A Good Night’s Sleep: How to get quality over quantity.

You get mandated to work a 16-hour shift. You have a 30-to-60-minute drive home which means you have to be back to work in less than 8 hours. You need to let the adrenaline burn out of your system so you can wind down and get some sleep. But you also skipped the vending machine, so you need to get something to eat and not lie down so soon that you end up with heart burn. And what if it’s your day to drop off the kids or pick them up from school? How do you fit in the recommended 7-8 hours of healthy sleep in all that? The math just doesn’t add up.

I can’t give you more hours in the day. But I can give you some tips that can make your quality of sleep better so you can feel rested and less fatigued.

Ways to Improve Sleep as an Officer

1. Quit your job. Just kidding but do your best to work a shift that allows you the best uninterrupted sleep rather than sectional sleep and several naps. Four hours of straight sleep is better for the body than two 2 hour naps several hours apart.

2. Stop using alcohol to sleep. It prevents deep sleep which is the restorative stage, and it prevents the REM stage of sleep which is for emotional processing. Although you will be unconscious, you’ll have more issues with unresolved trauma and increased emotional intensity like feeling more anxious, depressed or irritable.

3. Brain drain: Clear your mind of things that will keep you up at night by doing a quick ten-minute brain drain. Check out my blog on racing thoughts for more details.

4. Melatonin: Take 3-5mg 30 minutes before bed. It only lasts 4 hours, it’s non habit forming, and helps the body go into deeper stages of sleep faster so you feel restored in less time. However, if you are prone to nightmares then I don’t recommend melatonin as it can cause vivid dreams that are harder to wake up from. It’s not just for sleep. Melatonin also helps with lowering blood pressure, improves IBS symptoms, decreases heart burn, inflammation, pain, and migraines.

5. Exercise: Burn through the extra adrenaline. Listen to your body. Ideally, you’d exercise as part of your transition after work but some people get too energized to sleep if they work out when they get home so they do it first thing in the morning. Find what works for you. I myself was a second shifter and exercised after work and slept like a baby afterwards. It was a great wind down for me. For more ways to wind down after work check out my blog on transitions.

6. Stop caffeine 6-8 hours before bed. Use complex carbs and high fiber diet for long lasting energy. Use natural sugar for an energy boost like fruit juice and smoothies. Excessive use of caffeine can increase anxiety because it causes the physical body to amp up and then the mind finds reasons for the racing heart and high energy, creating anxious thoughts to match. Using caffeine too close to bed can result in the need for downers like sleep aides or trying to use the depressant alcohol to wind down and you can become addicted to both.

7. Magnesium: Take 400mg in the evening with food. It’s a natural muscle relaxer and decreases anxiety symptoms, both help with sleep.

8. Temperature: Take a warm shower before bed so your body temperature drops faster when you enter a cool room which promotes sleepiness. Keep the bedroom 65-68 degrees. The body needs to feel cool to sleep. If your thermostat has a timer, set it to cool while you sleep then get to 75 degrees 15 minutes before your alarm goes off. Heat activates cortisol in your body which wakes you up and will make it difficult to hit the snooze button.

9. Weighted blanket: Make sure the blanket is no more than 10% of your body weight. If it’s too heavy you won’t go into the deeper stages of sleep. Weighted blankets replicate the pressure of being in the womb but also the pressure of a hug, physical touch which releases oxytocin, the hormone of safety and security. If you feel safe and secure, you’re better able to sleep.

10. Grounding: Go outside and put your bare feet on the ground for 5-10 minutes. The electromagnetic energy of the ground activates the calming nervous system which relaxes you for sleep and calms anxiety. If the weather doesn’t allow for this, the Tera P90 device provides the same electromagnetic frequency as the earth. It can be used before bed to promote calm and help with insomnia, as well as decrease pain, inflammation, and help the body detox. It’s an amazing device I use daily. For more information, check out my page on the Tera P90.

11. Use nature: Go outside when it’s dark in the evening or at night for 15-20 minutes and just feel the energy shift that happens at night. Listen to the sounds of nature at night which are different than the daytime and remind your body to connect with the natural rhythms of nature and the time to sleep. Leave your bedroom window open to listen to the sounds of the night like soothing background noise. Use a fan for white noise or to replicate the sound of wind. Get a sound machine and play the sound of the ocean. Whatever sounds bring you that sense of peace and calm.

12. Guided meditations: There are lots of aps and YouTube videos with guided meditations to help your body relax and sleep. Check them out.

13. Ask for help. This is where social avoidance due to a lack of trusting people or seeing everyone as a threat will not help you. If picking up your kids or taking them to a sporting practice will interfere with your limited sleep, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to friends, family, fellow parents at the school and work out a deal where you take turns with transportation, or you just pay them. This might take some work to connect with people and put yourself out there to build relationships, friendships that are mutually beneficial, but it’s worth it to get the sleep your brain and body need.

Lack of sleep wears on your physical body, shortens your lifespan and puts you at risk of falling asleep at the wheel or delaying your reaction time. This could result in a car accident or getting stabbed in the prison or worse. You can’t afford to skip sleep and rely on energy drinks to get your through.

Somethings are not worth compromising. Sleep is one of them.