Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher’s Field Guide. Sit back, grab a cuppa and soak up some life-changing content!

This week we’re thinking about how we teachers can boost our physical wellbeing through sleep and rest, even when it feels we’ve just got too much on our plates.

Let’s jump in…

I’d Love To Get To Sleep Sooner But I’m Just Too Busy!

Teachers are incredible. We’re dynamic and energetic, physically and emotionally engaged and full of life.

However, the level of intensity and commitment we sustain in our daily work often comes at a cost.

I’ve been a teacher for a long time, and as I get older, it’s getting harder. I find I need more sleep and rest, just at a time in my career when I feel too busy to indulge in inactivity.

And it’s becoming a frustrating paradox.

When I was younger I could go to bed late, grab a few short hours’ sleep and fire up the next day full of energy and purpose. I didn’t feel like I needed that much sleep, although of course, I needed just as much sleep then as I do now.

But a lack of it didn’t seem to dent my productivity, mood, health or focus.

As teachers, we often think of the quality of our sleep as a luxury or as something we save up for the holidays when, in fact, it’s crucial to our professional and personal wellbeing.

It’s not that we don’t want to get a lot of sleep (there’s nothing I’d rather do), it’s more that we just don’t feel like we have the time.

And it’s the easiest thing to sacrifice.

So, in this issue, we’re going to focus on how to make the time we need for the sleep we want, even if we’re up to our elbows with lesson prep and marking.

Here’s how to do it…

Rest, Recharge, Rise: 5 Simple Sleep Strategies For Teachers To Thrive

When it comes to rest and recovery, good sleep is probably one of the most critical and yet absent aspects of a teacher’s working week.

In order to manage our workload, give time to our friends and families and even grab a little time for ourselves, we often stay up far too late or just set ourselves up for poor-quality sleep.

I often do this when I’m particularly busy with work, because once it gets late and I put the marking down, I want to feel like I’ve got a bit of my own life again, and that means staying up way past my bedtime.

Of course, the next day, I’m even more tired and inefficient, and so the cycle continues.

So, to recharge and recover our health and wellbeing, we need to prioritise our sleep…

5 Great Sleep Strategies

We all know that sleep is vital.

If we don’t get the sleep we need, we increase cortisol, stress and inflammation in the body and spend our days in fight or flight mode. As a result, we’re constantly battling anxiety, are prone to weight gain and, ultimately, a whole host of health problems that can last a lifetime.

Even if you’re busy, even if you are struggling with workload, you’ve got to prioritise the quality and duration of your sleep. The rest will eventually fall apart if you don’t.

Remember, you’re a skilled educator, but teaching is a job. Your health and wellbeing follow you everywhere and will last forever.

Some of what you’re about to read will seem impossible to achieve. Trust me, I know from personal experience that they aren’t. And they are 100% worth it in the long run.

Here are my top 5 great sleep strategies:

1. Build a routine that promotes healthy sleep.

Give yourself the space and time to wind down before you go to bed. Even 15 minutes of adjustment is enough. You just need to develop a repeatable routine that gives you a buffer between ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’. My routine involves changing into my pyjamas half an hour or so before bed, using some essential oils, popping on a scented candle or reading a book. In a way, the things you do are less important than the regularity with which you do them. When you build a routine, you’re telling the brain that it’s getting close to sleep, and helping your body shut down.

2. Take your brain from light to dark.

We live in a world that is permanently illuminated. That’s great for keeping us busy and active but plays havoc with our sleep receptors. So, as you get towards bedtime, turn down the lights in your home, ideally leaving just a few soft lamps on. By doing so, you’ll trigger your brain and body into those all-important primal responses. Before you know it, you’ll be nodding off.

3. Stop being stimulated.

Screens, electronics of all kinds, caffeine, alcohol, sugary foods, and anything that stresses the body are all stimulants that stop the brain and body from getting the rest they need. The problem is that they are also the kinds of things that we teachers rely on as a bit of a reward at the end of a long day in the classroom. However, the more we use them, the worse our sleep, and the more we need those stimulants the next day. You must reduce or eliminate stimulation from these sources at least 60 minutes before sleep to be truly effective.

4. Slow everything down.

You can’t beat some focused breath work, deep breathing, meditation or gentle movement, such as stretching right before bed. The more you can do to calm your mind and body, remove stress, settle your busy brain and lower your heart rate, the better sleep you’re likely to have. I personally find that some focused breathing, concentrating on deep, slow breaths and even slower out-breaths for ten minutes or so, sets me up beautifully.

5. Give your worries a new home.

Whether you’re a journaler, a doodler or a chatterer, the most important thing to do as you prepare for bed is to get your concerns out of your head and down on paper. There aren’t many things worse for a good night’s sleep than letting your mind go over and over the things you’re carrying with you from the day you’ve just had. The more you can work through them in a positive and creative way and relieve your mind from having to think about, the more you’ll get a sound and restful night’s sleep.

Remember that the things we do that harm our sleep also destroy our capacity to enter and remain in our REM sleep phase when dreams occur, and our brain processes information.

If we repeatedly disrupt this phase of sleep, it can negatively impact our memory, mental state and mood.

And for teachers, that’s just another challenge we don’t need to face.

What Are You Waiting For?

We believe that teachers achieve extraordinary things under challenging circumstances and that we all deserve to be valued, supported and celebrated.

That’s what this newsletter is all about.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, why not join the Marigold community? You’ll get weekly strategies for sustaining your wellbeing, avoiding burnout and flourishing as a person, not just a teacher.

And best of all..?

It’s free and always will be.

You can find out more about what to expect in this weekly newsletter here, or just go straight to our sign-up form.

Don’t Miss Our Free Online Wellbeing Course

Our free online course goes live at the start of the summer term, and we can’t wait to share it.

In this short course, you’ll discover the fundamentals of wellbeing, the key strategies you need to compartmentalise your life and work and balance your productivity.

We’re all about trying to reach as many teachers as we possibly can, all around the world. So do share our newsletter with all your colleagues, and give them the chance to be a Marigold…

They’ll thank you for it when our short course drops!

Thank You For Everything

Whether you’re getting a good night’s sleep or not, we know that you go out of your way every single day to give your learners your all.

Just remember to save some energy for yourself too!

Here’s a reminder of the key strategies for super sleep:

In next week’s issue, we’ll share our top strategies for raising awareness of your feelings and emotions (which can easily be stretched in a super-busy classroom). Essential reading for every teacher!

Until then, remember, you’re more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You’re you. And that’s all you need to be.