Sleep

Feeling well rested has a big impact on balance, as when your brain is tired, your cognitive processing is slower. This is one reason why people make mistakes when tired. People’s awareness of their surroundings also reduces when tired, and muscles react more slowly and exert less force.

If you occasionally feel tired, you can help keep yourself safe by recognizing that your body is operating below its normal level that day. Try to give yourself more time to move around, pause and check for hazards, and consider selecting footwear that is supportive and easy to walk in. Click here to read more about how shoes can affect your balance. If possible, it might be worth having a short nap to help boost your reserves. If you are frequently or always tired, let’s look at how to get a better night’s sleep.

Routine: Try to go to bed and wake up at about the same time every day. This helps prime the body for what to expect and what it should be doing. How many hours you should get varies from person to person, ranging from 7-9 hours per night.

Sleeping environment: Sleep experts recommend using your bed only for sleeping and intimacy. This way, whenever you go to bed, the visual cues tell your body that it’s time for rest. TV, laptops, working in bed can stimulate your brain, just when you want it to relax.

Temperature: most people sleep better in slightly cooler rooms – experts suggest 60-67 deg F / 15-19 deg C, (Cleveland Clinic) as when you get too hot it can disrupt the stability of REM sleep.

Light: For millennia, our bodies have used bright sunshine and UV light to signal wakeful behavior, triggering the release of serotonin in the morning to help get us up for the day.

Similarly, the orange-red light of sunset and low light of dusk triggers the release of its companion hormone, melatonin, to allow our brains to prepare for sleep. Our modern use of TV and other electronics, which emit more blue light, confuses this system, stimulating our brains and making it harder to switch off. Try switching off screens 30-50 minutes before you want to go to sleep, and read a book, or listen to music as a way of winding down.

Daytime activity: Sometimes if we have been sedentary during the day, it can be hard to feel tired enough to sleep deeply or well. Is there a time during the day when you can take some exercise? A walk outside, or some other exercise, alone or with others, can often help.