How To Sleep Better
Did you know that the average person spends 26 years of their life sleeping? With sleep being such a large portion of our lives, it is important to prioritize. While you know that you feel better after a good night's sleep, but do you know what it actually does?
A few benefits of quality sleep are greater cognitive function, a stronger immune system, improved metabolic health, regulated hormones, increased fat loss, mood regulation, recovery, athletic performance, and beauty sleep is a real thing. While there are certainly other benefits to add, we will focus more on how to sleep better.
Sleep Is Not For The Weak
1. Set your bedtime. Just like kids, adults need a bedtime routine too. A good night's rest starts calming your mind and lowering your heart rate so that when you finally go to bed you won’t toss and turn failing to sleep. Whether it’s 9 pm or 1 am, just stick to it. A set bedtime will establish your natural circadian rhythm resulting in higher-quality rest and may lower your risk for heart disease.
2. Stop eating early. Avoid eating 1-2 hours before bedtime and avoid sugary or high-fat foods (sorry, no ice cream). Beyond eating early, sticking to a regular dinner time regulates your circadian rhythm too, and improves sleep efficiency.
3. Avoid caffeine. Like most people, I love coffee. Getting up at 5 or 6 am every day, I love an afternoon boost but coffee drinkers should stay away from consuming it later in the day. Some people are so sensitive to caffeine that they should stop before noon.
4. Avoid alcohol. Alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but it is detrimental to a good night’s sleep. Sleep is an active process and alcohol inhibits those processes. Alcohol prevents you from getting enough REM and deep sleep as your body metabolizes it. REM is associated with dreaming and plays an important role in re-energizing your mind. Deep sleep is the most restorative and rejuvenating stage helping your muscles grow and repair. You get more REM in the later half of the night while deep sleep usually happens early in the night. Both are regulated by your circadian rhythm.
5. Separate work from bed. The ability to work from anywhere means you can also work at any time. Working remotely often means you have less separation between home and the office and potentially less separation between work and sleep. Keep your bed solely for sleeping so when you get in bed, your body naturally winds down and produces natural melatonin. This means no TV in bed too.
6. Tech-free time. Plan some technology-free time before you go to bed. Blue lights from most televisions, computers, and phones inhibit the production of melatonin. Some electronics have settings that alter screen temperatures to a warmer color in the evening, but electronics can have other negative effects. Social media can create feelings of anxiety and depression, emotions you don’t necessarily want to feel when you’re trying to sleep.
7. Pre-bed yoga routine or meditation. Gentle activities such as yoga can calm your mind and heart rate as you prepare for bed. Try relaxing positions such as child pose, reclined butterfly, or simply sitting cross-legged on the floor (or your bed) in the easy pose and breathing for five minutes to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Meditation also decreases resting heart rate and improves heart rate variability.
8. Journaling. Writing in a diary the old-fashioned way lets you organize your mind, decreases overthinking and worry, and allows you to fall asleep faster. If you’re prone to staying awake with anxiety, organizing your thoughts on paper may help calm you enough to rest. You can also use journaling to write about positive experiences to redirect your mind as you prepare for sleep.
9. Workout. Studies show that exercise during the day help you fall asleep faster and improves quality of sleep. It even helps insomnia patients. As little as 30 minutes of exercise, 3 days a week, for 8 weeks can make all the difference. You have to be consistent though so if you don't know what to do when you walk in the gym, check out the new training cycles on The PR Training App.
10. Track your sleep! You can only manage what you measure so if you aren’t tracking your sleep, how do you know if you’re actually improving or not. There are so many sleep trackers out there but I personally use Oura ring.
Disclaimer: Not every tip will work for every person, so experiment with different bedtime activities to see which ones work better for you. Finding your bedtime routine will not only make you feel better but it will regulate hormones on your weight loss journey, help you recover from injury, and improve your athletic performance.