The holidays can make you hold out your palms, move them up and down out of sync, and weigh the pros and cons of this festive season.
On the one hand, your relatives you haven’t seen in a while will join you for the holidays and you will shop for everything your kids have written down. But on the other hand, relatives will invite you to revisit old arguments and unresolved issues, while you spend every dime you have on your children, leaving you emotionally drained.
So, no matter what lands on your pros and cons list, quality sleep will help you deal with holiday stress.
Get Quality Sleep
Getting quality sleep can maximize your health and reduce stress. But receiving quality sleep during the holidays can be challenging.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seven hours of sleep each night for adults. However, with the change in routine due to the holidays, 38% reported getting five to six hours of sleep, while 18% stated they received less than five hours of sleep during the festive season. [1]
Holiday Stressors That Affect Quality Sleep
Financial factors - 28%
Family gatherings - 21%
Disrupted routines - 18%
Traveling - 18% [2]
Sleeping Tips: Improve Your Holiday Sleep
Below, we've included tips on how to improve your sleep this holiday season.
Change in Body Temperature
The key to better sleep is to keep your sleep environment cool, and the best temperature for sleep is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit. But lowering your bedroom temperature can only help you so much.
To have an impact on our internal body temperature, we have to start with the bed we’re sleeping on. Our bed cooling systems can lower your body temperature at night, providing quality, deep sleep.
Benefits of Sleeping at Cooler Temperatures
- The quicker the body can shed heat, the quicker it can get to sleep.
- The faster it gets to sleep, the faster the sleep cycle kicks in.
- The sooner the sleep cycle kicks in, the sooner your body can begin the natural process of repairing cellular structures, making sense of the brain’s memory of events, and preparing the body to power through the next day.
Read More: How to Stay Cool While Sleeping
Besides our cooling sleep systems, we have recently introduced Hiber-AI with our sleepme+ membership.
Hiber-AI an industry-first technology that works with the Chilipad Dock Pro to automatically adjust your bed temperature in real time based on your current sleep state.
Improve Sleep and Mental Health with Weighted Blankets
Weighted blankets are known to improve sleep quality and provide deep pressure stimulation to induce calm feelings. This stimulation can increase levels of melatonin to help you sleep deeper, while also easing stress and soothing anxiety. [3]
chiliBLANKET and Cool Luxe Blanket
Snuggle in and slow your racing thoughts with calming pressure that prepares for a good night’s sleep. Emulating the benefits of deep touch pressure, our weighted blanket promotes the release of oxytocin and induces stress reduction, allowing you to settle into deep sleep. Pair our weighted blankets with a ChiliSleep control unit to enjoy temperature-regulated comfort all night long.
Keep Your Sleep Environment Dark
Having relatives over for the holidays might be fun to catch up on old times. But sleeping in a spare bedroom so your grandparents can have your room will leave you trying to sleep in a brand new environment. Keep your sleep environment as dark as possible. It's necessary to let your body know it's time to produce melatonin and get quality sleep.
Light exposure during nighttime can cause havoc on our naturally increased melatonin levels, which slow down the body's natural progression to sleep. Make sure to turn off electronic devices or lights while sleeping and shut out any external lights if possible, including your neighbor’s.
Sleeping in a dark room has been shown to improve mental health. [4]
How to Darken Your Room
A great way to darken your sleep environment is using blackout curtains, stickers, or a sleep mask. Learn more about the sleep kit below:
Sleepme Sleep Kit:
Designed to create a calming space to relax and unwind, our sleepme Sleep Kit will help you sleep deeper and better whatever room you end up in at your own home this holiday season. Our kit contains all the tools to make your sleep easier in one place:
Blue Light Blocking Glasses
Block out 50 to 70% of harmful blue light from your phone, tablet, or laptop before bedtime with our blue light blocking glasses found in the sleepme Sleep Kit.
LED Blocking Stickers
Artificial light is pretty much any light that isn’t natural. Light from TVs, alarm clocks, internet modem and router, chargers, and computers is known as artificial light, and it has the potential to keep you up at night. Save a trip to the hardware store and reduce the amount of artificial light from digital clocks, appliances, and more in your sleep space with our LED block stickers.
Sleeping Eye Mask
Cushion your eyes with our soft and comfortable mask found in our Sleep Kit and eliminate light while you sleep.
Earplugs for Sleeping
Control environmental sleep disturbances with our soft, conforming foam ear plugs.
Curtain Clips
Our Sleep Kit clips will secure curtains so they can better insulate your sleep space from outside light.
Aromatherapy Pillow Spray with Lavender
Calm your mind and body with our lavender aromatherapy pillow spray, a natural treatment for insomnia.
Conclusion
Don’t let lack of sleep ruin your holiday season. Enjoy time with your friends, family, and even those distant relatives by getting the quality sleep you need
Citations
[1] Don't lose sleep over holiday stress: A data study. Sleepopolis. (2022, May 12).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Weighted blanket benefits. Sleep Foundation. (2022, March 11).
[4] Obayashi, K., Saeki, K., & Kurumantani, N. (2017). Bedroom Light Exposure at Night and the Incidence of Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Study of the HEIJO-KYO Cohort. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187(3), 427-434.
[5] Lauron, S. (2022, January 14). Stressed? these 10 essential oils can help. Healthline.
[6] Ibid.