Yawn. Oh, Jane excuses herself. She just woke up from a lovely eight hours of sleep. How many of you can say the same thing? Although most people need seven to nine hours of sleep each night to function well, a National Sleep Foundation study focusing on the sleep habits of females from 18 to 64 revealed that American women are over-worked, over-stressed, and very, very sleepy. Part of this phenomenon is situational - women attempting to do it all - and part is biological. Those darned hormonal swings we all experience can have a big impact on sleep.
So too can travel, particularly if one is jetting across more than a couple of time zones. It's one thing if you are traveling on vacation. But when you are traveling on business, there is no time to relax and little ability to control your schedule. Thus, even those women who don't experience sleep problems at home can fall victim to nighttime awakenings on the road. There are ways, however, to keep sleep patterns in check during even the most stressful of business trips.
- If you are traveling cross country, adjust your body clock before you go. If you are going west to east, try going to bed a little earlier and waking up a little earlier for a few days before your trip.
- If you are going to a place where the time is later than your home time zone, be sure to avoid caffeine after noon or so. Unless you are totally resistant to the stimulant, coffee in the system will make it harder to fall asleep at an appropriate local time.
- If you arrive in the evening, avoid heavy meals, alcohol, and even that chocolate on the pillow. All can interfere with a good night's sleep.
- If you arrive during the day and are trying to get your body clock adjusted to a time zone that is behind what it's used to, take in as much sunlight as you can. On the other hand, avoiding extensive daylight when traveling east will help you go to bed at a reasonable local time hour.
- If you have an exercise routine, stick to it on the road. Just avoid working out less than four hours before bedtime.
- If you have a normal bedtime routine, stick to it on the road. If you usually take a shower before snoozing, take one. If you normally read in bed, read. Keeping to the routine, even in a foreign bed, will help the sleep fairy find you.
- Use white noise. Even if you aren't hot or cold, running the hotel room fan during the night provides a steady, noise-blocking sound that can lull you into dreamland.
- When booking a hotel room, make sure it's away from high-traffic areas like elevators and ice/vending machines. If, upon entering the room for the first time, you notice lots of external noise, whether in the hallway or outside the building (Jane once had the pleasure of trying to sleep in a room next to the dispatch center for airport shuttle vans), try to change rooms right there and then. Another tip: Even if you don't hear a sound, look out the window to see if parking garage entrances or loading docks are nearby. Jane's beauty sleep has been interrupted more than once by delivery trucks doing their early morning duties.
- If you bring your own alarm, or rely on wake-up calls, make sure the alarm clock in the room isn't set to go off at an ungodly early hour. If you can't figure out how to de-activate said alarm clock, just unplug it.
- Avoid stressful activities (like work) right before bedtime.
- Make a list. Sometimes, what keeps us awake, especially when traveling, is thinking about everything we have to do the next day. Instead of mulling that over in your mind before bed, get out a notepad and write down a "to do" list. Then, put those thoughts to bed.
If you have other sleep tips to share, please do. Meantime, sweet dreams, ladies.
