With research showing almost three quarters of us don’t get enough sleep, how can we stop tossing and turning and start sleeping soundly? Here, we uncover the best natural sleep support techniques that are proven to work

Whether it’s scrolling on TikTok or your mind racing at 3am, many of us struggle with sleep. In fact, research by Bed SOS has found that half of us don’t think we get enough sleep, and 20% of us feel exhausted the next day.

But it’s not just about the amount of sleep we get; the quality of our sleep is essential, too. In the UK, 25% of adults feel fretting about money impacts their sleep, and 37% said work leaves them feeling less in control of their sleep. With so much going on in our lives, it’s no wonder our sleep can suffer, but it’s important to prioritise it where you can – the health benefits of sleep are vast, helping support our immune system, our mental health, and even keeping our heart healthy. Let’s explore some natural ways that you can support your sleep that are all scientifically backed.

1. Ditch the caffeine

Caffeine is known for stimulating the brain, which makes it great when you need to get through your morning meeting, but less helpful if you’re trying to drift off to sleep. While you don’t have to go caffeine-free, coffee can help you stay alert up to four to six hours after drinking it, which is why most experts recommend avoiding it in the evening, with one study finding that 400mg of caffeine (which you’ll find in around four cups) consumed up to six hours before bed significantly disrupts sleep.

However, not everyone is as sensitive. “Everyone is different when it comes to caffeine; some of us can drink tea and coffee in the evenings and still get a normal night’s sleep, while others may need to limit caffeine intake from the afternoon onwards,” advises Sophie Medlin, consultant dietitian at City Dietitians. If you fall into the latter camp, it could be worth swapping your coffee for a non-caffeine alternative, such as herbal tea or chicory root coffee.

2. Log off before you hit the pillow

Finding a bedtime routine that’s phone-free could be worth trying – even if it’s leaving your phone in the other room, and reading a book in bed instead. It’s thought the blue light from your phone screen can interfere with the sleep-hormone, melatonin, as well as making you more alert as you scroll online and take in information.

When we use our phone in bed, not only are we likely to get less sleep (if our phone keeps us busy), but we also reduce the amount of REM sleep – the stage of sleep when we vividly dream.

“For many people, technology has crept into the bedroom, making the bed a place of work, entertainment, eating, etc. It equates the bed with lots of activities other than sleep,” says clinical hypnotherapist Geraldine Joaquim. “Use your bed just for sleep, as you want your brain to associate it with sleep, not scrolling social media and watching TV.”

3. Choose the right kind of workout

A workout gives you energy, so many think it’s

Sharing some tips for easy meal planning for the busy moms out there + a template you can use.

Hi friends! How’s the day going so far? I hope you’re having a good morning! I’m getting things ready for Fit Team (join us here and get your new workouts on the 28th!) and have a podcast interview later today. Thank you so much for letting me know that you enjoy the old school more conversational type blog posts. I will definitely add them more frequently into the content rotation.

For today post, I wanted to chat a bit about meal planning because it is SAVIN.OUR.BACON right now. (Time-wise and money-wise!) We are in the thick of evening activities and events, and if I don’t know what we’re going to eat, it leads to random hodge lodge meals or takeout. It’s absolutely worth sitting down each week to plan our meals (at least our dinners) and making a list for one big grocery stop.

Taking some time to meal plan each week takes the guesswork and last-minute dinner stress out of the equation, and is a great way to save time, money and effort. Planning, preparing, and cooking healthy meals takes time, and meal planning in advance can help us make healthy meals for the family on a more consistent basis. It also maximizes trips to the grocery story and makes mom life a bit easier overall! I figured it was time I dedicated a post on practical meal planning for my busy mom friends out there.

Easy Meal Planning For Busy Moms

Setting aside time to make a weekly meal plan

Set aside 30 minutes or so each weekend to create your plan for the week. For us, dinners are the most important, but I also have an idea of what I’m going to pack in the girls’ lunches and make for breakfasts. Plan out as many meals as you’d like for the week, emphasizing dinner and weekly staples.

Create a master list

After you’ve planned out your meals, make a master grocery list including all of the ingredients. Take inventory of your pantry and fridge to avoid buying duplicates, unless you like having backups on hand.

Keep track of meals that work

If you find a meal that’s a home run for the family, hold it in your heart FOREVER. Until you make it again and they don’t like it the next time? (Kids can be a mystery sometimes, I tell ya.) I keep a running cheatsheet in my phone of meals the kids have really loved and will come back to them. We also have some staple dishes (like the ones in this post) that I know will always be a hit.

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Peanut Butter Apple Dip is simple and slightly sweet, perfect to enjoy with apples, pretzels, or anything you can dip into it.

Peanut Butter Dip

Apples and peanut butter are daily snacks around my house. My kids eat a plate of apples with a scoop of plain peanut butter almost every day.

Random but does anyone else have to ration peanut butter at their house? I am not joking when I say my kids treat apples as the condiment on top of peanut butter instead of the other way around.

A few nights ago, I was taking snacks over to a friend’s house for a party and she requested fruit if possible. I had only apples in the house, so I decided to make a quick peanut butter dip to go with them.

I was aiming for something a teeny bit healthier than the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip that I made last year. While I still love that one, it is definitely a dessert!

Peanut Butter Apple Dip

I bought a huge package of cream cheese a couple of weeks ago; when I was making Cream Cheese Pancakes for the hundredth time – slight exaggeration here, but only slight. I combined the extra cream cheese with the peanut butter and just sweetened it to taste.

