Sleep, glorious sleep. It’s not the case in the modern world to get as much sleep as our grandparents, or older generations did. We have too many distractions, from social media to the latest box set, to needing to work longer hours for what works out as less pay than 25 years ago. We also don’t do enough things to promote a good night’s sleep, we move a lot less, and obesity is constantly on the rise. These things are affecting our ability to rest properly and recharge our bodies. As more research is being put into sleeping, the recent results show that it is where we do all of our processing of the information we received that day. And it is the most effective way to recover physically. You may think that lacking in sleep is fine on occasion, say, just missing a couple of hours a night for a short period of time. In actual fact, if you slept 6 hours a night, just 2 hours less than the recommended amount, for two weeks, you are as fatigued as someone who has not slept for 48 hours! You need to find ways to prepare for a good and restful night’s sleep. Give the following a try and see how your quality of sleep improves dramatically.
Reduce The Amount Of Light Coming Into Your Room
Before the invention of electricity, we would go to sleep when it got dark. By adding some blackout blinds or sleeping with a sleep mask will help to mimic night time much better than your closed curtains will.
4-7-8
There are breathing techniques to get you to sleep, and this is one of them (you won’t need to meditate or cleanse any auras before doing this). Breathe in for the count of four. Hold your breath for the count of seven. Then exhale for the count of eight. It might not work wonders straightaway but doing it twice a day for six weeks will show some great results.
Exercise
If you have many hobbies but going to the gym isn’t one of them, it’s time to start. Exercising helps to reduce cortisol and increase endorphins, the feel-good hormone, which will set you up for slumber.
Take Off Your Clothes
If your body is cooler, it promotes a deeper state of sleep. Sleeping in a cool room (below 70 degrees Fahrenheit) helps the body to regulate its melatonin, which is a hormone produced to control our sleep cycles. Other ways to help your body get into a deep state of sleep is to have a cold shower two hours before bedtime to cool yourself down, and it also helps to reduce your cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, relaxing you.
Make Your Bed As Comfy As Possible
Make Your Bed As Comfy As Possible
Sometimes it’s as simple as making sure every aspect of your bed is comfy enough. Having the best bed to promote a healthy night’s sleep, instead of a hand-me-down, will work wonders. If you’re tall, is the bed big enough to accommodate your height? Do you have enough room, width wise? The materials in your bed, such as the bed linen and the mattress, is the material “breathable?” In other words, does enough air get through? By choosing the right linen and materials, you are priming your bed to be as comfy as humanly possible.
No Screen Time Before Bed!
It is a common practice before bedtime, to chill out and look at our phones or tablets because it is a lot easier to pick up than a bulky book. But the blue light being emitted from those screens are suppressing our melatonin production, meaning that even if we get a good night’s sleep, it won’t be good quality. If you really need to stare at your screen, get an app, like F.Lux, which is a screen filter, changing the screen to a warmer color, and it’s free!
Make Sure You Have A Bedtime Routine
The issue with the amount of work we do in the modern world, we expect to be asleep as soon as our head hits the pillow, yet many people have a terrible sleep despite the amount of exhausting work they do. A supplement like magnesium will help you to sleep better, but for the majority of us, we need to create a good bedtime routine to get us into a relaxed state. Start with things that relax you, rather than stimulate your brain, like relaxing music, a bath with Epsom salts, or a cup of chamomile tea.
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