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do have the functionality to track sleep as well. Just be careful as technology is known to disrupt sleep and having your phone in the bedroom may be more of a hindrance than a benefit for this.Once information about your sleep patterns is gathered, think about and note any factors that could influence the quality of your sleep in a good or bad way. Some things to think about are:<ul><li>Did you have any stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, nicotine) within two hours before sleeping?</li><li>What temperature is your room set at?</li><li>How light or dark is the room?</li><li>How noisy is the room?</li><li>How messy is it?</li><li>Did you look at any technology screens before bed?</li><li>Is there anything you are or were stressed or worried about?</li></ul>Note these down and determine whether these things are good or bad for your sleep. Reinforce the good, and work gradually to make changes to the bad to form good sleep habits.Sleep experts recommend that you try to keep your routine consistent and once you find a method that works for you, to not make changes to it. For those struggling to figure out what changes, below are some suggestions.<h1 id="0a53">Improve The Sleep Environment</h1>Your environment is everything and it’s key to having a clean and decluttered environment. This doesn’t mean it needs to be a minimalist, serene paradise. It needs to be clean enough and functional enough for you to sleep.Case and point, my room isn’t a total trash pile, but I do routinely have clothes on the ground and my exercise mat laid out on the floor. I don’t mind it and in my mind, I consider it clean enough. Even though I know others would disagree with me.Here are some things that can help you with sleeping better in terms of environment:<ul><li>Declutter the room. This means using this space exclusively for sleeping or sex. Remove any TV, computers, and other technology in there as best as you can. If time is sensitive, a Kaizen method is to set a timer for five to ten minutes and tidy up around your bed.</li><li>Change your sheets often. Change them once every week or every fortnight. The Kaizen method is opting to change the pillow cases and/or bedsheets during that time.</li><li>Block out noises. Use earplugs or play some relaxing music or a white noise machine.</li><li>Shut out the light. Your room should be dark and cool as possible. Have some good curtains to block out the moonlight, streetlights, or lights of passing cars. Don’t want thick curtains? Get an eye mask.</li><li>Get a better mattress. If it’s that problematic, save up a little bit to get a new one. If the mattress is part of your apartment, you can ask the landlord for a new one. Another alternative is mattress toppers which are cheaper and can make a big difference.</li><li>Have nice smells. S

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mells of lavender and bergamot have calming effects. Look for aroma diffusers, pillow sprays, or scented candles as ways to make a room smell nicer.</li></ul><h1 id="f8d3">Have Better Bedtime Rituals</h1>Rituals are another cornerstone to improving sleep or disrupting it depending on what you are doing. These rituals have been engrained into our minds as children and babies, but as adults we forget about them and end up favouring rituals like scrolling through social media or binge-watching movies or TV series.Instead of those rituals, consider adopting one or more of these ones:<ul><li>Get some loungewear. Get out of whatever clothes you’re wearing and slip into something more relaxing and encourage your body to wind down.</li><li>Soak yourself. Have a warm bath or shower before bedtime. You can even be fancy and add lavender oil.</li><li>Take off makeup if any. A soothing face mask and a removal of makeup can do wonders.</li><li>Hide your phone. Don’t bring any tech into the bedroom. Unless you’re happy with distractions and disruptions. Have your phone and laptop in a completely different room.</li><li>Have a communication blackout. Along the same lines, make a vow to avoid work emails, and social media within the last 2–3 hours before bedtime. If you want to go this extreme, try it at least for one night and see how you feel.</li><li>Be organized. Put together a to-do list the night before can help you declutter your brain. Or just generally planning out your next day. These steps can also include packing bags, getting food ready, and hanging outfits.</li><li>Do yoga. Gentle bedtime yoga or meditation exercises can help significantly. There are plenty of tutorials and apps that promote this.</li><li>Brain dump. An act where you just write everything that’s on your mind when your thoughts get too much. Doesn’t have to be coherent or fully formed. Just dump it.</li><li>Reading a good book. Reading for about six minutes has been known to reduce stress levels by two-thirds and promote good sleep. Just be sure you’re reading from a paperback book and not a screen.</li></ul>Whatever changes you make, do note the effects on them and whether they are helping or not. The key is to find a routine — and making gradual and small changes to develop it — that works for you.This is your sleep and whatever works for you is something you want to be sticking with.If you found this article helpful, <a href="https://ericsburdon.medium.com/subscribe">subscribe to my email list here and receive emails whenever I publish on Medium</a>! Or if you’re new to Medium and wish to support my work, <a href="https://ericsburdon.medium.com/membership">consider being a Medium member and get access to all current posts from me and hundreds of other writers</a>!</article></body>

Trouble Sleeping? Try The Kaizen Method

Japan’s Kaizen Method for sleep could solve insomnia and sleep anxiety.

Kaizen, the Japanese word for change, could very well be the technique needed for many individuals. Even though we’re all aware of how sleep is important for our mental and physical health, many people struggle with sleeping.

Like so many other sleep-related articles — some of mine included — we prattle on about how sleep is important and that it’s necessary for repairing cells, processing information and other important things.

The issue is those reasons alone aren’t enough incentive for people to focus on good health and overall wellbeing. That or they’re convinced and struggle to use whatever boilerplate idea these articles throw at them.

