or in the morning or both if it's a really stellar day where I can write down what I'm grateful for, where I can write down what I'm really proud of, really what my intentions are, how I want to feel, as we talked about last week.
And then, what we want to do is we want to make sure that our bedroom is conducive for sleep as well. Remember we've talked about this before, we want it to be cool, we want it to be dark, and we want it to be quiet. Ideally, and I know this feels, this feels crazy, but what the research says is that our thermostat should be somewhere between 65 and 68 degrees- if you can.
And then we want to make sure that it's dark and that it's quiet, right? That's why we want to remove the electronics from our bedroom and then get into bed. Ideally, what the research tells us is that, once our head hits the pillow, we should be able to fall asleep. So we've done all of these routines and rituals and practices so that by the time, boom, we lay down and our head hits the pillow, we drift into that wonderful night's sleep.
So that's what I want you to think about and work on and implement this week. Remember there's a difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. So maybe you spend a couple of days kind of creating your plan, trying it out, doing a little action research and then you put it into practice and commit to it.
We know everything works better, including us, when we get a really good night's sleep. So ensuring that we take time to get ourselves to a place where that sleep comes easy and we fall into it is so essential. I'm going to do this right alongside you. As always, I'm cheering so, so hard for you. Thank you!
Oh, Adrienne, thank you so much for taking this rambling and putting it so I sound good and I've got music and it's out to the world. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do and to you, my badass self care squad. Sweet dreams.
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