Today’s topic is going to be a fun one, because we’re literally talking about FUN and how having fun can actually help adults sleep better! Our adult sleep coach, Kathryn, is sharing more about what she learned while reading Catherine Price’s book, The Power of Fun.
Introduction
Most of us think of fun as frivolous – something for our children, or at best a reward when everything else is done; something to be earned. But Catherine Price argues that fun is actually restorative fuel for our health and wellbeing.
And while she only briefly mentions sleep in her book, she draws a direct line from fun to stress relief—which connects to the drum I’ll keep beating as long as I’m a sleep coach helping adults with insomnia, that because there’s a direct line from stress to poor sleep, it means there’s a direct line from stress relief to better sleep.
As I just alluded to, one of the biggest enemies of sleep is chronic stress and the hormone cortisol. Now cortisol itself isn’t the enemy, we actually need it; it’s an important hormone! Too little during the day leaves you sluggish, but too much at night keeps you wired.
“True Fun,” which Price would describe as experiences that are playful, connecting, and engaging (she uses the word “flow” for engaging, where you lose track of time, lose awareness of the world around you) helps regulate your nervous system. It naturally lowers excess cortisol, helps you reset, and breaks the cycle of stress and poor sleep.
So as I was reading her book, in my head I was seeing the implications for us in the sleep world. Instead of always needing to find that perfect app to help curate a perfect time to “relax” or tweaking one more thing about your sleep environment, maybe go laugh with a friend, go dance, immerse yourself in a board game or another hobby that you truly enjoy.
Being able to have true fun is one of the most enjoyable, natural ways to bring the body back into balance.
Not All Fun is Equal
Price makes a really helpful distinction when it comes to considering fun. She divides it into two categories: Fake Fun versus True Fun. “Fake Fun” is easy to grab, much like chips or fast food — binge-watching, scrolling gives the illusion of relaxation or fun, but it actually leaves us drained and often leaves us isolated from the world around us.
Digital media is the biggest culprit I think she has in view when talking about fake fun. She talks about how, by design, our devices are intended to stimulate our brain, capture our attention, and ironically (for more reasons than just blue light) make sleep harder. She spends some time considering the fact that we are in an attention economy, where our attention span is for sale. She even highlighted an old quote from the Netflix CEO that sleep is their number one competitor.
So if Fake Fun is the junk food of fun, True Fun is qualitatively different, more satisfying or filling, in a sense. It has the three ingredients I mentioned before: playfulness, connection, and flow. That’s the kind of fun that actually refreshes us.
In some ways you could think of it less as, “Did I consume something entertaining?” Or, “Did I shut down or disengage for long enough?,” and more about, “Did I feel alive and engaged?”
Examples of True Fun
Figuring out what True Fun looks like for everyone is where it gets to be personalized to their individual context.
So, I’ll give some examples, but the main question that can be a helpful starting place is…
When’s the last time you really stepped outside of yourself, forgot the time and the pressure of life and enjoyed things in front of you? Was it recent or could it have been all the way back to childhood?
Some examples of True Fun could be:
- Laughing with friends over a meal
- Dancing in your kitchen as you cook
- Playing in the mud with your kids during a rainy afternoon
- Playing a board game with family or friends
- Trying something new that pushes you outside yourself (i.e. rock climbing, ballroom dancing, or learning to row)
- Volunteering somewhere – stepping out of your life and serving others
- Singing out loud as you drive with the windows down
The main idea here is that the power of fun is not just for kids and it’s not passive. It’s something that makes you feel engaged and alive.
Fun Shifts the Focus Off of Sleep
You might be thinking, “Okay, I’ve tried all the sleep hacks—white noise, no caffeine after 2pm, blackout curtains—and I still struggle with sleep. How does fun change that?”
I think a key takeaway directly for sleep is that fun shifts our focus off of sleep.
One of the ironies about sleep is the more you try to force it, the harder it becomes. Overcoming insomnia, especially if you hit the point where you start to feel anxious about your insomnia, involves implementing good habits and hygiene and dealing with underlying causes, AND THEN not focusing on them all the time.
It’s this weird balance where these things are necessary but cannot become all consuming. And many people, when they’ve been dealing with insomnia for a long time, have a lot of their thought life consumed with thoughts about sleep – constant decisions, constant evaluations – that in some ways almost feel like second nature.
But fun gives your brain and body something else to focus on. It shifts you out of stress mode, softens that hypervigilance, and let’s you return to a place where as you set yourself up for sleep in lifestyle, diet, and other changes, you can then let sleep come naturally.
It’s not about chasing sleep—it’s about facilitating the conditions where rest can happen. And fun is a really underutilized tool for that.
How I’m Practicing “True Fun”
More and more I’ve been trying different hobbies – mostly things that I can use my hands and be active since my professional life involves a lot of sitting and having conversations. So I’ve been doing more woodworking and there’s a local older gentleman teaching me as I go!
I also love anything water based, which has the added bonus of not being able to have my phone on me most of the time (ie. kayaking and swimming). I also really enjoy getting lost in a good fiction book.
And for me, in addition to finding the hobbies or activities I enjoy, it’s been more and more leaving my phone off or behind so that I can be more present with the things I’m doing.
Plan for True Fun
In a world where our attentions are for sale in tandem with a high value on productivity and work that leaves most of us overbooked and spread thin, intentionality would be the keyword here moreso than formula.
I think yes, True Fun can (and at times should) be planned. I know for people in different stages of life it takes coordination to watch kiddos or make travel plans or things like that. But it can also look like intentionality to make space for the spontaneous, time for things to happen organically.
So I’d say intentionality would be more my keyword.
Conclusion
We’re whole people, not just checklists of sleep habits. Yes, routines matter—bedtime consistency, limiting caffeine, and dark rooms. (And if you’re struggling with sleep hygiene, make sure you sang our free guide to The Best Bedtime Routine for Adults.)
But adding the joy and delight of true fun is part of the balance we were created to have – work and rest. We are inherently limited in our capacity and it’s okay to live within that. And when we do, we thrive!
When we’re not constantly asking our bodies to do things they weren’t designed to do – work non-stop, short change ourselves on sleep, miss that meal for one more meeting – our nervous system remains regulated, we aren’t living in a state of chronic stress with all its sneaky and disruptive impacts that this has on our body and soul, and makes it easier for your body to do what it was designed to do, which is sleep.
Fun is not childish. It’s essential.
So instead of one more supplement or gadget, maybe what you actually need is more playfulness, connection, and flow in your days.
If you want to explore how fun, stress relief, and sleep all connect in your own life, you can schedule a free consultation with me. I’d love to hear in what ways sleep is challenging for you right now and see how I can help!
With Grace,
Kathryn
