Lack of sleep is an issue for many of us and it’s impacting our health on a daily basis. We lose sleep stressing about anything and everything these days. This combination of stress and sleepless nights is a recipe for disaster. Sleep is a core pillar of health and without it your body cannot fully thrive or heal from disease.
As moms, we are all too familiar with losing sleep. As our kids grow up and their sleep schedules become more consistent, ours can as well, but some of us also have family members in dangerous occupations like police, fire, and the military that adds an added layer of stress. For me, as the wife of a police officer, there won’t be an end to my worry or restlessness until the day he retires.
Most moms and wives are running on fumes....
You can’t stop. You can’t take a day off from being a mom, your career, or running a household. When your sleep is poor and unrefreshing, you have to find a way to just keep going while exhaustion inevitably piles up. Lack of sleep causes us to become short fused, to mentally break down, and leads to short and long term illnesses.
Sleep is vital to your health.
While sleeping, your body is hard at work repairing tissue, building new cells and recovering. Lack of sleep on a regular basis has been attributed to the increasing rise in obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hormonal and autoimmune imbalance, and aids in
total body inflammation. Sleep also impacts your immune system and your body’s ability to fight off foreign invaders. A restful night’s sleep is imperative for your physical and mental health.
Still unsure of its importance. Check out Harvard’s take on it, here.
Not all sleep, however, is considered "good" or restorative. Sleep is considered to be restorative when we go through all five stages of sleep in a single night. The REM stage, when we dream, is vital for restoration. Optimally, you want 20-25% of your sleep to be in this phase.
Sleep is a built-in protective mechanism for all of us. Elevays: Natural Living Made Easy discusses sleep in their blog and agrees that adults should be getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Are you?
The best way to ensure you start getting better sleep is by creating a solid, consistent sleep routine that starts about 2 hours before you even step foot into your bedroom.
Having a consistent routine will help you get better sleep nightly, reduce restlessness and will improve your health.
Here are some ideas to begin to implement tonight to help you get a restorative night’s sleep:
1. Add more activity to your day. Daily exercise such as walks or yoga will help your body to relax more at night. However, be careful not to exercise too late. All exercise should be completed at least two hours prior to your bedtime.
2. Get more daylight exposure. Start your day by staring at the sun without sunglasses. Exposure to daylight helps your brain know it’s time to wake-up and helps set your body’s rhythm to know when it’s time to sleep later on.
3. Avoid caffeine at least 6 hours before you go to bed. That’s right, a late afternoon cup of coffee or a caffeinated tea after dinner can be enough to disrupt your sleep, even hours later. Instead, consider winding down the day with calming, especially ones with adaptogenic herbs. I love to end my day with the Organic India Tusli teas.
4. Eat dinner earlier in the evening, and avoid late night snacks. Your body needs time to digest food after it’s eaten and when you eat too late at night your body is working to digest your food instead of resting. Avoid eating at least 3 hours prior to your bedtime.
5. Limit your screen time before bed. You should stop watching tv, checking email, or using apps on your phone at least an hour before bed. If you must, use blue light blocking glasses, like these ones, to minimize exposure. This artificial light affects the production of melatonin which is our natural sleep regulating hormone. If you’re looking for a solution for your kids, my son loves his pair from Blue Light Kids!
6. Don’t bring your dog to bed. Though many love to sleep with their pets, your dog’s movements and sounds at night wake you up and could disrupt your sleep patterns.
7. Take a bath or a cold shower at night before bed. A calming bath with Epsom salts or essential oils such as lavender, cedarwood, and frankincense can be a great way to relax before you go to bed. A cold shower is another great option that helps you regulate your core body temperature to help you rest your best.
8. Start a gratitude journal. As a mom and wife of a police officer, anxiety and stress are key contributors to my restless nights of sleep. To reset my mind and get into a more peaceful mindset before bed, I’ve started journaling nightly about what I’m grateful for. A great tool for this is the Five Minute Journal.
9. Add sleep supplements to help calm your body. Supplements are here if you need them. If your body is lacking in any area there are always negative repercussions; and when you can’t improve those deficiencies naturally you need to strongly consider supplements to help. My favorite supplements that aid in restful sleep include:
- Melatonin: Melatonin is a hormone that our body produces naturally to regulate sleep, but blue light exposure and other brain chemicals and hormones can affect our body’s ability to produce it properly. Supplementing in very small quantities can drastically improve your sleep at night.
- Magnesium: Magnesium is one of the most important minerals that impact our sleep along with so many other processes in our body, and it’s one of the most prevalent nutrient deficiencies seen. Supplementing nightly with magnesium might be really effective in supporting your sleep.
My go to for magnesium is Innate Response Magnesium 300. You can pick this up here at my Wellevate store which is the best way to get discounted professional grade supplements. Be sure to follow the recommended dosing on the label or what your practitioner advised.
- L-theanine: This amino acid found in green tea extract that helps to optimize brain function and calm you down, especially when taken before bed, it can help you fall asleep and stay asleep. If you are someone who is up frequently during the night, this may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Now is the time to start taking control of your health by implementing some of these ideas that will help your body and brain prepare to sleep at night. Settle your mind and start getting more restorative sleep each night so you can be ready for what the next day brings.
Next week we will be discussing how to optimize your sleeping environment for the most restorative sleep you’ve ever had. This week, focus on improving your bedtime routine. Make it consistent because the regularity of the routine will help trigger your brain to know it is time to get ready to sleep and optimize your time on the pillow.
Are you ready for a more comprehensive approach to finding the root cause of your health issues so you can take back control? Click the button below to schedule your free curiosity call today! We will take some time to discuss the challenges you’ve been having with sleep and any other area that could be keeping you from living your best, healthiest, and most fulfilled life.
