It's no secret that sleep is a vital elements of our lives, and it's fair to say that possibly no-onw understands the value of rest quite like Olympians – and mums. So who better to answer our questions on creating the perfect sleep environment than Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill herself?
Since winning Gold in the heptathlon at the London 2012 Olympics, Jessica went on to have two children – one of whom she gave birth to before winning Silver in Rio in 2016, so if anyone knows how to switch off and get rest it must be her!
Here's how the British icon winds down and why bedroom storage is a must.
Creating the right atmosphere
'Firstly what I need is a nice and relaxing feel to a bedroom,' Jessica told us. 'The kids used to be in and out with toys and teepee tents and everything in the bedroom and it was all getting a bit chaotic, so we redid the room last year to change the vibe.'
'’I need an environment where I can relax and recharge, and now it's just like a completely relaxing space which I'm very happy about. It balances being quite luxe but also homey.’
Banishing clutter
Putting things into their correct places before bed is a key step in Jessica's routine, proving she knows the value of easy-to-access storage to get things spick and span in a flash.
‘Ever since I was a child I’ve needed a clutter free bedroom,' she explains. 'I could not and still will not go to sleep unless I know eveything is tidied. I'll make the bed straightaway in the morning, too.’
Using the right window treatments
Even if you don't think of yourself as being a light sleeper, choosing the wrong window treatments for the orientation of your bedroom could be causing problems, so Jessica made sure to take this into consideration.
‘We’re south facing so I like blackout blinds and curtains as it is quite light in the mornings,' says the Olympian. Blinds2Go have a good range of blackout blinds, if you need to make your bedroom darker.
On the other hand, if you have a darker north facing bedroom, lighter curtains will help make the most of what daylight does come your way, giving you a gentler ease into the day.
Switching off
Even though she has a busy life, Jessica Ennis-Hill has always found it easy to get to unwind in the evenings and get to sleep hassle-free.
'For my bedtime routine, once the kids are asleep I just want some time to unwind so I’ll maybe put on Netflix so I can just switch off but then when I come into bed, I don't struggle with sleep. As soon as I get into bed I’m pretty much out!'
'But if I do struggle at all I’ll do breathing exercises and use magnesium spray and some sleep mist and switch off that way.'
Waking up
Not every moment of a wind down and wake up routine is quite that simple, especially for a mum of two, as Jessica knows all too well!
‘I use the iPhone alarm to wake up in the morning and I hate it! Most of the time, to be fair, it doesn’t have time to go off, we just get woken up by the kids,' she laughs.
'My daughter's good at trying to wait until she knows it’s time to get up but she does often come in just before 7 when my alarm would’ve been going off, so I just get woken up with a massive ’Mummy!’ instead, and it’s a bit of a jolt to wake up like that out of a deep sleep!’
As an ambassador for Sleepeezee, Jessica Ennis-Hill knows the importance of a good night's rest, so we'll be taking some cues from her wind-down routine, although maybe planning a calmer wake up where possible!
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