Running from ZZZ's - How to get better sleep?

Many of us wear how little sleep we get per night as a badge of honor, but is it?

In school, I was taught about the importance of a healthy diet, exercise, and drinking enough water, but not once do I ever remember someone teaching me about how important sleep is. I used to sleep very few hours between hanging out with friends, school, and working. Not until I had my daughter and started learning how ESSENTIAL sleep is to living is, did I start learning more about sleep.

Sleep is one of the most essential functions of our body. From concentration to mood and productivity, having a restful night’s sleep is perhaps the most important factor. Our society is built off the idea of “I will sleep when I’m dead” - that plan could not be more truthful- and sooner than we realize if we do not make sleep a priority.

I know I have heard it time and again about getting enough sleep, but how do we do that with an increasingly busy schedule with what seems like not enough time in the day?

While I do not have the secret sauce to setting up a perfect schedule to get enough sleep a night– I do have some tips to help you get better sleep which can make every moment of sleep you do get more beneficial to you.

1. Have a schedule - try to go to bed and wake up at the same time EVERYDAY even on your days off. This is important for our sleep cycles (circadian rhythm) to help your body know when to produce the appropriate hormones to get our body into sleep mode.

2. Keep the bed/bedroom for only sleep and sex- the more you are conditioned to certain activities in a space the quicker your body responds to those signals.

3. Turn down the temperature- if you have the ability to make the room cooler as bedtime approaches and throughout most of the night it will improve your sleep. Our core temperature is meant to decrease prior to sleeping to signal certain hormones in our body to initiate sleep.

4. Avoid caffeine multiple hours before sleep- caffeine suppresses one of our hormones that triggers sleep- it continues to build as we are awake and activates the sleep process once it reaches a certain threshold

5. Make it dark- black out curtains and limiting the amount of light from electronics and other devices while sleeping is important to not disrupt our sleep cycle. Sunlight is part of what builds our cycle, so artificial light can have large impacts on our sleep schedule if we are constantly immersed in light.

So quick recap to improve your sleep→ set a schedule, keep other activities out of the bed, make it cold, make it dark, and limit caffeine to the mornings.

While that list makes it sound easy, I know it is anything but easy. Start with one thing and add the other as you are able to try to get those ever important zzz’s we are all desperately needing!