10 Things You Can do Today to Improve Your Sleep
PERSPECTIVE
Sleep is a skill, learn to master it.
Mike Headlee
DC
Following are ten ideas to incorporate into your life to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. Implement each idea until you can easily and effortlessly use them routinely to help improve your sleep.
Create a Great Morning Routine
Get moving and energized in the morning by movements like 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.
Drink Your Coffee in the Morning Only
You may love bulletproof coffee but restrict it to the morning hours. Especially if you’re a slow caffeine metabolizer, a mid-afternoon java jolt can leave you jittery before bed. Limit the caffeine to morning hours and switch to green tea (preferably decaf) by afternoon.
Create a Great Mid Day/Lunch Routine
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 — about two orders of magnitude less. 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.
Limit the caffeine to morning hours and switch to green tea (preferably decaf) by afternoon.
The key is to avoid napping for too long, as this may disrupt your circadian rhythms, which would hurt your sleep instead of help it. The ideal nap time for adults appears to be around 20 minutes (any longer and you'll enter the deeper stages of sleep and may feel groggy when you wake up).
Eat a Light Dinner
Ideally, you’ll stop eating three hours before bed. (And no, that does not mean going to bed 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.
At Sundown, Dim Your Lights or use AmberColored 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 stifle 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 simply use amber colored glasses that block blue light. I use the true dark glasses found online. Once you have your glasses on, it doesn’t matter what light sources you have on in your house.
Take a Warm Bath 1-2 Hours Before Bed
Thermoregulation — your body's heat distribution system — 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.
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, (www. straight enupamerica.org) Stretching in the evening triggers GABA an inhibitory neurotransmitter that our brain uses to shut itself down.
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.
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 62-68 degrees. Pick your favorite temperature and plug it into your bedtime routine.
Create a Great Night Time Routine
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. This will reduce the chances that you'll wake up to go in the middle of the night. 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. 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.
I hope these tips can be easily implemented into your life to improve the quality and quantity of sleep. Sweet Dreams!
Mike Headlee, DC, is the Holistic Sleep Doc who helps people solve their sleep problems without dangerous drugs. Dr Headlee has been a Doctor of Chiropractic for over 25 years helping thousands of people regain their health naturally.
He has degrees through Kalish Institute, Amen Clinics and Aeperion Academy.
