The Importance Of A Good Night’s Sleep
Sleep should be one of your top priorities when it comes to your health. It is the foundation for everything you do.
But according to some studies, one in three Americans don’t get enough sleep.
If you have a bad time sleeping, it can ruin your performance, productivity, mental clarity, and fitness.
These tips, recommended by the CEO of eightsleep, will help you improve your sleep, and can start implementing them today.
1. Thermal Shock
Hot and cold exposure is something we associate with muscle recovery but not with sleep.
But by giving your body a ‘thermal shock’, you can relax the muscles in your body, which dramatically improves your sleep.
Two hours before bedtime, go into a sauna and immediately follow that with an ice bath.
Doing this helps with your circulation, reduces inflammation, and acts as an aid in muscle recovery.
If it’s not practical to get into a sauna and ice bath, run yourself a hot bath and immediately follow that with a cold shower.
You should feel completely relaxed after this process.
2. Normatec Boots
Relaxing all the muscles in your body is key to getting a good night’s rest.
To relax, you need to improve circulation and blood flow to the muscles.
This is where NormaTec boots come in.
Using boots such as the NormaTec Leg Pulse 2.0 can aid the blood flow in your legs.
This is particularly important if you work out regularly as your muscles will be tense from all the exercise.
3. Smart Lighting
Ever wondered why you are finding it hard to get to sleep?
Bright, harsh lighting before bed is a common and big mistake. Yes, this also includes lighting from your cell phone or computer.
It delays your body’s natural production of melatonin which initiates the sleeping ‘process’.
The harsh light also disrupts your body’s circadian rhythms, which affects the time it takes for you to fall asleep.
Philips Hue lights are one way of addressing this issue.
The lights can be adjusted to coincide with your bedtime routine and help you unwind at the end of the day.
4. Mobility Exercises
Another great tip to relax your muscles prior to going to bed is to do mobility exercises and stretches.
The full body movements will help improve blood flow to your muscles, making it easier to fall into a deep sleep.
In addition to the mobility exercises, you can use a Massage Gun to relax your hips, feet, hands and back.
5. Consistency With Bedtime And Wake Up Time
This underrated tip is one of the most important ways you can improve your sleep quality.
As is the case with a lot of things when you want to become healthier, consistency is key.
Going to bed around 9:30 PM and waking up at 6:30 AM is a common routine for a lot of people. If that suits you, stick with it.
Having a consistent sleep schedule helps your body maintain its optimal circadian rhythm.
If your body gets used to falling asleep at the same time every day, you will begin to fall asleep and wake up with ease.
6. Temperature
Regulating the temperature of your bed is something that can have a drastic impact on the quality of your sleep.
And it’s not just about having a hot water bottle at night.
The Pod Pro adjusts the temperature based on your level of fitness training, season and weather.
It also helps you fall asleep faster as it adjusts to your comfort levels as soon as you get into bed.
The intelligent mattress ensures you stay asleep during the night and that you don’t wake up too hot or cold which is a common issue.
7. Eliminate Alcohol
Cutting alcohol out of your diet can make a big difference in your physical health but it can also significantly improve the quality of sleep that you get.
Whilst drinking can make you feel sleepier, it actually delays your sleep onset time, causes more sleep disturbances and lowers your sleep quality overall.
Not to mention how bad you feel in the morning.
In tests that were ran by the Eight Sleep Beta Group, they found that on nights when participants didn’t have alcohol there were 7% fewer tosses and turns per night, 10% increase in perceived sleep quality and a 16% improvement in how well rested they felt in the morning.
It’s clear, cut out the booze!
8. Tea And Supplements
Tea is another great tip that can help you get to sleep more quickly.
Unwind and relax with a cup of chamomile tea a few hours before bedtime.
In addition to the tea there are also melatonin-infused sweets and magnesium supplements that can relax your muscles before bedtime and ensure you sleep well.