You might suffer from insomnia. There can be thoughts that overwhelm you and you can’t seem to fall asleep. Or maybe there is just too much noise going on that disrupts your sleep.

Even if you’re not in that camp and you’re looking to slightly improve your sleep, this technique can help you alter existing sleeping habits and adopt new and healthier bedtime routines too.

It’s called Kaizen. In the context of sleep, this technique is designed to deal with the stresses that we experience when trying to sleep:

Worries of work
Worries of our friends or family
Worries over big life changes like moving to a new home or getting married.

Kaizen is designed to reduce the sources of those stresses and better cope with them when they do happen. It can also be used to improve bedtime routines and even the sleep environment you’re in as well.

Start With A Sleep Diary

Before making any changes to your routine, you need to be able to spot problems in the first place. A sleep diary is going to help with that as they provide general overviews of how you sleep. Sleep diaries — when using them consistently and openly — can help you spot triggers for bad sleep.

Every morning for a whole week, note the hours you fall asleep and wake up and how many hours you’ve slept in total. Also, note whether you were awake during any period of time.

You can go a step father and rate the quality of sleep too.

If you don’t want to use pen and paper, smartphones do have the functionality to track sleep as well. Just be careful as technology is known to disrupt sleep and having your phone in the bedroom may be more of a hindrance than a benefit for this.

Once information about your sleep patterns is gathered, think about and note any factors that could influence the quality of your sleep in a good or bad way. Some things to think about are:

Did you have any stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, nicotine) within two hours before sleeping?
What temperature is your room set at?
How light or dark is the room?
How noisy is the room?
How messy is it?
Did you look at any technology screens before bed?
Is there anything you are or were stressed or worried about?

Note these down and determine whether these things are good or bad for your sleep. Reinforce the good, and work gradually to make changes to the bad to form good sleep habits.

Sleep experts recommend that you try to keep your routine consistent and once you find a method that works for you, to not make changes to it. For those struggling to figure out what changes, below are some suggestions.

Improve The Sleep Environment

Your environment is everything and it’s key to having a clean and decluttered environment. This doesn’t mean it needs to be a minimalist, serene paradise. It needs to be clean enough and functional enough for you to sleep.

Case and point, my room isn’t a total trash pile, but I do routinely have clothes on the ground and my exercise mat laid out on the floor. I don’t mind it and in my mind, I consider it clean enough. Even though I know others would disagree with me.

Here are some things that can help you with sleeping better in terms of environment:

Declutter the room. This means using this space exclusively for sleeping or sex. Remove any TV, computers, and other technology in there as best as you can. If time is sensitive, a Kaizen method is to set a timer for five to ten minutes and tidy up around your bed.
Change your sheets often. Change them once every week or every fortnight. The Kaizen method is opting to change the pillow cases and/or bedsheets during that time.
Block out noises. Use earplugs or play some relaxing music or a white noise machine.
Shut out the light. Your room should be dark and cool as possible. Have some good curtains to block out the moonlight, streetlights, or lights of passing cars. Don’t want thick curtains? Get an eye mask.
Get a better mattress. If it’s that problematic, save up a little bit to get a new one. If the mattress is part of your apartment, you can ask the landlord for a new one. Another alternative is mattress toppers which are cheaper and can make a big difference.
Have nice smells. Smells of lavender and bergamot have calming effects. Look for aroma diffusers, pillow sprays, or scented candles as ways to make a room smell nicer.

Have Better Bedtime Rituals

Rituals are another cornerstone to improving sleep or disrupting it depending on what you are doing. These rituals have been engrained into our minds as children and babies, but as adults we forget about them and end up favouring rituals like scrolling through social media or binge-watching movies or TV series.

Instead of those rituals, consider adopting one or more of these ones:

Get some loungewear. Get out of whatever clothes you’re wearing and slip into something more relaxing and encourage your body to wind down.
Soak yourself. Have a warm bath or shower before bedtime. You can even be fancy and add lavender oil.
Take off makeup if any. A soothing face mask and a removal of makeup can do wonders.
Hide your phone. Don’t bring any tech into the bedroom. Unless you’re happy with distractions and disruptions. Have your phone and laptop in a completely different room.
Have a communication blackout. Along the same lines, make a vow to avoid work emails, and social media within the last 2–3 hours before bedtime. If you want to go this extreme, try it at least for one night and see how you feel.
Be organized. Put together a to-do list the night before can help you declutter your brain. Or just generally planning out your next day. These steps can also include packing bags, getting food ready, and hanging outfits.
Do yoga. Gentle bedtime yoga or meditation exercises can help significantly. There are plenty of tutorials and apps that promote this.
Brain dump. An act where you just write everything that’s on your mind when your thoughts get too much. Doesn’t have to be coherent or fully formed. Just dump it.
Reading a good book. Reading for about six minutes has been known to reduce stress levels by two-thirds and promote good sleep. Just be sure you’re reading from a paperback book and not a screen.

Whatever changes you make, do note the effects on them and whether they are helping or not. The key is to find a routine — and making gradual and small changes to develop it — that works for you.

This is your sleep and whatever works for you is something you want to be sticking with.

If you found this article helpful, subscribe to my email list here and receive emails whenever I publish on Medium! Or if you’re new to Medium and wish to support my work, consider being a Medium member and get access to all current posts from me and hundreds of other writers!