The other day I watched a pair of pelicans make a smooth, gradual, linear descent onto a watery ‘landing strip’ close to a sandy riverbank. It was mesmerising to watch. Their trajectory for an unruffled touchdown was perfectly executed.
It got me thinking of how well we descend at the end of a busy day flying high, only to taxi into our hangars (aka beds) looking for the holy grail of a decent night of sleep, too oft in vain.
Many of us don’t afford enough time to wind down sufficiently. Our trajectory is often too steep, and we end up hitting our respective runways too hard and too fast, creating too much heat in the brain to shut our cerebral engines down in the correct manner. Too much hyperarousal (physiological and cognitive). Too many ‘toos’ in the mix.
We end up feeling wired and tired whilst we toss and turn in our futile effort to fall sleep.
Annoying, right?
The business of getting great sleep can be tricky and worrisome, especially if it becomes an ongoing issue. There are many pieces to the sleep puzzle.
Whilst focusing on sleep hygiene education alone is unsupported as an evidence-based treatment for insomnia (CBT-I being the gold standard), healthy sleep practices are an important piece in the whole sleep picture.
Today’s focus piece is on seeing if you can create a buffer zone in the evening for wind-down time…say roughly 30 minutes before bed (preferably longer if you’re a night owl).
We’re talking time management here. We all have 24 hours at our disposal each day to divvy up as we see fit. So do the numbers.
Work out how many hours of sleep you need, how much time it takes you to get up and get ready in the morning, how much time you spend at work, getting home, tending to family/personal needs in the evening and how much time you’re allowing yourself to unwind in that buffer zone before bed.
Does it add up? If not, what will you have to re-jig, all the while keeping the sleep goalposts sacred?
Next, come up with a checklist of activities you can weave into your wind-down landing routine e.g. gentle yoga/stretching, mindfulness meditation, hot bath/shower, relaxing non-alcoholic/non-caffeinated drink, crossword/jigsaw puzzle, music, reading etc.
Figure out what works for you and see if you can stick to it.
In the way that we strictly adhere to the pilot and cabin crews’ instructions aboard a flight when it’s time to prepare the cabin for landing (which takes roughly 30 minutes), so too should we be strictly adhering to our own landing instructions in our 30-minute descent, to ensure a smooth, safe passage to the runway and into our hangars.
The alternative?
Crash, burn, mental churn, toss, turn, potential sleep concern.
Till next time, onwards and upwards in your bid to descend well!
