When the rise of COVID-19 took hold, many businesses needed to adapt to allow their workers to work from home. However, many did not consider the impact it would have on the sleep of their workers.
We asked ANF Therapy specialist Claire Dunkley from Cluzie about the impact working from home has on employee sleep. Claire has been a registered nurse for twenty plus years, and is expanding into Amino Neuro Frequency therapy for healing
“The reality is that working in your own home can have a significant impact on your normal sleep patterns,” Claire explains.
“My partner, Suzie, has been working remotely from our home in some capacity for eight years and full-time for a large corporation for the last four years. As a result, I am well versed on just how our sleep can be impacted by working from home, what other factors can impact good sleep and offer some tips on what you can do about trying to remedy your nightly routine,” she adds.
Here are Claire’s expert insights into how working from home can impact your sleep, plus top tips on getting a good night’s rest and shutting off from the workday.
How Does Working from Home Affect Your Sleep Patterns?
Firstly, there is the ‘never off’ feeling. You feel like you can’t escape any dramas that have occurred in the office, as your home is now the office. There’s no walking out of the office building and leaving it all behind.
This is especially true if there is more work than there are hours in the day. When working from home, it seems all too easy to get stuck in front of the computer plugging away a lot longer than ‘normal’ business hours.
Working from Home: ‘Always on’ Mentality
Previously, you would go to work, deal with all of the issues and as much work as possible within the standard 8 hours, then leave the office. The transit time home allowed for human defragging, and to transfer the mind onto other non-work focuses. By feeling like you’re ‘never off’, sleep can be impacted as your brain is still caught up in the workday.
Working from Home: Impacted Exercise and Nutrition Routines
Secondly, the ceasing of normal eating and exercise routines. Everybody knows how having regular exercise and eating well can impact positively on sleep. However, suddenly you are at home with constant snack options, or the normal incidental exercise from riding / walking to work or going to the gym during lunchtime, are no longer occurring. Even just getting up from the office desk to walk up a floor to have a meeting is gone.
Working from Home: Blue Light from Devices
Lastly, the blue light impact from your computer devices. It’s well documented that all tech devices emit blue light. Blue light wakes you up and interferes with your melatonin levels. Melatonin is a natural hormone produced in your pineal gland which is right in the middle of your forehead. It is instrumental in regulating our circadian rhythm. When you work late on the computer at home, the blue light effect makes it more difficult to get to sleep. For those with smaller homes, blue light emitting devices creep into the bedroom and living areas, too, making escaping it even more difficult.
Five Tips to Sleeping Better While Working from Home
- Turn off the computer and do not use your devices at least 2 hours prior to going to bed. In addition, turn your smartphone to aeroplane mode to remove the interference of wi-fi from your sleep patterns.
- Establish a great routines like:
- Having a definite start and end time to the workday
- Take a walk at the end of the day to defrag from the workday
- Introduce morning exercise routines
- Introduce a snacking plan. For example, if you want to grab some more almonds, do ten push-ups or squats before eating them
- Investigate healthy snack options like guacamole dip and snow peas
- Get up from your desk every hour to do some neck rolls and back stretches
- If all the work things seem to be playing on loop in your head, before you attempt to go to sleep, take a pen and paper and write down all of the to-do things for the next day to clear your mind
- Spray magnesium onto the souls of the feet prior to bed. Magnesium assists with sleep patterns too.
- Make the most of melatonin and get it into your system in the fastest way possible. For example, Amino Neuro Frequency (ANF therapy) have medical device discs that look like round twenty cent piece stickers that are embedded with the frequency of melatonin. Your body will then be able to copy that frequency and start creating more melatonin placed over the pineal gland. This is recommended compared to melatonin supplements because supplements get broken down by stomach acids first before even making any melatonin impact.