You are how you sleep.

Sleep is by far the most important part of your daily routine and has the biggest influence on how well you can perform every day tasks and more importantly how well you recover from them. There is plenty of evidence out there that a chronic lack of sleep can have a negative impact on long term health including increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and infection. There are different styles of sleep such as biphasic and dymaxion but that is a blog post all on it’s own, this blog post will talk about helping you to sleep better.

I personally don’t struggle with sleep, I tend to get an uninterrupted sleep of 7-8 hours each night and will often have a nap in the afternoon depending on work commitments. I go to bed at roughly the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, this allows more continuity and allows your body to get in to a rhythm. 

So here are the top tips to help you get the most from sleep…

Avoid caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant, whether you feel a boost or not caffeine consumption definitely blocks melatonin release which stops you from feeling tired. Caffeine is quickly absorbed and stays in the system for a long time (over 6 hours). So if you are a regular caffeine drinker then avoiding all caffeine at least 6 hours before bed could be beneficial to helping you get more sleep.

I understand work patterns can affect caffeine consumption but wherever possible try and avoid late caffeine. Instead opt for some kind of herbal tea (not green tea).

Sleeping Environment

Try and keep your room free from screens. The temptation to watch tv or check your phone in bed is too high so just don’t have them in there. 

Your room should be cool and as dark as possible, if you live next to a busy road or in a noisy environment then invest in some good quality, comfortable ear plugs.

Some high oxygen releasing plants such as a snake plant will help increase the air quality in your room and in turn improve sleep quality.

Stress

Stress is one of the biggest factors that affects an individuals ability to have a good nights sleep. There are controllable parts to managing stress such as regular exercise and nutrition but if you are someone that struggles to separate your work/life stress from your day to day tasks you could try journal writing or filling out some kind of day planner to help you manage and achieve your goals for the day. That way by the time you get to bed hopefully you have a sense of achievement by what you have done rather than a sense of panic on what you have to do.

Start a bedtime routine 

More often than not when I ask people what their bedtime routine is they say ‘I go to bed when I’m tired’. Using the same routine every night will slowly teach your brain that its time for sleep. 

Here is an example based on an 11pm bedtime

9pm – Have a snack. There’s nothing worse than being hungry in bed so a well timed (small) snack will make sure this doesn’t happen. If you are tracking your calories and macro nutrient breakdown, this is an ideal time to top up any deficiencies in your diet. A handful of nuts would be a great option more often than not.

9.30pm – Have a warm bath or shower. Boosting your surface body temperature will kick start the hormonal response to sleep. As you cool down you will release melatonin and that is your brain telling you its nearly time to sleep. 

10pm – Get ready for bed. Go brush your teeth, wash your face, put your pyjamas on or a robe.

10:30pm – Turn off all electricals. The blue light that phones and other screens use can have an affect on the hormones that induce sleep. Read a book, plan your day, write a journal. There are a few productive things you can do that will take some information out of your head and allow you to feel more relaxed, don’t do this in bed only get in to bed when you are ready to go to sleep.

11pm – Get in bed and sleep

The chances are you won’t be able to commit to all of these but you need to remember why sleep is so important, how many other single tasks do you devote 8 hrs of your life to? Sleep helps you recover and adapt both mentally and physically.

It is easy for you to track sleep, the amount of wearable technologies on the market that offer quality feedback for very little investment is a no brainer. Fit bit are currently leading the way with Garmin a very good product. Apple watch is currently behind in this but they will take the lead soon I’m sure, they have a paid app called ‘Auto sleep’ which is really good and pairs well with the ‘Breath’ app on your watch, you do 1 minute of controlled breathing as soon as you wake up and this will give you your heart rate variability score which is a really accurate measure of fatigue and readiness to train. There is a company called whoop that have a product far in front of all of these for athletes or people serious about investing in monitoring and improving their sleep and recovery.

If you want to get a better hold of your lifestyle, training and nutrition then get in touch, our online coaching package is there to help you change your life!

Make a positive change today!