It’s important to get 8+ hours of sleep every night and to ensure that that sleep is of
the highest quality. Here are 5 tips that can help improve your sleep quality.
- Limit screen time 1-2 hours prior to going to sleep. Exposure to blue light
depletes our melatonin and prevents the brain from being able to “turn off”. This can
lead to constant brain activity while you are asleep and this will prevent you from
entering a deep sleep cycle (REM). A great place to start is removing the television
from the bedroom and setting a night mode timer on your phone to change the
screen to a yellow or red tint.
- Make the bedroom as dark as possible. If you’re sleeping with the blinds open, a
night light on, or falling asleep with the tv on, the light exposure will prevent you from
entering a deep sleep cycle. Invest in some black out blinds, make the room as dark
as possible, and this will help melatonin production leading to a deep sleep cycle. - Create a night time routine. Creating a night time routine can help build a better
circadian rhythm and will allow your brain to “relax” easier. The routine is custom to
what you enjoy doing. It can be as easy as reading a chapter of a book, or as
complex as a full stretch routine and an epsom salt bath. Whatever feels relaxing to
you, that’s what I’d suggest you build into your routine. - Learn to breathe properly through your diaphragm. Naturally, we were born to
breathe through our nose and from our diaphragm. As stress builds, we become
inactive and start to adapt to breathing from the mouth and the chest. This breathing
pattern sends a stress signal to the brain, causing it to keep you alert and prevent
you from falling into a deep sleep cycle. A good place to start is lying on your back
with the knees bent, closing your eyes, breathing from the nose, and trying to expand
the ribcage with every breath. - Quality supplementation. Are supplements mandatory? No, but they can certainly
help immensely for getting higher quality sleep. There are minerals and nutrients that
help the body relax and the brain to “shut off”. Products that contain theanine,
magnesium, and inositol are great options to start with. These will help keep brain
activity down as you’re asleep allowing you to enter a deep sleep cycle. A product
that I personally use for myself and my clients is Neuromag (hyperlink) from Designs
for Health (hyperlink dispensary) and it is fantastic.