While the summer is beginning to wind down, I’m still noticing the toll this hectic season has had on our overall sleep quality and quantity. Like I’ve alluded to in previous posts, if you want a body that’s functioning at high capacity, sleep is going to be an integral part of the formula to get you there. If you want better mental clarity, the ability to more fully handle all situations, increased athletic performance, a body that responds more quickly to the stimuli you subject it to, then here are some ways to help yourself sleep better at night, in order of foundational importance:
1. Eat Real Food
Yes, what you eats affect how you sleep! Foods that spike our blood sugar levels up will inevitably cause our blood sugar to crash, leading to a roller coster of blood sugar instability. Blood sugar plummeting too low at night can cause us to wake up and be restless in the middle of the night, as this is a stress on our bodies and in more severe hypoglycemic states, we will find ourselves needing a midnight snack to ward off the crash and burn. Emphasizing foods that give us a great mix of nutrients, fats, carbs and proteins by choosing less processed foods will go a long way towards evening out our blood sugar levels. Choose carbohydrates that are fresh and natural and eat them to satiety, such as white potatoes or sweet potatoes. Choose sweeter carbohydrates such as fresh fruit as primary sweet treats, as these contain water, fiber and other nutrients that help blunt the effect of the naturally occurring fructose (sugar) within them.
2. Stay Hydrated
If you’re chronically under-hydrated, again, this is a stress on your body and it will have a harder time flushing out metabolic waste, dead cells and any other toxins. Our bodies process much during the night as we sleep, so keeping hydrated can help keep the restoration wheels greased, if you will. Aim for half your body weight in ounces of water per day, and consider adding more if you consume diuretics or exercise vigorously.
3. Ditch Emotional Stress
For many of us, it’s the racing thoughts that our minds have been putting off all day that take over our brains at bedtime. While it may not be fun to hear, many, many times, this emotional stress can be moderated or even nullifed by… you! Yep, that’s a lot of power, but if something is buggin’ you, and it comes up at bedtime, then just like a tight muscle or nagging knee, it’s piping up in your brain for a reason. Address it in a timely manner as a sign of respect towards yourself so you can move up and on. Emotional stress flips our bodies into that stressed out sympathetic state. That’s not the sleeping state, folks. Chip away at what’s really going on to help show your body it’s OK to switch over in to the calm and restorative parasympathetic state.
4. Consider Medication Side Effects
If you take prescription meditations, take a look at their side effects or talk to your doctor about how they affect your sleep habits. If you take medications specifically to sleep, talk with you doctor about beginning to incorporate these other tips and stay connected regarding the efficacy and systemic usefulness of the specific medication in question. Whichever choice is best, make sure you feel you are advocating for yourself and what you desire.
5. Consider Light, Sound and Temperature
What’s your bedroom like? Is there a lot of street noise? Is it on the second level of the house and muggy? Is there a streetlight that shines through your windows? Consider black out curtains or heavy drapes, and mull over whether the city noise is relaxing stimulating. Same goes for temperature, as many people sleep better in cooler rooms. Is there a fan or can you change linens to help keep yourself cool?
6. Commit to a Sleep Schedule
Guess what? Adults do well with structure just like kids do! Regardless of whether you need more or less sleep, whether your day start early or begins late, whether your schedule flips day to day or week to week, as much as you can, give yourself a schedule. Grab a pencil and paper and draw out your sleep schedule. Consider how many hours of sleep you feel best with and work from there. Do you spring out of bed when you get 8.5 hours? Do you have late Thursday nights because of prior commitments? How can you rearrange your day to help free up time to either sleep earlier or sleep in later? You deserve enough sleep to feel well rested and ready for the day. Be honest with yourself about what this looks like. Once you’ve written out your sleep schedule, commit to it for at least 2 weeks before reassessing.
7. Practice Bedtime Transitions
Again, like kiddos, adults also can benefit from bedtime transitions, versus going from watching a screen to lights out in two minutes flat. Work this into your sleep schedule. What feels relaxing? Is it helpful or deleterious for you to use your phone as your alarm clock? Can you set boundaries around screen time as it becomes dark outside? Can you set your phone to airplane mode or do not disturb an hour before bedtime? What can you do during that time to help signal to yourself that your day is ending? Is it washing the dishes, playing with pets, reading a book, meditating, practicing mobility, or journaling? You know how people like to “unwind”? That great feeling of shifting into a different gear? That’s our body going into parasympathetic mode and becoming relaxed. Create space for your body to do this naturally and see what happens.
8. Journal
Consider journaling at bedtime to sort your thoughts out–write down whatever comes to you and make it a routine to do so. With practice, this will help signal to your body that it’s ok to move these thoughts up and out of your brain; they’re in a safe place you can choose to refer back to, if need be. Same goes for the to-do lists our brains create, too. When they’re only in our heads, they’ll always be swimming around and it’ll be a project just to try to remember “but what am I forgetting?” Instead, leave them on the nightstand. I swear, they will be there when you wake up and there’s nothing useful to accomplish that you can’t also accomplish in the morning.
9. Ditch Stimulants (and Depressants)
Even if you think you’re unaffected by coffee, tea, chocolate and other caffeine containing drinks and foods, as well as alcohol, try leaving them out for 2 weeks and see what happens. Consider also setting a schedule around these–maybe alcohol is for nights when you don’t work the next day, and coffee is finished by 10:30 AM on workdays. That gluten-free brownie? It is stimulating too, so notice how long it affects you, too. Chocolate can have a surprisingly profound effect on sleep.
10. Add in Calming Nutrients Internally or Externally
Consider the following as extra tools to use while managing sleep habits:
- Magnesium: food sources of magnesium includes dark, leafy greens, nuts, beans and seeds. Supplementation is another choice as well, as magnesium is depleted by stress and blood sugar fluctuations. Try taking an Epsom salt bath or foot soak as another easy and calming way to get in magnesium by absorbing it through your skin.
- Lavender: Using lavender essential oil as aromatherapy can also signal the relaxation response. Combine 20 drops of pure lavender essential oil with half a cup of water in a small spray bottle and gently mist your wrists and a few areas of your bed cover prior to sleeping.
- 5-HTP or Tryptophan: Tryptoham is the amino acid that gets press for being in turkey and what happens to make you sleepy during Thanksgiving. Likely, you’re sleepy during Thanksgiving because of the copious (and delicious) food and drink available, but regardless, getting in tryptophan is a useful consideration. Amino acids make up proteins, so to get tryptophan make sure you’re eating a wide variety of animal meals, beans, nuts, seeds, yogurt and kefir. 5-HTP is a chemical our body makes from tryptophan, and some people will supplement with this or tryptophan before bedtime to help restore proper levels in the body. There are contraindications to taking these, so be your own advocate and counsel with someone knowledgeable about supplementation prior.