It’s every student’s most favorite time of the year - back to school season. Whether you are on the hunt for something to help your own tween/teen transition back into the swing of going to school, or even if you’re fully grown and looking to help get yourself back into your standard routine, we have got you covered. 

Why Transitions Are Tough

Change can be hard - that’s just a fact of life. It can be a major life change such as moving or getting a new job, or it can simply be adjustments to your typical day-to-day routine. For school-aged children, this is often in the form of going back to school after weeks on end of staying up all night and sleeping in until one in the afternoon. No matter the transition, though, it can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule if you’re not careful. 

Getting back into a routine is much like getting into a new habit. It requires repetition and perseverance in order to make it stick. This can be challenging, however, as you are quite literally rewiring your brain when you do change your routine by forming new neural pathways. While this can be challenging, it is far from impossible. 

Depending on the routine you’re trying to readjust to, this change can be a stressful one, too. When specifically considering going back to school, this can be an especially stressful time. Going back to school comes with it a litany of stressors such as academic pressure, social expectations, and, you guessed it, routine changes. 

While a change in routine alone can be enough to mess with your internal clock, the added stressors only serve to exacerbate the issue. Between change in general and the stressors associated with it, there is a pretty fair chance you will find yourself exhausted keeping up. This makes it all the more necessary to take proactive steps towards acclimating to your new, or old, routine. 

How to Adjust

The key to making change is doing so in realistic ways. If you find yourself wanting to completely overhaul your routine in a span of 24 hours, there is a high likelihood of not meeting your goals. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your best routine won’t be either. Looking at making this adjustment in an “all or nothing” manner can serve to make you feel inadequate when an inevitable slip-up is made and can dissuade you from moving forward with the new changes you have set into motion. 

Starting small can be a huge help here. If you’re looking to go to bed earlier, immediately making the change from going to bed at 2am to going to bed at 10pm in one night is going to do little good. In fact, it may throw you off even more. Looking at jet lag as an example, shifting your sleep schedule by several hours all at once can make you feel more fatigued and less ready to take on the day. 

Keeping your action items small and attainable, at least to start, is the best way to start. Mentally, or physically, checking off these incremental changes to your routine can do a lot in terms of making your progress all the more evident. Speaking of progress, be sure to focus on what you have accomplished! If we are to return to the example of going to bed earlier, it can be easy to fall back into old patterns. If you find yourself going to bed at 10pm every night, but slip up on a random Thursday and end up going to bed at midnight, not all hope is lost. Your efforts to go to bed earlier have been largely successful, but with a slight bump in the road - such is the case with most things in life. 

Nobody is perfect, and you cannot expect yourself to make these changes without fail. Looking at these blips in progress can make you feel as if you are failing at changing and make change altogether seem futile - this is the trap that many of us fall into. A slight downturn is your progress is not a failure, it’s human. Giving yourself some grace during this period of change can be a huge contributor when it comes to proving to yourself that you can keep going. 

A Little Boost Along the Way

No matter how disciplined we are and how rigid we are with our new schedules and routines, change is still hard. There is no shame in admitting so, and there is also no shame in looking for ways to help ease the stress of these changes. 

We often feel the effects of stress in our sleep, and these disruptions can make it even more difficult to adjust to a new routine. However, by investing in our sleep, we can help make these transitions easier and more likely to succeed. 

In the clinical space, the sensation of deep touch pressure (DTP) is often used as a tool to help relieve feelings of stress and anxiety. DTP is something we have all felt before, even if we were not aware of it. This effect can be felt when someone gives you a hug, when a baby is swaddled, or even when you wear the heavy X-ray vest at the dentist. 

In an interview with Sleepopolis, certified sleep coach Kelly Murray speaks to how, “This deep pressure can also boost serotonin levels, the happy hormone; reduce the stress hormone, cortisol; and increase melatonin levels.” DTP does not have to be strictly clinical, though, and can be incorporated at home to reap its benefits. 

Weighted products such as a weighted blanket have become common in this arena, but many have found them to be overbearing in weight and size, ironically making them too stressful to use. Many still see lighter, more compact weight as being helpful, though, so Nodpod’s answer to this issue has come in the form of the BODY which provides all the benefits of DTP in a compact lap-sized blanket that weighs in at 6.5 lbs. compared to more standard weighted blankets that can range from anywhere from 12-25 lbs. 

The effects of DTP are not limited to blankets either as constant gentle pressure can be applied anywhere on the body. For those fond of using an eyemask at bedtime, and even for those who do not consider themselves to be traditional eyemask wearers, the Nodpod has proved to be revolutionary in the sleep space. Weighing in at just over 9 oz., the Nodpod is gentle enough to be used on the face all while still providing the same benefits of DTP that any other weighted product could offer. 

Whether it’s for yourself or for a friend or loved one, the gift of better sleep is one that will be rewarding time and time again. While it is always worth investing in your sleep, the back-to-school and end-of-summer season is an excellent time to jumpstart your routine in a healthy and productive way.