India’s COVID surge started in April, cases exploded to incomprehensible numbers, and our healthcare system collapsed overnight. Everyone struggled to take care of ourselves and our loved ones while helplessly watching the news about countless others suffering all around us. It was (and continues to be) my country’s worst humanitarian disaster, and I suspect it’ll have generational effects that will continue to echo once the memory of the nightmare eases someday.
Around this time, I worked on an app to help with the COVID relief efforts in India. The situation was so dire that we had thousands of users in just a few hours, and at last count, we have 400,000 users relying on us for help finding scarce resources such as oxygen, medicines, and other care. While I’m grateful to have had the chance to do this work, it is also terrifying to me that thousands rely on my app for life-saving resources during a national emergency. There were days when I found it hard to sleep at night until it was dawn, and once I was asleep, I couldn’t bring myself to wake up because I’d hear about death every morning.
All of this is apart from my full-time job at On Deck, which is an unusually fast-moving rocket ship where I’m in charge of leading admissions and candidate operations for multiple programs, a role that I cherish and love but is also quite demanding.
I apologize for this stressful introduction to an article purporting to be about leisure; this prelude is essential to give you some context: it is how I finally fell in love with sleeping well.
Sleeping well is an art and one that I struggled to learn for months. I’m still no master of it, but a devoted student of learning it, having fully understood its importance and role in bringing you peace amidst turbulence.
It is sleeping well that helps me anchor myself in this sea of chaos that threatens to overwhelm me. With all the triggers around me that can cause a mental breakdown, what with mounting deaths and illnesses of loved ones, it is a good night’s sleep that helps me wake up to a fresh start each day and continue my work.
Sleeping well ensures that I end my day and put it behind me, knowing that tomorrow will be a fresh chance at doing better, and doing more, of being a better person.
A peaceful seven hours of rest completely resets my body and mind and reminds me that I’m in a marathon and not a sprint- taking it one day at a time, and not being too hard on myself if today is a bad day, because tomorrow is a new beginning.
🗓 A wind-down routine: You need to train your brain that it’s time for sleep, and a wind-down practice helps. I close all the windows on my computer and then shut it down to signify the end of a workday. I also work out in the evening to tire myself out, followed by a shower to relax. I always wear my favorite pajamas to feel really comfortable.
🌸 Aromatherapy: I find that certain fragrances help me relax and sleep better. Lavender is usually the main ingredient in all of them since it helps trigger the sleep hormone. I light up a diffuser with lavender essential oils in the evening after my workout and use a lavender-based body wash in the shower. After my PM skincare routine, I also use a lavender-and-vanilla body lotion post the shower. There are also a few pillow sprays that help you relax.
☕️ Supplements: Just like aromatherapy, certain supplements trigger the sleep hormone. Chamomile tea relieves you of anxiety and stress and gets you ready for sleep. There are other supplements with the sleep hormone itself, melatonin, such as chewable gummy bears, which are not habit-forming. They don’t knock you out; they make you slightly drowsy and tell you it’s time for sleep. The best way is to regulate this sleep hormone naturally, but if you’re having trouble correcting your sleep cycle, these melatonin strips and gummy bears help a lot.
These are just a few things I do to make sure I have a good night's sleep. I even have my Sleep Routine template on Notion, and highlighted three top habits for sleeping well in my newsletter here. I hope this helps you build your own sleep practice and routines for getting a good night's sleep!
Article by: Vensy Krishna
Vensy is a Notion Ambassador for India.
I work at On Deck helping recruit stars for our programs building the future of education
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