Sleep: The Most Underrated Wellness Tool for Women Over 35

There is something interesting about the way we look at sleep.

If someone tells us they have started going to the gym, we admire their discipline. If they wake up early for yoga or make time for a morning walk, we immediately recognise it as an investment in their health. We are willing to spend money on healthy food, supplements and skincare because we believe they will help us feel better. But when it comes to sleep, we often treat it as the one thing that can always be compromised.

Perhaps it is because sleep doesn't feel productive.

No one compliments us for going to bed on time. There are no photographs to post, no fitness tracker celebrating a good night's sleep in the same way it celebrates ten thousand steps and no visible transformation that appears after just one restful night. Because the benefits are quiet and gradual, we tend to overlook them until our body starts reminding us that something isn't quite right.

I think many women become familiar with this feeling after the age of thirty-five. They begin waking up already feeling tired, even after spending enough hours in bed. Their energy disappears much earlier in the day than it once did, small things begin to feel more overwhelming and the patience they usually have with their family or work starts becoming harder to hold on to. Quite often, they assume they simply need more motivation or perhaps another cup of tea or coffee to get through the day.

I have learnt that our body is usually asking for something much simpler than that.

It is asking for rest.

When I entered my forties, I also began noticing that my body responded differently to poor sleep than it had a few years earlier. Missing a few hours of sleep was no longer something I could easily ignore. I felt it in my energy, my mood, my workouts and even the choices I made around food. On the days I hadn't slept well, I found myself craving quick sources of energy, feeling less enthusiastic about movement and becoming impatient much more easily than usual.

The interesting thing was that nothing else had changed.

My yoga practice was the same.

My meals were largely the same.

My routine was familiar.

The only thing that had changed was the quality of my sleep, and that alone was enough to influence almost every other part of the day.

That experience made me realise something I had never really thought about before. We often expect our body to perform at its best without giving it enough opportunity to recover. We want to wake up with energy, think clearly, exercise regularly, manage stress, balance hormones and stay emotionally calm, yet we quietly borrow hours from our sleep whenever life becomes busy. Over time, that borrowed sleep begins demanding repayment, and our body eventually lets us know that it can no longer keep up.

I don't think sleep is simply the absence of activity.

I think it is one of the most active periods for our body.

While we are asleep, our body is repairing tissues, supporting our immune system, recovering from physical activity and preparing us for another day. We may not be consciously doing anything, but our body certainly is. When we repeatedly shorten that recovery period, it becomes much harder for every other healthy habit to do its job effectively.

This is one of the reasons I have gradually stopped looking at sleep as something that happens after my day is over. Instead, I see it as something I prepare for throughout the day.

Finishing dinner at a reasonable time, reducing screen time before bed, keeping my evenings a little calmer whenever possible and following a routine that allows my mind to slow down have all made a noticeable difference. None of these habits are particularly dramatic, but together they create an environment where sleep comes more naturally instead of feeling like something I have to chase.

I have also realised that many women carry their entire day into the bedroom. Even after lying down, the mind continues making tomorrow's to-do list, replaying conversations, worrying about family, work or responsibilities that are still waiting to be completed. Physically we may be in bed, but mentally we are still working. I don't think our body can truly rest when our mind never receives permission to slow down.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons yoga and meditation have become such an important part of my life. They don't just make my body feel better. They also create small pauses during the day that help my mind release some of the tension it has been holding. I have found that when I carry a calmer mind into the evening, restful sleep often follows much more naturally.

The older I get, the more I realise that sleep influences almost everything we are trying to improve. It affects how we recover from exercise, how we respond to stress, how hungry we feel, how patiently we deal with people around us and even how motivated we feel to take care of ourselves the next morning. When sleep suffers, many other healthy habits quietly begin struggling too.

Perhaps that is why I no longer see sleep as something I fit into my routine after everything else is finished. I have started seeing it as one of the habits that makes everything else possible. My yoga practice feels better after a good night's sleep. My strength workouts feel stronger. My food choices become more balanced, and I have far more energy for the people and the work that matter to me.

Looking back, I think I spent many years believing that taking care of my health meant adding more things to my routine. More exercise, more knowledge, more healthy recipes, more supplements and more goals. It took me much longer to understand that sometimes good health also comes from protecting the things our body has always needed. Sleep is one of those things.

The older I become, the less I see sleep as time lost and the more I see it as an investment in the person I want to be the next day. If I want to teach with energy, exercise with enthusiasm, think clearly and enjoy the life I have built, my body deserves the chance to recover properly. That recovery doesn't begin with another health trend. More often than not, it begins with something as simple, and as powerful, as a good night's sleep.