#WorldSleepDay
Today, the 13th of March, it is dedicated to an important topic: Sleep.
Today is World Sleep Day, an annual awareness event focused on the importance of healthy sleep and its impact on overall well-being.
It is organised annually by the World Sleep Society, and the 2026 theme is “Sleep Well, Live Better”.
How does healthy sleep influence our lives?
Having a healthy sleep is closely linked to brain function (memory, focus, and learning), immune system strength, heart health, physical and mental health, and overall energy and productivity.
This is restorative, high-quality sleep that allows the body and brain to fully recover.
It is essential to differentiate restorative sleep from the sleep that helps the body and mind to reset after extreme stress, exhaustion, or shutdown periods. This sleep is not healthy or restorative; it is a protective sleep that allows the nervous system and brain to recover from overload.
After prolonged stress, burnout, or intense physical or mental effort, the body can enter a “shutdown” state, where energy levels, focus, and motivation drop sharply.
Do you know Sensory Ladders® and Sensory Spiders™?
One of the numerous reasons Sensory Ladders® were developed was to address the role of sleep, which has a significant impact on our lives.
We can understand how to differentiate these two types of sleep through Sensory Ladders®:
In the freeze state, we can experience this type of sleep that does not help us get all the benefits of sleep, but rather just protects us from a difficult situation or period. Our nervous system remains in a state of sympathetic activation, preventing us from resting and recovering.
However, when we are in our sleep states (purple), this activates the parasympathetic nervous system, our rest-and-digest system, which creates a calming sensation in the heart, lowers blood pressure, and restores internal equilibrium. Being in this state allows us to fully recover from our day and face the next day with renewed energy.
Sensory Ladders® can support you, your clients, or family members/friends to identify which kind of sleep you/they are experiencing, and Sensory Spiders™ can help you understand which strategies you may need to go down on your Sensory Ladder and get to your sleep states.
What helps you feel calmer?
Which activities or sensory strategies make you feel relaxed?
Each person will have a totally different routine and calming strategies to reach sleep states. Explore yours!
By exploring and reflecting on this, you can gain greater self-awareness of your sleep and identify what you need to improve its quality and enhance your wellbeing and quality of life.
You can learn more about all of this for free on the following link:
