5 Hacks to Help You Get Your Best Sleep Ever!
Quality sleep is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. After just one night of tossing and turning, you soon realize how the lack of quality sleep can affect just about every area of your life—including your mood, job performance, relationships, and even success in weight-loss or maintenance goals.
Getting good quality sleep is one of the best things you can do for your physical, emotional, and mental health. But it’s not always easy, so here are five of the most effective, science-backed strategies for you to get the best possible sleep every night.
1. Stick to a schedule (that promotes sleep).
Sticking to a daily routine is an important factor when it comes to quality of sleep. Your body becomes used to these daily routines, or social rhythms, allowing for the development of time cues that help regulate your biological clock. Regular exercise, school or work, and social activities can all be perceived as time cues to the body.
Keep your daily schedule as consistent as possible. Move your workouts to first thing in the morning, as late-night workouts may keep you up at night. Create bedtime rituals like reading or journaling. Set a sleep schedule and stick to it. Yes, even on weekends—it may be hard at first and things may come up here and there, but having a day-to-day schedule will train your body to recognize times, making it easier to wake up and fall asleep at those hours.
2. Avoid bright light before bed.
Bright light in the evening delays the release of melatonin, the hormone in the brain that regulates your sleep cycle. Lack of melatonin can delay sleep even if it’s late. Some research suggests that the “blue light” coming from electronics is the most detrimental to melatonin release. Shut off any light-emitting electronics like tablets or smartphones at bedtime to not interfere with your body’s natural release of melatonin.
3. Avoid caffeine and alcohol as bedtime approaches.
Even if you don’t necessarily have a problem falling asleep with a little caffeine in your system or after an alcohol-infused nightcap, consuming these drinks close to bedtime may hurt the quality of your sleep, even interfering with your body’s ability to engage in deeper sleep necessary for better post-workout recovery.
Plan to stop consuming caffeine as early as your schedule allows. Switch your afternoon coffee to an herbal tea, and have your glass of wine a few hours before bed instead of just before.
4. Be sure you are meeting your daily magnesium requirement.
Magnesium is essential to sleep quality and studies have found that the majority of adults fail to meet the recommended daily allowance. One study on older adults suffering from poor sleep found that magnesium supplementation led to significant improvements across a range of measures including sleep time and efficiency.
Enjoy plenty of magnesium-rich foods like dark leafy greens, nuts, and dark chocolate. If you aren’t eating enough magnesium-rich foods, consider adding a supplement like IsaComfort (and maybe a dark chocolate IsaDelight or two) to help meet recommendations.
5. Supplement with melatonin.
While our bodies make melatonin, natural production declines with age. Studies have found that melatonin supplementation around bedtime can reduce sleep latency and improve sleep time and efficiency.
Get extra melatonin just before bed—start with a smaller dose and gradually increase over time to find how much you require for restful sleep. Because Sleep Support and Renewal comes in spray format, it’s easy to have ready for use on your nightstand and it allows you to better control the dosage each time. This amazing spray also includes ingredients like L-theanine, valerian, tart cherry, and chamomile that promote quality sleep.
I’m always open to your questions, comments and feedback. I’m always listening!
Yours in health,
Wendy
References: www.isagenixhealth.net
Simple reminders of things we should do, but often ignore. Great to see a simple plan laid out. Easy to implement and follow