I truly cannot emphasise the importance enough of getting those ZZZs. Honestly, the health impact of not getting at least 7 hours a night is simply shocking when you look at the research and if you do nothing else for you health I urge it to be to sleep enough - beyond nutrition, beyond training, please just ensure you are getting adequate sleep. Ladies, struggling with fat loss, menopause symptoms, anything like that - start here and the rest will come.
Now I’m not here today to harp on about the health implications of not sleeping enough - I’ll save that for another day but I would just like to give you a few little tips for a better night whether you struggle or not. Even if you think that you sleep well, try implementing a few of these things and I promise you, you will realise what you have been missing in terms of feelings of well-being all this time.
Here goes;
HAVE A ROUTINE
This is SO important - probably the most important on the list. You really must try to implement the same bed time and the same wake time each and every day. The importance of regulating your circadian rhythm in this way is huge - our bodies struggle to adjust to changes in the patterns of sleep. Even sleeping in later at the weekend will make it that much harder for you to crawl out of bed when Monday rocks around.
2. Partake in physical activity through the day - but not too late!
3. Have a caffeine cut off - whether or not you think caffeine affects you, I’m telling you now, it does. You might be one of those people who has an espresso martini at 9pm and drifts into sleep seamlessly, BUT it affects the quality of your sleep which is something you are unlikely to realise until it begins to improve. Alcohol and Nicotine also will affect us in a similar way - give up smoking now.
4. Avoid eating and drinking too late - to avoid that midnight pee but also eating big too close to bedtime can interfere with sleep greatly.
5. Don’t have a cat nap too late in the day - not going to state the obvious here.
6. Relax and wind down before bed - going to bed after flying through your day and still firing on all cylinders leaves those cortisol (stress hormone) levels high and is not conducive to good quality sleep - it is worth taking some time to wind down, read a book, have a hot bath, you know the score.
7. Optimise that sleep environment - As dark as you can, no gadgets or artificial lights (including from alarm clocks), a nice cool temperature, comfy and clean bedding, all that jazz.
8. Get out in the sunlight as early in the day as you can - this is great for optimising that circadian rhythm (the natural body clock) but equally limit exposure to light, including artificial light as you start that wind-down routine.
Let me know what you implement, if you have found anything that works for you, anything you particularly struggle with or if you have any questions - we work on ALL this stuff in my team.
Peace and love, A x
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