Something I know a lot of us struggle with is sleep. It’s something so simple, and so obvious but it’s truly one of the greatest hacks to health just hiding in plain sight.
No matter what job you have, whether you have kids or not, whether you wake up early or can sleep as long as you want, it’s important for all of us to figure out a way to maximize our health through sleep. So today I’m gonna share my top tips on how to do that…
First, look at your current routine. How many hours of sleep are you getting? How do you feel? The average person needs at least seven hours of sleep per night, ideally 8 or more. If you aren’t getting that your health likely isn’t good as it could be. And I could imagine your energy levels might not feel great. Trust me, as someone who used to enjoy staying up late watching TV, but also has to be up at the crack of dawn, you just have to admit that you can’t have it all. You will have to make sacrifices for your sleep, but trust me they will be more than worth it. The good thing is the math doesn’t lie if you’re going to bed at midnight and having to wake up at 6 AM, you know exactly what you have to do. First set that bedtime which allows you enough time to wind down and get the correct hours of sleep that you need.
Next is to determine what exactly that routine is. Another thing that can be tough is going right from doom scrolling on your phone or watching TV. Just trying to shut your eyes and sleep. Most of us need a way to ease from those evening moments into sleep mode. Some things that have helped me have included getting into bed 30 or so minutes before I actually want to fall asleep. Having a good book to read that is relaxing and will allow me to clear my mind. Using the Calm app or some other type of soundscapes to play white noise or something relaxing in the background. Keeping the room cool and dark and really just using my bed as my sleep space. All of these things can contribute to a healthy evening routine that set you up for success.
However, nothing is perfect, so when that evening routine fail and I can’t fall asleep I like to have a back up plan. From there, it’s really about clearing the mind and calming the body. So I might try something like box breathing to lower my heart rate and relax my body. Or I might try counting backwards from 100 just a small simple task like that can calm the mind and allow it to relax rather than wander. Or I might even get up out of bed go to the bathroom and come back just for a change of pace and to allow me a break from tossing and turning.
Lastly is something that can be applied to most things in fitness which is consistency and persistence. Improving my sleep isn’t going to happen overnight- no pun intended. If I want to go to bed earlier, it’s going to improve by a few minutes at a time. If I’m going to create a routine that works for me, it’s going to take some time to figure out what that routine is through and trial and error and figuring out what works. As long as you stick with it and keep trying you’ll get there!
When in doubt always talk to a health professional and don’t be afraid to ask for help!