How do you improve your sleep hygiene?
Did you know that ‘sleep hygiene’ was a thing?
The definition of hygiene according to the Oxford dictionary reads “conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease…”. It turns out, the same way you take care of your physical hygiene, you can take care of your sleep hygiene. That indicates that there are action steps or practices that you can begin that will improve the overall wellbeing or quality of your sleep.
But how?
Sleep preparation actually begins much earlier than you may realize. Our bodies operate on something called a circadian rhythm, or an internal clock. This internal clock sends scheduled messengers and signals out all day long to perform metabolic and hormonal processes. Our sleep is consequently affected by many hormones, messengers and patterns. One of the most common hormones you may recognize is melatonin.
Melatonin is a very important hormone that has a profound impact on sleep. The activities that you carry out in your day, the habits you have before bed, and even some other extrinsic factors affect whether or not you produce adequate melatonin. If melatonin levels are low, research shows that it can have an impact on anxiety and depression, imbalanced sex hormones, poor immune system, poor sleep and insomnia and even disorders like cancer and metabolic disease.
It is very important that we realize the incredible and vital chemical processes that happen when we sleep. It is more than ‘feeling rested’ or decreasing bags under our eyes. It’s about anti-aging, weight management, immune system, metabolic health, mental health, disease prevention, vitality and more. The choices that we make will either have a positive or negative consequence on our sleep hygiene.
Our top recommendations for improving sleep are:
Sleep in a cold room. Preferably temperatures sub 68 degrees. Open a window and bundle up if you have to.
Sleep in a pitch black room. Some experts say that even the tiniest light from an alarm clock, neighbors garage light, or tv power button can stimulate the eyes even when they are closed and impact melatonin release. Crazy! Cover lights with a shirt if you have to, and look at investing in black out curtains.
Wear blue light protectors after 7pm. If ideal sleep time is around 10:00-10:30, start wearing 99% blue light blockers at around 7pm. This will block the blue light exposure from phones, tvs, computers, and more. This will allow a better and more efficient release of melatonin and much better sleep.
Exercise during the day. Exercise is a great way to manage those optimal hormone outputs and gives the body a reason to rest. Even if it is walking, aim for a consistent bout of exercise each day.
Stay on a schedule. I recommend to my clients to aim for a 10-10:30 bedtime every single night. If it is earlier, great, but most struggle with this. It is important to remember that internal clock. Our body likes consistency. In addition, that 10:00 time is when that circadian rhythm wants to begin certain processes for optimal health. Let it do its job!
If you are having trouble sleeping, getting quality sleep, or waking up often at night, we would love to help. Many conditions can impact sleep ability and quality, and we would love to help uncover that with you so you can experience true vitality from awesome sleep.
