We have all been told that we need to get a certain amount of sleep each night, but life happens, and it makes it hard to get enough sleep. I mean, how important is it?
Well, sleep is one of the most important things we can do for our health, long term, and short term. Sleep not only helps the brain save memories, but it also helps us process emotions and aids in our creativity. Put sleep on more of a pedestal because it helps us lower our risks of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. It also helps manage our weight, if we miss out on even just a few hours of sleep our body will slow our metabolism down the next day. We will then crave more food, and unhealthy foods even and our bodies will release more of the hormone that makes us hungry, ghrelin, and less of the hormone that makes us feel full, leptin, which then all we want to do all day is EAT.
How much sleep should you be getting each night? 7-9 hours, and yes, I know people say that they just don’t need that much sleep, but the likelihood that your body doesn’t need that much sleep is very low. I would honestly tell you that I doubt you are one of those very few individuals. Your body and your brain need 7-9 hours of sleep every night.
So ok, say you accept that you need to sleep 7-9 hours every night, how are you going to get that much sleep?
Schedule it! – set yourself a time for bed every night, and a time to wake up every morning, including weekends. This set bedtime and wake-up time will allow your body to get into a rhythm so it will start winding down and winding up each day at the appropriate times.
MOVE! – During the day, get some exercise and allow your body to get tired.
Avoid caffeine and nicotine! – These are stimulants, avoiding these throughout the day will help your body wind itself down naturally throughout the day! Especially try to avoid these things later in the day! I do not drink any caffeine after 2 PM every day, or I will stay up all night.
Avoid Alcohol! – Alcohol affects your sleep cycle, while you may fall asleep quickly, you more than likely will not hit your REM sleep for the complete time you need to if at all. Alcohol at night really affects this but alcohol consumed earlier in the day may also impact your REM sleep.
Avoid large meals and excess liquids late at night. – Eating or drinking too late may affect your digestion which can keep you awake or make you need to use the restroom in the middle of the night, causing you to need to wake up and get out of bed.
Do not nap after 3 PM. – Napping after 3 PM is going to affect your falling asleep later in the evening. If you are feeling tired, go for a walk, and get your blood moving.
Set a bedtime routine. – Every night before bed do the same things.
- Relax – read or listen to music
- Take a hot bath
- Shut off phones, tablets, TVs, and computers
- Make the room dark and cool
Don’t allow yourself to lay in bed awake. – Laying in bed trying to fall asleep longer than 20 minutes can cause some anxiety, so get up and move to another location in the room or another room in the house and try to do a relaxing activity.