6 Common Sleep Strategies That Don’t Work for HSPs
On a recent family vacation I was the last one to wake up, as usual. Having stayed up late the night before to get some much-needed alone time, I walked out into the shared kitchen sleepy-eyed and a little disoriented from being in a new place.
As I sat down to eat breakfast, I realized that everyone else had been up for hours. Not that I minded the quiet but it brought up old feelings like “I’m lazy for staying in bed so long” and “I should be spending more time with people, that’s why I’m here.” I quickly brushed these old messages aside because I know now these thoughts aren’t true. Quality time is always best and I’m more impacted by shifts to my sleep routine.
As a highly sensitive person, sleep is my most important resource and yours too! Your brain has to work a lot harder to sort through all the details you notice and the complexity of emotions you feel each day. Think of it as a cleaner who comes into an office each night to sift through the mess of the day, safely filing away what’s important and discarding the rest.
Your brain will lightly organize during quiet moments of the day, but it can only really get to work when you’re asleep and there’s no new information coming in. Since you have more to sort through than the average person, you need more sleep!
And is there any time when there’s more to process than on a family vacation?! The exhaustion and decision fatigue of different activities every day, passive-aggressive comments between family members, old triggers resurfacing, disruption to your routine, and loss of the familiar comforts of home are a lot to manage.
How to Get Better Sleep
While rest is essential for HSPs, whether at home or away, it can be compromised when you follow common sleep advice you’ve heard. Below are six sleep strategies to avoid and what to do instead.
No screens in the bedroom
While HSPs are easily overstimulated, it depends on the quality of screentime. While scrolling on social media or checking email on your phone is a big no-no before bed, reading a light-hearted novel or watching a soothing ASMR video on your tablet can be supportive in helping you wind down. To eliminate distractions, consider having a dedicated tablet that’s just for your bedroom which is set to dark mode and has any distracting apps hidden or blocked.
Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m.
You may need to stop consumption of coffee, tea, or dark chocolate by 12 p.m. or even earlier. Highly sensitive people are often very affected by caffeine consumption. Unless you’ve built up a tolerance, you may notice even minimal amounts will interfere with your ability to fall or stay asleep, even hours afterward.
Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night
While you may be able to get by with 7-8 hours, the majority of HSPs I speak with report feeling their best with 8-10 hours. As mentioned above, sleep supports emotional and mental processing and HSPs are more perceptive and take in more data points and feel their emotions more intensely/have more to process.
Get out of bed after 20 minutes of trying to fall asleep or back to sleep
This practice can be too stimulating to your senses and jolt your nervous system. You will then need to wind down and transition back into bed all over again (which takes longer for HSPs). Instead, revisit whatever practice helped you fall asleep in the first place such as a guided meditation or relaxation exercise.
Engage in calming activities 30 minutes before bed
Most days HSPs will need longer than this to wind down. If possible, get into bed at least an hour before needing to fall asleep and focus on some type of unwinding activity such as reading, meditation, watching a lighthearted show, or doing a simple puzzle.
Use your bed for sleep only
For HSPs, bed is often used as a cozy space to decompress, not just sleep. Differentiate relaxation time from sleep when in bed by using signals such as turning on white noise, adjusting the lighting, or putting in your retainer only when it’s time to sleep.
What changes do you need to make to your sleep routine to get more rest and feel less overwhelmed?
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