12 Days of Holidays - Day 4: 9 Tips to Better Sleep!
If you aren’t convinced how important sleep is to your health, productivity, and overall MOOD (hello!), then you need to check out this book. Actually, you probably already know how important it is, but you aren’t sure how to get more *quality* sleep. That’s where Shawn comes in. He was on one of my favorite podcasts, and you can hear that online here. But for now, here are 10 tips to help you get better sleep!
Get sun exposure in the morning. This helps reset your hormones for better sleep that night.
Exercise in the morning, if/when you can. Morning exercisers sleep better.
Set a screen curfew for at least 30 minutes before bedtime and use a blue light blocker before that. Blue light suppresses melatonin—an important hormone for sleep. If you have a newer iPhone, go into your settings and activate Night Shift. (Settings > Display & Brightness)
Give yourself a buffer between drinking and bed. Sure, a glass of wine or two helps you get to sleep faster, but it also impacts your quality of sleep. One hour for each drink should give you enough time to metabolize the booze and not impact your sleep.
Invest in room darkening shades and make that sucker really dark. Again, light, even ambient light, (that you don’t notice) impacts your sleep hormones. Dark = sleep to your brain and body.
Limit naps. Yeah, they’re fun and oh so lovely, but they can ruin your night time sleep. A 20 minute nap can do wonders for your day, but much longer than that and you’re messing with your real sleep.
Don’t eat a huge meal before bed. A full belly can make you uncomfortable AND confuses your body about what it’s supposed to be doing when you lay down for the night.
Exercise regularly. Okay, even a brisk walk every day (not too late in the day, and yeah, morning is best) helps you sleep better at night.
Lay off the drugs. Sure, you need your prescriptions, but we all know someone who is depending on sleep aids/alcohol/Benadryl/melatonin to sleep at night. It’s time to clean up and get your body on it’s own schedule, you’ll sleep better in the end!
BONUS TIP! Splurge on a good bed, pillow, and bedding. You use your bed EVERY night! Get something that makes you feel better when you wake up, not worse. Pretty early in my pregnancy I bought the Snoogle pillow. O.M.G. Ladies, freaking amazing... when I'm traveling for my day job my husband even steals it! It's soooooo wonderful.
That’s it! 10 tips! What’s your favorite sleep hack?! I’m telling ya, pregnancy has changed my sleep game and I can’t live without my body pillow. Game changer!