Burnout Prevention: Take a Pre-Sleep Pamper Power Hour
Burnout is real, and it’s affecting more and more of us as we navigate uncertainty, upheaval and grief to keep life ‘normal’ in the midst of a pandemic.
Researchers and professionals in the corporate wellness sphere have known that chronic stress from any source will eventually impact our ability to focus and shift between tasks, and this effect can be lasting, even when the stressor is removed. Once we hit the inevitable crash, recovery is possible, but it takes time and space. If we had that we wouldn’t have burned out, right?
Below I’m going to share my tips for making the most of the time before bed to relax and indulge yourself. If you work in the wellness space or in HR, you’ll know the economic and personal impact of burnout, and I invite you to share these tips with your clients and employees.
What’s that coming over the hill?
Oftentimes we see burnout heading towards us way before it hits. It starts on the horizon as a barely visible dot. As the dot grows we work out what it is, but reassure ourselves we have the skills to avoid it. As burnout looms larger we may tell ourselves that working and striving is damaging our mental health but is essentially unavoidable. We can’t drop the kids or the job, so we’ll have to find a way to get around the stress.
The trouble is, there is no swerving burnout. When you see it on the horizon, you must take action or expect the inevitable crash.
Greedily grab time for yourself whenever you can
Between work and family obligations, it probably feels impossible to make time to consciously breathe, much less do something special for yourself, but there are spots during the day you can carve into anti-burnout me-time.
The hour before bed is considered the time to wind down, but it’s also the time we snuggle up with our phones and catch up with the latest in politics and stats from the pandemic. In reality, if we want to wake up feeling well rested, we have to avoid replying to messages, reading about stressful world events, or discussing heated topics with family members.
Pamper hour (or half hour!) is device-free, conflict-free, and anxiety-free
This well-deserved pamper hour sets you up for restorative restful sleep and optimum productivity for the next day. If an hour sounds unreasonable, schedule a half-hour pampering before bedtime.
Consider the following activities during pamper time:
Warm bath or shower
If a warm dip already forms part of your nightly routine, here’s a good reason to keep doing it. Our core temperature naturally drops before we sleep and we can artificially make this happen by getting out of a bath or shower before we hit the hay. If it’s not too stressful, try bathing your kids every night too, it might have a similar effect.
Read this research from the Sleep Foundation about the impact of on sleep of transitioning from bath to bed.
Warm Tea
While there’s not a huge amount of science behind the claim that warm drinks promote healthy sleep, they can remind us of similar bedtime rituals from childhood, eliciting feelings of security and safety. Some drinks such as milk and chamomile are known to contain substances that help us to feel relaxed, but I believe the real power of the bedtime hot drink is pure comfort.
Here are some recommendations for soporific drinks to take to pamper hour.
Meditation / Deep Breathing
It’s a no brainer that relaxing before bed will put you in the right place for restful sleep, so try these tips on meditation, mindfulness and self-hypnosis before bed from the Sleep Foundation. Then switch off your phone.
Calming affirmations
Telling ourselves things are okay when self-sabotaging voices are telling us they are not is a successful way to calm ourselves in the moment and jump start a positive shift in our internal self-talk. Here, a psychologist looks into whether affirmations help and how best to do them.
Gratitude practice
No matter what is going on in your life, there is always something to be grateful for, and shifting your pre-sleep focus from what’s wrong to what’s right can’t fail to help as you drift off.
Whether you’re staring burnout in the face or you’ve just spotted a suspicious-looking speck on the horizon, get in touch and let me help.