9. Avoid Caffeine After 2pm
Studies have shown that 85% of the US population consumes at least one caffeinated beverage per day.
That’s a lot.
Whilst a lot of people will consume a morning coffee in order to ‘wake them up’, one of the reasons they need it is because their sleep was not optimal.
One of the reasons it’s not optimal is because they consume too much caffeine.
It’s a slippery slope.
But if you must have it make sure its before 2pm as it takes roughly 5-10 hours for the caffeine to leave your system.
10. Stay Hydrated
Having the level of fluids in an optimal range is as important for your health as it is for your sleep.
Keeping your body hydrated improves your body’s ability to circulate blood and deliver oxygen to your muscles.
If you regularly work out don’t underestimate the importance of staying hydrated and the impact it can have on your sleep.
This is the key to getting into a relaxed state before and during sleep and means that there will be less disturbances during your rest leading to optimal sleep.
11. Eat Healthily
Similarly to staying hydrated, the advice to eat healthily is one that anyone aspiring for a healthier lifestyle should do.
As mentioned by the CEO of eightsleep a healthy diet can also have a huge impact on your sleep.
When combined with intermittent fasting, improving your diet has been show to drastically improve sleep quality.
Try to avoid eating within 3 hours of bedtime as it is during this period the body is restoring itself and using its energy on digesting your most recent meal.
12. Get More Light In The Morning
How would morning light impact on the way you sleep the next night?
Well, its because every cell in your body has a 24-hour clock.
This clock is called the circadian rhythm.
Getting 5+ minutes of exposure to sunlight 30-60 minutes after waking up sets your circadian rhythm and optimizes your sleep patterns.
13. No Food Two Hours Before Bed
Whilst this may be a hard one to do in practice, it is a tip that NFL legend Tom Brady puts in to practice.
If it’s good enough for Tom it’s good enough for me.
By limiting the amount of food you have before bed time it allows your body to digest your previous meal quicker and easier.
This will lead to less disruptions whilst you sleep and an overall higher quality rest period.
14. No Exercise 2-3 Hours Before Bed
This is another tip from NFL star Tom Brady and one that may surprise you.
Even as an elite performing professional athlete Brady won’t workout when there is 2 hours to bedtime.
Brady prefers morning workouts when he wakes at 5:30AM.
Exercise at night can overstimulate your body and brain making falling asleep a lot more difficult.
15. No Distractions Before Bed
In a number of these sleep hacks, we have seen that keeping in a relaxed state before bedtime is fundamental to getting a night of deep sleep.
Whether its social media on your smartphone or the politics on TV we live in a world where distractions are in your face 24/7.
The ability to switch these things off will take some discipline but you will have more mental clarity before and after going to sleep.
A good way to achieve this hack is to get rid of any TVs in your bedroom and keep you smartphones away from the bedside table.
16. Cool And Dark Bedroom
Interesting Fact Alert: In order for your body to fall asleep it has to drop 2 degrees.
But what does that fact mean in practice?
Sleeping at colder temperatures aids in sleep onset and will help you get into a deep sleep quicker.
Keep the temperature in your room at around 65°F and as dark as possible (or use the hue lighting settings mentioned before) in order to speed up falling asleep.
17. Bioenergetic Sleepwear
NFL legend Tom Brady takes his sleep seriously because he knows the implications of it.
A good nights rest can be the difference in being at your best both physically and mentally.
Brady partnered with Under Armour to develop a new line of sleepwear that uses infrared rays to promote oxygen flow and reduce muscle inflammation.
Brady sleeps in these PJs every night.
Getting Good Sleep Can Make You Feel Invincible
Don’t undervalue the power of sleep.
By just getting a few extra hours of quality sleep, your day can be completely different.
Implement the tips described and see just how profound the changes can be and how much it will impact on other areas of your life.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69801786/Philips_Hue___Spotify___Image_1.0.jpg){kind=link}