The end of the year can bring extra work, social and family demands at a time when many of us are feeling end-of-year fatigue. Don’t forget that rest is a highly underrated health practice.
Here are some holiday reminders to help keep you on track
Who has time to nap at this time of year!!??!
Although napping may sound like the sort of thing only a person with huge amounts of free time can do, the ideal napping time is only 10-20 minutes. Sharon Ackerman, author of “Relax and Win: Championship Performance” argues that almost anyone can learn to fall asleep within 2 minutes using the military method. The U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School developed this method to enable pilots to fall asleep day or night, in any conditions, in less than 2 minutes. When pilots were taught this method over a period of six weeks, 96% of pilots could fall asleep within two minutes. This method uses a combination of progressive muscle relaxation and meditative practice to ease your body into a sleep state.
Other nap-like-a-pro tips
- 1–3 pm is ideal napping time, napping later than this may interrupt your typical overnight sleep.
- Seek a cool, dark, quiet environment. A comfy couch or armchair is ideal.
- If you experience chronic insomnia or other sleep disturbances napping may not be for you. Keep an eye on your main sleep of the day and if it is being negatively impacted by napping. Some people find setting a nap alarm to avoid napping for too long can help avoid negatively impacting your overnight sleep.
Know and respect your limits
Perhaps you are the sort of person that can attend a different social function every night of the week and revel in it. Maybe one mid-week Christmas party will have you feeling rotten for the rest of the week. There is value in reflecting on your socialising sweet spot and honouring that. Keep in mind that your limits won’t remain constant, for example, menstrual cycle tracking can provide insights into when you are likely to feel most social. Knowing when a pre-ovulation oestrogen/energy boost is coming can help you organise your calendar in a way that respects your body and energy limits. If you have an event coming up that you know will occur after ovulation when progesterone and fatigue are higher, respect your need for more sleep by scheduling a nap. You can learn more about the influence of hormones on your social life in Naturopath Heidi Hogarth‘s NHSA webinar here
Choose Simplicity
Fewer decisions can make for better decisions.
Christmas can be a challenging time to be healthy and environmentally friendly. Weighing up the pros and cons of each individual gift for your friends and family can be taxing. Christmas shopping can be the perfect recipe for decision fatigue, where the cumulative drain of multiple decisions leads to poorer decision-making. We have curated a people and earth-friendly collection of Christmas gifts to provide you with a minimal decision gifting option. This $150 box of goodies contains over $200 worth of gift-friendly products, allowing you to tick multiple small gift purchases in one go.
Simple and healthy food.
We are lucky to have Christmas when so many gorgeous summer fruits are in season, a tropical fruit platter requires no cooking and is a delicious contribution to any event. An anxiety-prone friend of mine embraced the simplicity of taking a box of mangoes to any Christmas event he went to last year. He explained that this removed his usual pre-event angst of trying to find a healthy contribution that everyone would enjoy. This approach proved a great success, it removed the anxiety-provoking activity of recipe searching, ingredient shopping and cooking for him and in his words, “everyone is happy when you show up with a box of mangoes”.
