Sleeping better can do wonders for our life.
When you start to sleep better, you can experience such things as:
💤 Increased weight loss
💤 Improved energy and focus
💤 Decreased cravings
💤 Balanced hormones
💤 Reduced inflammation and pain
Among many other benefits.
So having a good sleep pattern, can make a major impact on our ability to take on a more active and balanced lifestyle so that we can live with confidence knowing that we will start to look good, and feel even better.
Here is our top 5 tips you can start to do to improve the qualtiy of your sleep, and in return, improve the quality of your life!
1️⃣ Go to bed at the same time every night
Our first tip to improve your sleep
Go to bed at the same time each night.
This may seem like a hard thing to do, but it can make a world of difference. Our bodies go through a sleep-wake cycle called circadian rhythm.
This is where your body goes through its rest and recovery phase, especially between the times of 10 pm and 6 am.
During this sleep-wake cycle, your body will produce sleep/recovery hormones and then stress/awakening hormones. You may have heard of these, they are called melatonin and cortisol.
In order for these hormones to produce at optimal times and levels, our internal clock needs routine. So going to bed at the same time, will help train the body to improve its sleep-wake cycles, and you will start to greatly improve your sleep quality!
Think of how nice it will be to wake up rested and ready to take on your day.
2️⃣ Wake up at the same time everyday
First, we introduced our first tip for a better quality of sleep with going to the bed at the same time each night.
Well if we do both, we will start to set and regulate the hormones associated with your sleep-wake cycles.
So, if you can set your alarm for the same time each day and you will help set the tone for your day with better timing of hormone optimization.
3️⃣ Make the room dark and cool
Our 3rd tip to improve the quality of sleep and the quality of your day....
Make your room dark, and cool.
The last couple of days we talked about how your hormones are affected by bour sleep.
When it comes to the hormone cortisol, it is affected by stress, but it's also affected by light.
Cortisol is, in part, there to help awaken and alert you from sleep.
Well our body takes in any light in our environment and think it is the sun ready to awaken us from our day.
This can happen through the eyes, but also through the skin.
The problem is our body doesn't know the difference from the sun and a clock or tv in your room.
So if we have any lights on in our room, our body potentially will create cortisol and not melatonin to keep us more awake, and never get into a deep sleep.
Having the room cool, as well as dark, can also help enhance our ability to get into a deeper sleep.
4️⃣ Develop a night-time routine
If you're a parent, you know what im talking about. We develop a bed time routine for them when they go to bed in order for them to get into "sleep" mode.
Well as we get a bit older, we loose sight of the routine, and rarely do it as an adult.
The routine will help prep the body, mind, and hormones to be ready for sleep.
This will ensure our body is primed for sleep.
It really is up to you! Choose 1-3 things or so that you do every night before bed so the body can start to learn to get into sleep mode.
🛌 Read
🛌 Take a bath/shower
🛌 Journal
🛌 Meditate
🛌 Put on some essential oils
🛌 Plan your next day out
There is no right or wrong, we would just encourage to do something that isn't too stimulating.
5️⃣ Don't eat too close to bed time
Our final sleep tip of the week is to limit your food intake too close to bed.
Now this isn't the age old don't eat for bed for your metabolism convo.
This is so that your body can spend all of it's energy and resources on sleep.
If we eat too close to bed, our body will spend valuable sleep resources on digesting food, and will be focusing every on breaking its all down which can lead to poor quality of sleep.
So, we recommend to not eat, or drink, anything for 3 hours or so before bed preferably.
Try 1 or up to all 5 for at least 30 days and see how you feel!
We bet, you will start to feel much more energetic, full of life, and ready to take on your day with much more ease.
If this was helpful, we provide many more opportunities to work with a coach on developing good life long healthy habits. You can apply for our coaching with a Free trial session here:
First Session Free
Happy Sleeping!
To your success,
Danny, Owner RAW Fitness
