Hiiiii,
Hope you are all okay! Sorry everything has been so quiet recently, however, I am back now!
Tonight I am going to share with you 5 tips to help work towards getting that perfect nights sleep. We are so busy in our day to day lives and sleep is the most important part for our development, mental and physical recovery, yet it tends to be the most neglected area.
How many of you sleep right through from the moment your head touches the pillow to the moment your alarm goes off? Versus, how many of you lay for a while, think about everything and anything and wake up feeling groggy, tired, and hitting the snooze button?
Of course we have to look at lifestyle, nutrition and exercise routines and despite your chronotype whether an AM’er or PM’er these tips can help to get the most out of your sleep.
Tip #1
Keep your room temperature slightly cooler with no light.
Despite all the technology developing around us we are still not robots. Our body clocks adapt around the sunrise and sunset.
Naturally, when the sun sets the temperature also drops and our bodies reflect that too. Therefore if your room is slightly cooler than the rest of the house it will help your body adapt into it’s sleep state.
If your room is too hot, you will end up perspiring and having a restless sleep and not falling into the deep state you should be, therefore waking up tired and cranky!
With this keep your bedroom dark so your body always associates this with night time and will consequently fall easier into natural sleep.
Tip #2
De-Clutter your brain before going up to bed.
It is always the night time that those voices get louder, your raw emotions build and your life escalates way beyond realistic terms. It feels that your brain is travelling at a million miles an hour. Help slow it down by de-cluttering the brain and formulating these thoughts onto paper.
Write your ‘to do’ list for the next day, write down your goals you are working towards, write down your feelings and thoughts…anything!
(Psst writing down your to do list and goals helps with your accountability and your adherence way more than keeping it in your head – it’s a non formal contract to yourself!)
Once you have jotted some bits down, take 5 minutes just concentrating on your breathing, nice slow breaths in and out and feel those thoughts escaping, leaving your mind completely clear ready to sleep.
Tip #3
Have a pre-sleep and post-sleep routine.
This links into the previous post, try and get a pre sleep and post sleep routine.
This could be meditation before bed or walking first thing in the morning, find something that works for you and is FOR you.
Allowing your body to unwind at night helps production of melatonin (your sleep hormone). Similarly allowing your body to take to wake up and get ready for the day encourages serotonin production. (Serotonin is thought to relate to areas such as your mood, social behaviour, appetite, digestion, memory or sexual desire/function).
Try to avoid technology for about 90 minutes in the morning to allow your body to naturally come out of it’s sleep state, I shall talk more on technology later.
Tip #4
Don’t focus on hours – focus on cycles.
Everyone has always told us you need to aim for 8 hours sleep and you can end up obsessing about this but in reality we don’t all need 8 hours sleep. Women tend to need more sleep than men however everyone has their optimal time that they best function on.
With this in mind try to work in 90 minutes cycles instead. Clinically this is how long it takes for someone to go through the stages of sleep creating a full cycle. For example my optimal would be 7.5 hours so I would look for getting 5 cycles in a night.
Regardless of the day try and wake up the same time everyday allowing your body clock to get into a routine. Our bodies love routine so you will get the best out of your recovery this way. However life gets in the way so keep your start time the same and just work backwards in cycles depending on your bedtime.
Working in 90 minute cycles allows you to utilise the time you have as best as possible, giving you the best recovery time.
Tip #5
KEEP OFF YOUR PHONE AND AWAY FROM THE TV!
Linking to all the points I have previously made and going back to us not being robots. Our bodies do not respond to the blue light that our electronics give off. We are still cavemen sitting in the sun or in front of the fire. Our bodies are used to the orange lights letting us know when the day is starting or ending.
So what does this mean?
How many of you find it difficult to sleep straight away when first going up to bed?
When you watch TV , on the computer or your phone right until you go to sleep you are causing a block to the production of melatonin (your sleep hormone). Therefore allowing time for a pre sleep routine allows your body to prepare as best as it can into a natural sleep state.
There are many pointers to help get the best from your sleep but hopefully these will give you some food for thought about your current sleep routines and habits. Are you getting the best you can out of your sleep?
The world has a lot to give and it can take it’s toll on us day to day so don’t neglect the time for processing and recovery.
BYE BABES X