How to sleep well during the holidays

For many people, the holidays are a time of joy and fun - but also stress and a little extra indulgence with food and alcohol.

No judgment here, but it’s good to know in advance that stress and eating more inflammatory foods and alcohol can lead to sleep issues.

In this blog post, you’ll learn how to sleep better during the holidays while still having some fun.

How to reduce your stress during the holidays

We all know that stress affects sleep, and there’s a lot going on during the holidays that can lead to mental stress…

Getting ready, shopping, traveling, tough relatives, and so much more!

Your body can only handle so much stress at one time.

Think about it like this: the stress your body can handle is the size of a bucket. When your bucket starts to overflow, you’re dealing with more stress than your body can handle, and sleep issues result.

So it’s important to make sure you aren’t filling your stress bucket up too high, especially during the holidays.

Here are a few ways you can reduce your stress:

Plan your time and calendar everything in advance.
Prioritize some alone time every day.
Exercise every day, even if it’s just a 10 minute walk.
Calm your nervous system every day.

How to calm your nervous system

There are two parts to your nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Your sympathetic nervous system is your stress response, and your parasympathetic is the relaxed response. Your body cannot be in both parts of these nervous systems at once. It has to pick one at a time!

Stressed or relaxed…which would you rather be? 🙂 (My guess is relaxed.)

Here are some tips to calm your nervous system and keep it in a relaxed state:

Meditation - When you do meditation, your blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels decrease. All you need is 2-5 minutes a day for meditation. You can’t do it wrong, I promise, and an app can help you.
Breathwork - Breathe out (exhale) for longer than you breathe in (inhale).
Progressive relaxation - Lie down. Then, tense and relax each part of your body. This helps you notice the difference in your body between when you are tense and when you are relaxed. You can find video tutorials on YouTube.
Tapping or EFT - Tap on acupressure points on your body to help relieve physical pain and emotional stress. Studies show that tapping lowers cortisol, which is why it’s so helpful for anxiety as well as for sleep. The Tapping Solution is a great resource for this.
Play - In his book Essentialism, Greg McKeown talks about play and how important it is for creativity for our work and also for lowering stress. He defines play as doing something just for the joy of it. What brings you joy?
Laugh - Laughter also decreases stress hormones. Watching a comedy or playing games can be great for relieving stress.
Gratitude - Any time you’re feeling stressed, write down or think about what you’re grateful for. It will lift you out of that stress response and help you realize all the good things in your life. The 5 Minute Journal can help you keep track of your grateful thoughts.

You don’t need to do all of these tips. Instead, find one or two favorites and practice them every day.

You want to start them before you’re stressed so you feel comfortable with them when you need them.

If these practices are new to you, then I recommend starting during the day. Once you’ve been practicing them consistently for two weeks and feel comfortable, then you can use them during your bedtime routine if you want to relax before bed.

How to handle your stress with tough relatives

Most of us have at least one relative who is a bit tough to be around, and who we feel stressed around.

Even when you love your relative dearly, that person can be a trigger for stress.

When you’re visiting with tough relatives during the holidays, it can help to observe your environment and the people in it from a distance. Allow yourself to be curious about what’s happening. Do your best to not get triggered or take things personally.

Whatever happens, don’t judge yourself if you get triggered.

Physical things you can do to sleep better during the holidays

You can sleep well during the holidays when you manage your stress well and do your best to keep your body in balance.

The main things you want to focus on to keep your body in balance are your blood sugar levels, your diet, and alcohol consumption.

Keep your blood sugar levels balanced

When your blood sugar levels are balanced throughout the day, there’s a better chance of your cortisol levels being balanced at night when you’re sleeping. This will help you get a good night’s rest.

To keep your blood sugar levels balanced as much as possible, I recommend you start your day (every day!) with a balanced breakfast that includes protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates. When you start your day with a balanced breakfast, you’re setting yourself up to keep your blood sugar levels regulated throughout the day, and your cortisol levels regulated at night.

I also recommend you eat three meals a day, without much snacking. If you want a treat during the day, that’s totally fine, but eat it after a meal when there’s other food in your stomach. Don’t eat a treat on its own, because that will spike your blood sugar levels a lot.

This blog post titled What You Need To Know About Blood Sugar And Sleep is a helpful resource for this topic.

Keep your diet balanced

I always recommend an anti-inflammatory diet, especially if you aren’t sleeping well.

You don’t need to be super strict with yourself and only eat anti-inflammatory foods. But when your diet is mostly anti-inflammatory, you will notice a change with your health and your sleep. Eating this way is totally possible, even during the holidays!

So how do you eat an anti-inflammatory diet?

You simply avoid (or reduce your consumption of) refined sugar, refined flour, alcohol, and gluten and dairy.

Of course you can still eat the cake, cookies, or other special treats that will be available during the holidays (and enjoy them!), but I recommend doing your best to keep your diet balanced and anti-inflammatory the majority of the time.

This blog post titled How To Figure Out The Best Diet For Sleep For Your Body can help you.

Keep your alcohol intake low

Did you know that 80% of people in the world drink alcohol? This percentage increases during the holidays.

Alcohol can make you feel more relaxed, but it can also make tensions worse during the holidays. Most importantly, alcohol affects sleep.

When you drink alcohol, you’ll notice that you fall asleep fast at first, but then you move into lighter, more dreamlike, sleep later in the night. That dreamlike sleep is also known as REM sleep, and it's when you’re in a more restless state.

Drinking alcohol disrupts the liver detoxification process that occurs when you’re sleeping.

The dehydration that occurs from alcohol can also affect your sleep quality.

I’m not saying to stay away from alcohol during the holidays, but there are things you can do to not let alcohol affect your sleep as much during this time.

Here’s a few tips to help you sleep when you’re drinking alcohol:

Drink 1-2 glasses of water for every drink of alcohol.
Make sure you go to bed at least 1 hour for every drink you have.
Go to bed sober.
Increase your electrolytes.
Eat fermented foods.
Support liver with glutathione.
Eat before or while drinking.
Focus on drinks that don’t lead to hangovers as much like beer, vodka, gin, and white wine. Instead of the drinks that are known to lead to hangovers like whiskey, rum, red wine, and brandy.
Plan ahead how much you want to drink.

Summary

For many people, the holidays are a time of joy and fun - but also stress, indulgence with food and alcohol, and increased sleep issues.

When you do your best to reduce your stress, regulate your blood sugar levels, eat a balanced diet, and watch your alcohol intake, you will be able to sleep better during the holidays.

I hope this blog post helps you do just that.

If you’re struggling to sleep normally, I can help you inside The Complete Sleep Solution program.

In 30 days, you'll find out why you can’t sleep and have a plan to fix it so you can get more sleep, improve your health, feel better, and not have to rely on a ton of pills to sleep every night!