Sleep often takes a backseat to daily demands and wellness priorities, however its significance on our overall wellbeing cannot be overstated. Quality sleep is not merely about resting; it plays a crucial role in physical health, emotional balance, and cognitive function.
Establishing a harmonious sleep routine is vital for maintaining our circadian rhythm — a natural process that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. Disruptions can lead to various health issues, including insomnia, anxiety, and diminished cognitive performance. By prioritising sleep hygiene and understanding the rhythms of our bodies, we can significantly improve our overall wellbeing.
To enhance your sleep quality, incorporating innovative tools like Sunlighten’s Infrared Sauna Therapy can be a game-changer. This modality not only promotes relaxation but also optimises your nighttime renewal.
Read on to discover more about how incorporating a sauna into your night routine can support your sleep as well as the other tools you can implement to optimise your nighttime renewal and wellbeing.
How Sunlighten Infrared Therapy can support your sleep
Sunlighten’s Infrared Sauna Therapy provides a unique approach to enhancing sleep, supporting our circadian rhythm to deepen our sleep cycle.
The most potent circadian rhythm cue is light exposure, followed by body temperature, mealtimes and other activities.
Light delivers the most significant impacts on our circadian clock. Our eyes are connected to our suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is the master clock in our brain. Light controls this master clock by influencing the release of hormones (melatonin from the brain’s pineal gland at night and cortisol from the adrenal glands during the day) while also governing when we tend to grow sleepy at night and wake up each morning.
Daylight (and the lack of it) shifts our hormonal concentrations throughout a 24-hour day. Night owls, shift workers, or other irregular sleepers out of touch with the sunlight will quickly find themselves with an imbalance of both cortisol and melatonin, which will impair sleep quality and overall health.
Physical activity and heat exposure during the day can both promote a healthy circadian rhythm and increase sleep drive. The drop in body temperature afterward reinforces the circadian pattern and promotes relaxation.
Sauna use, especially infrared sauna, can also elicit similar benefits while relaxing instead of working out. Through the use of our cutting-edge SoloCarbon® heating technology, Sunlighten saunas deliver the most therapeutic infrared sauna heat (up to 99% efficient), so that you can be enveloped in soothing warmth to help you relieve stress, reducing blood pressure and cortisol levels, ease your muscles and fully relax.
Relaxing in gentle heat, like in Sunlighten saunas, can be part of a great bedtime routine that improves sleep quality by promoting relaxation, healthy circadian rhythm and sleep drive.
We recommend having a sauna 30 minutes to 1 hour before you plan on going to bed, to help increase your core body temperature. Why 30 minutes before bed? This timing is ideal to promote a rejuvenating sleep, as when your body temperature starts to gradually drop, this mimics your body’s sleep response to lower core body temperature how it naturally does in a sleep cycle.
Setting up your sleep space & routine
Here are some additional key elements to consider when creating the right sleep environment for achieving a restful night's sleep.
- A Cool Room Temperature: A cooler room temperature facilitates the natural drop in body temperature that is associated with sleep onset. Aim for a comfortable range, typically between 15-19°C.
- Block Out Light: Darkness signals to your body that it’s time to wind down. Invest in blackout curtains to eliminate external light sources and limit screen time at least 1 hour before bed.
- Remove Unwanted Noise: Consider using a white noise machine or earplugs to block out disruptive sounds, fostering a more serene sleeping environment.
- Incorporate Aromatherapy for Relaxation Benefits: Scents like lavender and chamomile can create a calming atmosphere. Essential oil diffusers or pillow sprays can be effective tools for promoting relaxation. Integrating natural and sustainable fragrances such as products from Vahy, can help create a balanced and calm space.
- Test Methods of Relaxation: Instead of making falling asleep your goal, it’s often easier to focus on relaxation. Meditation, mindfulness, paced breathing, and other relaxation techniques can put you in the right mindset for bed.
- Don’t Toss and Turn: It helps to have a healthy mental connection between being in bed and actually being asleep. For that reason, if after 20 minutes you haven’t gone to sleep, get up and stretch, read, or do something else calming in low light before trying to fall asleep again.
- Try incorporating magnesium or other supplements to support your sleep: Magnesium is particularly renowned for its calming properties and ability to support the circadian rhythm. Foods rich in magnesium such as leafy greens, nuts, and seeds are excellent additions to your diet. Supplements from reputable brands like The Gut Co can also be beneficial, helping to induce sleep, reduce mild anxiety and improve overall sleep quality.
Utilising habit stacking to create a positive sleep routine
Creating a positive sleep routine can be seamlessly integrated through habit stacking, a concept popularised by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. By linking new, beneficial habits with existing ones, you can develop a consistent nighttime ritual.
For instance, instead of scrolling through your phone before bed, set a goal to read for 15 minutes. Additionally, establishing a morning routine that includes outdoor activities or walking your dog can encourage you to view sunlight within 30-60 minutes of waking to wake up your circadian clock. This not only helps regulate your circadian rhythm but also sets a positive tone for the day, promoting better sleep at night.
Incorporating these tips into your nightly routine may profoundly enhance your sleep quality and overall wellbeing. From optimising your sleep environment and diet to embracing Sunlighten Infrared sauna sessions, every small change can make a significant difference.
As you embark on this journey toward better sleep, consider adding a Sunlighten sauna session to your wellness toolkit to unlock deeper, restorative sleep.
References:
- National Institutes of Health (NIH). (2012, January). NIH News in Health: Breaking Bad Habits.
https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits - Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23–36.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25454674/ - Ma, M. A., & Morrison, E. H. (2023, July 24). Neuroanatomy, Nucleus Suprachiasmatic.
- The Best Temperature for Sleep, Sleepfoundation.org https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/best-temperature-for-sleep
- Light and Sleep, Sleepfoundation.org https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/light-and-sleep
- Benefits of Aromatherapy, https://www.fiori.com.au/blogs/lifestyle-tips-and-ideas/essential-oils-home-guide
