For many of us, getting enough sleep at night has turned out to be a luxury.
Poor diet, lack of exercise, staring at back-lit screens for hours, stress and many other factors have thrown our circadian rhythm completely out of whack.
Thankfully, it doesn’t really take much efforts to improve our sleep patterns and wake up feeling refreshed and revitalised the next day.
Try out these tips:
Cardio in the morning.
Don’t think that what you do in the morning doesn’t affect your evening rituals.
Exercising in the morning is an incredible way to improve your sleep patterns.
Not only does an early morning cardio boosts your physical and mental health, it also gives you a reason to get up from bed early, and make you feel sleepy in the evening.
Snack on some fruit.
Are you used to having a midnight snack? Try a handful of grapes, berries or an orange.
A small amount of carbohydrates before bedtime helps your body produce melatonin – the hormone that regulates sleep.
Cut back on sugary drinks.
Reducing your intake of sugar can do great wonders in your sleep, as it does to your overall health.
Opt for fresh fruit juices that are naturally sweet and avoid calorie-dense fizzy drinks. Instead of using table sugar, sweeten your food using honey.
And as much as possible, stop your sugar intake by 5pm, to allow your body to metabolise all the carbohydrates you took the whole day.
Make a journal.
Before going to bed, list down the things you have accomplished for the day.
Then come up with another list of the things you need to do the next day.
Writing it all down will keep you from worrying and remembering things, and allow your mind to completely focus on the present moment and drift off to the la-la land.
Lift weights in the evening.
Lifting weights in the evening can also help you sleep faster and deeper.
After dinner, do some weight training. If you do not have weights at home, try crossfit-style exercises.
Firing up your muscles helps a lot in metabolising sugar which affects sleep. As a result, you nod off easily.
You also get to burn more calories even whilst you sleep!
Turn off electronics in your bed or your room.
Browsing your Facebook newsfeed before going to sleep sounds like a cool idea. But no, it isn’t.
Such electronics, including television and computers, emit blue light that could really mess up with your sleep patterns.
In a 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that participants using iPads displayed reduced levels of melatonin, a hormone that typically increases in the evening and helps induce sleepiness.
Quit the ‘snooze’ button.
Think snoozing your alarm clock for five times helps a lot? Think again!
While it seems like a great idea to wake up on time, many sleep experts agree that hitting the snooze button contributes to a tired morning and doesn’t help us feel more rested.
Those five extra minutes in the morning are less restful than five minutes of REM sleep because they take place at the end of the cycle when sleep is lighter.
Of course, and I would suggest this, perhaps try a bit of hypnotic relaxation before bedtime.
It’ll help quiet your conscious mind and allow your subconscious to start working its magic even before you sleep.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.
Richard Scott
Clinical hypnotherapist
Try out these tips and you will surely love the result!