Judging from the fact that at least 4 people requested the recipe, (I couldn’t stop laughing when I told them how simple it was) I’m calling this a success.

What’s not to love about an appetizer that takes about 3 minutes to throw together? I learned a long time ago to have a few things in my back pocket that I could whip up at a moment’s notice. This has been added to that pocket.

We were dipping apples and pretzels into this all night and I refilled the bowl a couple of times. If I would have had the ingredients I might have made a batch of Caramel Cheesecake Dip to serve along with this one.

I made a second small batch today and snapped a picture right before my boys inhaled every bite in about two and a half minutes. You can adjust the sweetness as much or as little as you like.

I’ve made this with both brown sugar and honey. Personally, I liked the brown sugar version best, but both are tasty options. (For something a wee bit lighter, try this peanut butter dip made with yogurt.

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The current economic crisis has seen many people turn to their careers to try and offset some of their financial difficulties. We asked Mental Health First Aid England what employers can do to help

Britain is facing the highest rate of inflation since the 1980s and, whilst we’ve seen promises of energy price caps and ‘levelling up’, there is still a great deal of uncertainty among us. As the cost of living rises, many people are being forced to consider changing their careers, upping their hours, or even getting a second job to try and offset some of the financial difficulties they may be experiencing.

With this in mind, we reached out to Simon Blake OBE, Chief Executive of Mental Health First Aid England, to ask what employers can do to support their employees’ financial wellbeing.

What steps can employers take to support employees' financial wellbeing?

As an employer, it is important to remove the stigma regarding financial issues so that employees do not suffer in silence and can access the support available to them. Research from a Wealth at Work survey found that 14% of UK adults say that financial worries make them feel embarrassed, rising to 23% of 18 to 34-year-olds.

As a nation, we might not feel terribly comfortable talking about our finances but, if we remove the stigma of talking about financial insecurities and worries, we can start to create plans to alleviate financial concerns and promote mental wellbeing. Here are a few top tips on how to remove the stigma of mental health in the workplace:

1. Deploying Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAiders®) in the workplace

The role of a MHFAider® is to be a point of contact for an employee who is experiencing a mental health issue or emotional distress. The MHFA course teaches people how to spot the early signs of poor mental health, including the warning signs of common mental health crises.

Research from The Royal College of Psychiatrists shows one in two adults with debt experience mental health issues, and over 100,000 people in England every year attempt to take their own life whilst struggling with debt. MHFAiders are trained on how to approach the person, listen and communicate non-judgmentally and then signpost to relevant support. This interaction could range from having an initial conversation to supporting the person to get appropriate help.

2. Focus on flexibility

There are individual and business benefits to some face-to-face interaction and, whilst at MHFA England I am keen for my teams to be in the office once a month for our all-staff meeting, I am also aware of the cost of travel. Keeping mandated office days to a minimum and providing lunch for everyone, I hope goes some way to mitigating some of the costs. We also have a policy of flexi or condensed hours which can help our employees avoid peak travel costs.

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Can coaching really help with creative ideas, careers and businesses? We explain more about creativity coaching and how it could benefit you

Around half of us think we’re creative, yet 75% of us believe we aren’t living up to our full creative potential. Whether you’re an artist, writer, musician, crafter, performer, run a creative business or side hustle, or are some other kind of creative, chances are, you’ve experienced a creative block.

Creative block (where you feel like you are lacking inspiration, are stuck, or other barriers are stopping you from being creative) can last anywhere from days to years. Many different things can cause a creative block, from fear of failure to perfectionism or even stress.

Feeling blocked isn’t the only thing that can hold creatives back. Perhaps you feel like you’re stagnating, or you aren’t sure how to take your craft to the next level. Or maybe you feel like you’ve got the creative side down, but don’t know how to turn your passion into something you can share with others.

Could working with a professional creativity coach be the answer?

What is creativity coaching?

A creative coach helps you to work through barriers that may be holding you back, as well as to develop your creative skills. If you’re struggling with self-doubt, low self-confidence, or even imposter syndrome, a creative coach can help offer support and guidance, introducing you to new tools, techniques, and coping mechanisms to help you build your confidence, challenge self-doubting thoughts, and feel more comfortable sharing your creativity with others.

Creativity coaches can help you to gain clarity and momentum with your ideas. Providing a space to explore your creative ideas without fear of judgement, a coach can offer support, guidance and accountability. Through working with someone who can help you set goals, identify milestones, and plan how you want to grow, you can create a sense of accountability and a more firm timeline, which can often be beneficial for creatives who struggle to complete projects.

Some creative coaches may specialise in a particular area of creative work, while others may work more generally within the creative industry. Creative coaches often share their specific areas of experience and expertise on their profiles, or many are happy to have a quick introductory call to see if what you’re looking for help with is an area where they can offer support.

How do I know if creativity coaching is right for me?

Coaching in general can have a significant impact on your self-confidence and self-belief. Many find that it can help increase their performance in certain areas, help them learn new methods of organisation, planning, and even help them improve certain skills.

Creativity coaching isn’t just about helping overcome creative blocks. If your job has a creative element, you are looking to launch a creative business or to turn a hobby into a business, creative coaching could be right for you. A coach may also be able to help offer tips and guidance around marketing and self-branding for creative-led businesses, helping you to