10 Things You Can do Today to Improve Your Sleep

Transcription

1 10 Things You Can do Today to Improve Your Sleep Sleep is a skill, learn to master it. Dr. Mike Headlee

2 1. Get moving and energized in the morning by movements like 3. Following are ten ideas to incorporate into your life to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. Go down the list and implement one by one until you can easily and effortlessly implement them to help your sleep. Create a Great Morning Routine stretching or better yet walk outside in the sun. Light exposure in the morning will help grow new neurons and mitochondria and help you when you wind down in the evening to go to sleep. Try hydrating with apple cider vinegar in your water. This is great for your skin, cartilage, digestion, bowels, kidneys, and gets your hydration efforts off to a great start for the day. Meditation, journaling, prayer, planning your day, are all great starts to the day so you can accomplish all that you desire to minimize your stress throughout the day. Create a Great Mid Day/Lunch Routine 2. Have a Coffee Curfew I love bulletproof coffee but I restrict it to the morning hours. Especially if you re a slow caffeine metabolizer, a midafternoon cup of coffee can leave you jittery before bed. Limit the caffeine to morning hours and switch to green tea, tulsi, or oolong tea by 2 PM. Take a walk outside after lunch. Not only will this increase in physical activity help you sleep later, but taking your walk outdoors gives you more exposure to bright sunlight. Light intensity is measured in lux units, and on any given day, the outdoor lux units will be around 100,000 at noon. Indoors, the typical average is somewhere between 100 to 2,000 lux units. The brightness of the light matters, because your pineal gland produces melatonin roughly in approximation to the contrast of bright sun exposure in the day and complete darkness at night. If you are in relative darkness all day long, it can't appreciate the difference and will not optimize your melatonin production. This, in turn, can have some rather significant ramifications for your health and sleep. According to Rubin Naiman, Ph. D. a clinical psychologist, author, teacher, and a leader in integrative medicine approaches to sleep and dreams, we're biologically programmed to nap during the daytime, typically in the middle of the afternoon. If your schedule permits a nap, keep it to minutes so it won t interfere with your bedtime sleep time.

3 4. Eat a Light Dinner Ideally, stop eating three hours before bed. (And no, that does not mean you get to stay up later!) Late-night snacking crashes your blood sugar making you an excellent fat storer and cuts into quality sleep. Remember, if your stomach growls, you might actually be thirsty a study at the University of Washington found that one glass of water before bed curbed hunger for everyone who tried it Take a Warm Bath 1-2 Hours Before Bed Thermoregulation is your body's heat distribution system and is strongly linked to sleep cycles. When you sleep, your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop. This is also why taking a warm bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime may help you sleep; it increases your core body temperature, and when it abruptly drops when you get out of the bath, it signals your body that you are ready for sleep. Add Epsom salts & lavender oil for even greater benefits At Sundown, Dim Your Lights or use Amber-Colored Glasses In the evening (around 8 p.m.), you ll want to dim your lights and turn off electronic devices. Normally, your brain starts secreting melatonin between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., and these devices emit light that may slow that process. After sundown, shift to a low-wattage bulb with yellow, orange or red light if you need illumination. A salt lamp illuminated by a 5 watt bulb is an ideal solution that will not interfere with your melatonin production. If using a computer or smart phone, install blue light blocking software like f.lux, which automatically alters the color temperature of your screen as the day goes on pulling out the blue wavelengths as it gets late. The easiest solution, which I recently started using myself, however, is to use blue light blocking glasses. I use swanwick glasses found online. Once you have your glasses on, it doesn t matter what light sources you have on in your house.

4 7. Stretch and do Straighten up America Exercises I don t recommend resistance training or high intensity interval training within two hours of going to sleep because it might energize you and keep you from falling asleep. I recommend that you do light yoga or other stretches like straighten up America. ( Stretching in the evening triggers GABA an inhibitory neurotransmitter that our brain uses to shut itself down. 8. Turn off the Wi-Fi and Electronics When you go to sleep make sure that you turn off the Wi-Fi router in your house and remove all electronics from your bedroom. This protects you from the harmful EMFs from all of your devises. Some people even turn off the breaker that goes to their bedroom so they can get the least exposure of dirty electricity and EMFs. This may seem like a insignificant step to improve your sleep, however, many people notice significant improvements. 9. Set Your Ideal Bedroom Temperature If you sleep with your bedroom temperature above 70 degrees your organs and tissues will not be able to cool down and detoxify properly. Studies show that the optimum bedroom temperature is between F degrees. The lowest temp should be 55 and the highest being 70. Pick your favorite temperature and plug it into your bedtime routine.

5 10. Create a Great Night Time Routine Arguably the most important step. You should go to bed and wake up at the same times each day, even on the weekends. This will help your body to get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning. Don't drink any fluids within 2 hours of going to bed. This will reduce the likelihood of needing to get up and go to the bathroom, or at least minimize the frequency. Go to the bathroom right before bed. Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. These will raise your blood sugar and delay sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you may wake up and be unable to fall back asleep. Take a hot bath, shower or sauna before bed. When your body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will fall at bedtime, facilitating slumber. The temperature drop from getting out of the bath signals your body it's time for bed. No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even completely out of the house. It's too stimulating to the brain, preventing you from falling asleep quickly. TV disrupts your pineal gland function (this is where melatonin is produced). Journaling. If you often lay in bed with your mind racing, it might be helpful to keep a journal and write down your thoughts before bed. I like to wind down with some relaxing music or reading before retiring to bed. Prayer, breathing, or planning the next day may help you also. If you would like more information about Dr. Headlee s amazing 3 step proprietary process called the DNA Difference or to schedule a sleep consultation call his office at or go to