Prioritise rest over recreation during your next getaway

With international travel at a standstill and domestic travel reduced by interstate lockdowns, you might be wondering why we're talking about sleep and travel. We know it's going to take some time for tourism to revive itself. Nevertheless, school holidays and the warmer months are now on our doorstep. And that means many of you will soon get wanderlust and take the opportunity to escape – locally at least. 

If you've got a getaway planned or thinking about one, you should take it as an opportunity to get some proper rest. Chances are that you need it after this crazy year. Here's what we think you should do.

Find your natural rhythm again

Since the pandemic, life for most Australians has been entirely thrown out of whack. And so too are our circadian rhythms. It'll be smart to use your break to reconnect with your body.

As humans, our circadian rhythm or body clock is regulated by daylight. An excellent way to help reset it is to simply ditch the morning alarm clock (and electronic devices before bed) and wake up naturally. When you return home, you can work out your ideal bedtime by counting back the number of hours of sleep you need from the time you were waking up on holiday.

Enjoy the quiet

For the light sleepers out there, there's nothing worse than having a hotel room above a bustling street. But with cities and hotspots now quieter than ever, you'll now be able to get the peace and quiet you need for amazing sleep.

If you're going somewhere popular, you'll also be able to take photos without crowds and be able to enjoy your destination at a slower pace. To ensure where you're staying is quiet, try asking your host or hotel for a room away from street noise and elevators in advance.

You might not see some of these issues when you check-in, but you will at 6am when every early bird wakes up to go for an early swim, a jog or breakfast.

Relax in a new environment

When you get to your accommodation, take some time to remind yourself that you're away from home and work. With many of us now working from home, our once restful sanctuary has turned into a digital office and call centre. What's more, our personal lives have become more and more blurred with our working one. The change in environment will do you good to help you clear the boundaries between your work and your life again.

Needless to say, it's imperative for you to avoid checking your emails or taking your work with you on break. The last thing you need is to come back as tired as you were before you left. Use your time to repay any sleep debt you owe, and put the capital R in your R&R.

Final thoughts

After a decade of incredible growth, international travel has been stopped dead in its tracks. It's like a once bright beautiful star suddenly collapsing onto itself into a black hole. 

The good news is that any travel that does happen now will be local or domestic, meaning jetlag is also a thing of the past. It's hard to say if and how our travel habits will change during and after the pandemic, but one thing that we should keep constant are our sleep habits.

If you're privileged enough to be going on a local holiday soon, we hope you take this time to get the rest you need. Nature has given us the breathing room we asked for, don't waste it.