One Tip For Better Health: Prioritize Sleep!
By Kyra Hazilla
If we could make one change in the legal profession that would improve our physical and mental health, what would you suggest? Is there a research-based strategy that would improve our mood, our immune system, our emotional regulation, our energy, our cognitive functioning and our relationships? Yes!
You guessed it, prioritizing rest! This is no easy feat in the second most sleep deprived profession. A number of things stand in the way of restorative downtime and a good night’s sleep:
- Schedule demands in the practice of law often require Herculean efforts to navigate the volume of tasks presented each day;
- The culture of overwork in the profession offers few models for doing things differently;
- Racing mind, rumination, and anxiety (all challenges that legal professionals experience at higher levels than others) make it difficult to rest or sleep.
Most of us recognize when our sleep is lacking. Many of us even know where we have room for improvement… Doomscrolling late into the evening? Drinking coffee at 4 p.m.? Alcohol consumption? A lot of our habits get in the way of healthy shut-eye.
What can we do?
Experiment with practicing good sleep hygiene. While most of us could probably teach a class on what we should be doing, actually creating a bedtime sanctuary and following through with better nighttime practices is easier said than done. Building awareness through the use of research-validated measures can help. Try this Sleep Hygiene Index and see if you can improve your score over time.
It can be really difficult to change a habit. Get friends involved and build some social support (and accountability) around your new approach to bedtime with this four-week sleep challenge from our colleagues at the Institute for Well-Being in Law.
If mood symptoms like anxiety or thinking patterns are interrupting your ability to fall asleep or stay asleep, first recognize that you are not alone in the legal community and it is ok to seek help from a physician, therapist, or attorney counselor at the OAAP. While intrusive thoughts and anxiety at night are more common than you might think, a few helpful strategies can make a big difference. See some ideas from our friends at the Lawyers Assistance Program of British Columbia.
Emphasize physical rest. Even if you can’t get enough sleep, making space for downtime throughout the day as well as throughout the week and month is vital.