[AD – Post contains Gifted Product] Now that I’m at the mid-point of my forties, I have had my fair share of disrupted sleep, in the last decade from raising a child to the drift of perimenopause. Lack of sleep can truly darken your days, fog your mind and leave you feeling disconnected. There are a few things I have changed about my sleep rituals over the last few years and today I’m sharing the things that have really worked for me.

The Underlying Associations of Unwinding

We all read the spaces we inhabit visually, for some we want to be energised or uplifted, for others we want a scheme that is quiet and clutter-free. Whatever your preference, the place you shut out the world to sleep in should be one that gives you the visual cues for switching off. For me this means a grounding colour scheme – I love the green behind the bed – natural elements from motifs of nature in objects and pictures, and natural materials in the furniture. It also means a space that is clean, tidy of distractions, with good ambient lighting for getting cosy and which smells fresh and relaxing.

Small Rituals

As many experts tell us, we need routine to increase our ability to sleep deeper. Touchstones that signal to the brain that it’s time to unwind. For some this is reading a book (for me, it’s listening to one these days), a bath, a hot drink without caffeine, meditation, journaling, a candle. This can feel a little like a roll call of more demands on time when you just want to flop in front of the tv (to switch off and be entertained before bed). But there are small rituals I find helpful. Listening to an audiobook for twenty minutes is one, another is breathing deeply and having smells around me that calm. I don’t tend to use scented candles in my room these days, sometimes plain beeswax in winter for cosy atmosphere. I occasionally use pillow sprays, but one thing I’ve discovered this year is the use of a Hinoki scent diffuser. Hinoki naturally has a calming lemon-cypress aroma, this combined with an essential oil you like, is a really effective way of gently scenting a space for sleep (and I love the build up of patina on the diffuser over time and use).

Separating from Work and Stimulation

As someone who worked freelance most of my working time over the last decade and has recently taken on a role partly working from home, I know that nothing interrupts my minds attempt to unwind more than thinking about work-related things – especially the to-do-list and the upcoming. There have been times where sleep and work have blurred – for example I wrote my interiors book over a two month period, during this time I would often write in the evening ’till 1-2am and get up again at 5am to start writing again before my son awoke. But in less stark (but equally erosive) ways I also used to check emails and begin planning the next day during times I was wakeful in the night.

I believe some people navigate the separation between work and rest far more effortlessly, but for me I need to visually cue to myself that my bedroom is solely a place of rest. We don’t have a television in the room so that it is always a place of stillness. And though I will never be able to leave my phone downstairs for practical reasons (Emergency calls etc), I am very strict about not picking it up now when I am lying awake.

Connection to Nature and Centring Circadian Rhythms

Now that we live and work in globalised capital focused societies, we are often out of sync with the circadian rhythms and this can affect our ability to unwind. In the summer months I find this connection easier and will spend time looking at sundown before bed. But in the short days of winter this isn’t practical. However, I often catch sunrise from my bed before I start the day – we are lucky because despite living in a densely populated town in London I can see the sun rise over the trees of the gardens opposite – I find that watching the break or close of day really centres me in the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. I haven’t tried those alarm clocks that create gradual natural light to wake you, I’d love to know if you have one how you find it.

Comfort at Core

I feel this is the obvious one, we’ve all felt the discomfort of another bed – be it in a hotel, in relatives spare room, or worst or all camping! I can’t be the only one that feels like the princess and the pea, a mattress that supports and suits our preference is the cornerstone of comfort. When we moved to our current home a decade ago we invested in a quality mattress and natural linen bedding. Now that our son is ready to move into a double bed (he’s almost as tall as me at 11 years old) we have been fortunate to be gifted the Hybrid mattress from Simba, a company dedicated to sleep technology. The Hybrid mattress comes with patented Aerocoil® microsprings combined with extra deep Simbatex® foam, it’s nine-zoned, responsive foam base provides extra support for hips and shoulders , which is reassuring with a sporty growing person. Having tried Ted’s mattress I can vouch for its immense comfort and now for the finishing touch – we need to decide on some new bedding sets to underline the comfort of his new mattress.