Sleep 101
January 25, 2017Train Better with Sleep
I’m tired. My husband is tired. Everyone I know is tired, it seems. Jobs are busy and can be very stressful for some, people have deadlines, children to watch and find the time to do the things they enjoy doing (like exercise!) It’s hard to squeeze it all in. There are just never enough hours in the day! Finding the time to make it all work can take away from your precious snooze time and most people are definitely not getting enough sleep. Not sleeping can create a pattern of feeling sluggish and exhausted. If you feel sluggish, you will most likely want to skip the gym. So, what can help us? While our daily demands cannot go away, we can make some changes to help catch a few more zzz’s.
1. Move! Moving your body everyday not only helps energize you, but it will help you fall asleep at night, studies show.
2. Get rid of the TV in the bedroom (or any screen for that matter.) I am guilty of this, for sure. While I don’t have a TV in my room, I like to scroll through social media before I fall asleep. The bright lights are no good for your eyes and most certainly do not help anyone relax.
3. Don’t eat a heavy meal before bed time. Sometimes I don’t eat dinner until 8 or 9 pm. I don’t want to do this, but it just happens from time to time. I definitely notice a difference. I just have a “heavy” feeling while lying in bed.
4. Turn down the heat. “A temperate room is more conducive to sleeping than a tropical one,” according to healthline.com. Somewhere around 65 degrees is ideal.
5. Skip the drinking. Alcohol can mess with your REM sleep cycle. If you find yourself tossing and turning, you may want to skip the nightcap and see if that helps!
6. Skip caffeine in the afternoon. Sometimes you need a pick me up…don’t I know it! Grab water, sparkling water or decaffeinated tea instead. Often times the body just needs to be hydrated.
Sleep does not only help with our level of productivity during the day, but this is when muscles repair themselves. Muscle fibers are torn apart during a workout and it is when your body is at rest that they come back together, or “heal.”
I am not suggesting you make all of these changes at once. Perhaps one change will make all of the difference! Let’s all slowly make improvements to help us become rested individuals. We will surely feel a difference…for the better!
