The night before an early-morning hike, one reader confesses to lying awake with anticipation – coming home tired only to find himself unable to nod off, endorphins rambling around his brain. Juls Stodel, who has overnighted in every MBA bothy in Britain, has a jammy solution and shares her sleep tips for hikers in TGO’s column, supported by Highlander Outdoor. Every month, one reader who writes to Juls with an Uphill Struggle will win an £100 voucher to spend with Highlander.
Dear Juls,
I go walking once a week and like to get up early on the day of the walk. I always struggle to sleep the night before a walk, as I’m conscious of the need to try and get to sleep quickly, ready for an early start. Of course, this has the opposite effect. What’s even more frustrating is that I can never sleep properly after a walk, despite having been up really early in order to walk 15 – 20 miles. I do sleep, but it feels as though only half of my brain is asleep, endorphins maybe still whirling round my head. I therefore have two consecutive poor night’s sleep every week, which can’t be healthy. Do you have any advice? I’ve tried other tips, such as limiting screen activity and not eating after 6PM, but with no luck. I don’t want to take sleeping tablets but would be open to trying natural remedies.‘Eyes Wide Shut’, March 2026
Dear ‘Eyes Wide Shut’,
I huffed moodily next to my friend Hugo as we navigated the bogs, squelching in the moonlight, on the way to Bearnais bothy. “This month’s column question is really annoying.”
“Is it more annoying than the one from the old man who didn’t like new things?”
“He says he can’t sleep before or after a hike. Who can? Surely no one does,” I replied.
“You’re just being whingy because you hate night hiking,” he said, as I promptly stacked it face first into the mud.
He was right, I hate night hiking. Just as much as I hated to admit that Hugo was right – this is a man whose solution to soaking wet clothes was to sleep with them inside his sleeping bag in a freezing October and who still defends that decision three years later. The excitement of an upcoming hike is an ironic hindrance to our best laid plans. And while the rush of achieving your adventure is excellent, it can linger too far into time you need your body to readapt. Cutting off stimulation and being mindful of diet is a great start, but calming down a delighted brain is like trying to tell a toddler to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.
I came across a novel approach to sleep a while back. The concept amused me so much, I actually tried it and found it surprisingly effective. Rather than distracting your mind with repetitive or calming thoughts when you shut your eyes, give it the most surreal scenarios – the type that could be mistaken for a dream – tricking it through a detour. Imagine your hike but full of dragons and falling stars and your secondary school chemistry teacher dancing the macarena. I have now found this far more effective than the ‘think of things that begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet’ strategy with which my distractable mind gets bored. I tend to fall asleep before Doc Tyrrell gets too into his disco.
For best laid plans to gang awry, the plans do need to be best laid first. Preparing for your adventure – and your return – can settle a mind that likes to tick things over. I don’t just mean having your packed bag by the door. Have your tea ready, laundry sorted, and, trust me here, newly changed bedsheets.
“Jam!” said Hugo as a gable end finally lit up in the beam, “Haven’t we been using Jam for years to cure this very ailment?” He wasn’t talking about the strawberry variety; Jam is a book by Yahtzee Croshaw about a spirited adventure through an apocalyptic world consumed by a blobby, sticky flood of jam.
As we lie down to sleep in a bothy, the audiobook is played. We’re out for the count just two chapters in. It seems sleep is still something many of us are learning. But if you do choose Jam, and it does nothing for you, can you please at least write in again to let me know how it ends?
Every month, one reader who writes to Juls with an Uphill Struggle will win an £100 voucher to spend with Highlander Outdoor.
