Building Better Sleep Habits — and Keeping Them Through the Holidays

The holidays bring joy, connection… and disruption.

Travel, late nights, and changing routines can throw your sleep completely off track.

But with a few intentional habits and environmental tweaks, you can stay rested and ready through the busiest season of the year.

Before I dive in too deep, let's first set the ground rules for what I tend to consider when thinking about "Sleep Hygiene:"

1. The Environment - light, temperature, noise, other people, pets, etc.

2. Your Behaviors - phone usage, caffeine, stress, etc.

3. Your Routine - what you do leading up to attempting to fall asleep

There's more you can look at when defining Sleep Hygiene, but these are the biggest impacts you can make.  The good news is that making a few tweaks now for the Holidays, allows you to roll them into the New Year and build on that foundation for continued benefits.

For each of these three areas, there's a range of changes that can be made not only in how much of an impact they'll have for your sleep quality, but also how large of a change you'll need to make. Both of which will vary wildly from person to person and as such I typically recommend making only one or two changes at a time, prioritizing your ease of implementation and sleep impact. So let's look at each of these areas, and toss out a couple of ideas for each as well as some idea on the commitment needed to make the change:

1. Environment

1. Try to create as dark of a room as possible, with the simplest option being to use a sleep mask.

2. A little more of a financial commitment, but might be better if masks are not comfortable, would be blackout window coverings of some sort.

3. Temperature is also a massive factor in sleep quality and covers not only the temperature of the room, but that of the bed as well. There are lots of options here ranging in price from adding fans to help cool down, setting the room temperature cooler, or even looking at the various options out there to cool (and heat) your bed itself.

2. Behaviors

1. Stress is one of the more impactful factors I've listed, but it is also complex and not always obvious. A workout (productive stress) done late in the day could have a calming impact on some, or it could produce too many endorphins such that it becomes harder to fall asleep. Couple stressful days with some items in the routine area I'll get to such that you moderate those days and mitigate the detrimental effects of an excess of stress.

2. Caffeine varies significantly not only in the magnitude of the impact but also the duration such that everyone needs to understand for themselves what does and does not work for them.

3. Screen usage has been consistently shown to be damaging to sleep quality, with the simple answer being to put everything away a set period before bed. However, that's practically very challenging for many people, so an alternative would be to wear blue light blocking glasses to reduce (or negate) that impact.

3. Routine

1. A routine starts with timing, ideally one that allows for consistent bed time as well as a consistent waking time. Best practices are to keep both of these times as consistent as possible, during the week and weekends. A way to think of this is the popular shift many do over the weekends essentially is subjecting your body to jet lag every week. Now, does this require a rigid structure such that there's never any fun? Of course not, but recognize the impact a night out will have and look for other ways (like a nap) to more fully restore the body and mind.

2. Outside of that, look for things you can stack in the evening to help enter a calm state and prepare the body for sleep. Again, these could be all sorts of things and don't need to be overly complex - start simple and work backwards from whatever time you want to go to bed. Some options to consider:

1. reading, journaling, stretching, meditation, turning down the lights, and way too many more to list out.

There are two separate paths you can take to work on your sleep hygiene as the holidays approach:

• Pick one or two items from the list above, work to implement them, and keep track of the impact they have on your sleep duration, quality, and how you feel the next day. Look to be as consistent as possible, but allow yourself the grace to enjoy the Holidays. The goal is progress and awareness, not creating the perfect solution.

• If your schedule seems overwhelming and too chaotic to control, roll with that and keep a journal of the various things that change, how they impact your sleep, and how you feel the next day. This information you gather will then better inform you for the New Year such that you can have targeted changes that you KNOW will impact YOUR sleep in a positive way. Mentally, making changes in a way you've already proven to work are significantly easier to implement and sustain such that you'll get a massive boost to start the New Year!

A final idea to consider if you're traveling for the holidays, what parts of your sleep hygiene can you bring to carry that continuity and familiarity with you?

And as always, look for the small changes you can make that are sustainable and build momentum.

The holidays don’t have to derail your rest — they can be a chance to refine it.

Build a sleep routine that supports recovery, clarity, and energy, no matter where you are.

Start small. Be consistent. Protect your foundation.

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Strength Training Anywhere: Build on What You Already Have

Strength doesn’t live in the gym — it lives in your habits.

Whether you’re training from home, a hotel, or halfway across the country visiting family, you can still build on the foundation you’ve created.

This season is about consistency, not perfection. Here’s how to make it happen.

In my earlier post on strength training I provided some ideas for getting started, as well as some ways to progress what you're currently doing.  Another key aspect of consistent strength training is pivoting when your situations change, and the holiday season is right around the corner.  So what kinds of options should we look at to continue our training during a busy travel and gathering time period?

The first conversation to have with yourself is the duration of the travel or holiday window you're working with.  Missing one workout over a long weekend really won't have much of an impact, but a week or two starts to slide into the period where it might matter physically and definitely has a mental impact.  Also consider your current stress levels and how the holidays and/or travel will impact that, taking some time off or scaling back might be the best long term answer.  And then of course, think about your goals and how those align with your timing.  Personally for me, I typically travel between Christmas and New Year's, and then have the Houston Half-marathon in early January, such that training is important for me.  But I also know that trip is very restorative for me and I can handle the training load.

So what does it look like to strength train through this period?  I would look at 3 main options that are not only scalable for anyone of any level but very portable:

1. Body weight exercises, think squats, step ups, core work, and pushups all provide value and can be progressed reasonably well.

2. Resistance bands easily fit into a suitcase and can scale to pretty much any difficulty level and provide a full body workout.

3. A Suspension Trainer is another very portable option that does require a mount point (tree, bar, outward opening door) but allows another option for a full body workout and most likely a different stimulus.

I would then think about shortening your workout time and pivot towards more workouts.  For example, instead of two hour long workouts, think of four thirty minute workouts. You can look at either mimicking your current exercises with these tools, or maybe take advantage of the novelty and try some new movements. All of the above tools allow for lots of variations of angles and pivot points which can significantly change the stimulus that exercise provides. This unfamiliarity will not only help with your training, but also mentally it will allow you to focus on the experience and not get caught up in trying to compare numbers.

The holidays don’t have to be a setback — they’re an opportunity to stay grounded and keep your momentum.

You don’t need a perfect plan, just a flexible one.

Build on what you already have, adapt when life gets messy, and keep forging forward.

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