14 Sleep Tips For A Blissful Night

Proper sleep does wonders for your health.

How’s your sleep? Receiving quality sleep on an ongoing basis is extremely healing and beneficial to your health. High-quality sleep can help to reduce stress, improve mood, enhance energy, speed up weight loss, enhance the immune system, and support heart health. That all sounds like good stuff, right? But, how are you sleeping?

You may be sleep deprived if you:

• Rely on an alarm clock to wake up
• Hit the snooze button
• Feel sluggish in the morning
• Experience afternoon fatigue
• Need an afternoon nap

Sleep deprivation is linked to weight gain, lack of motivation, irritability, reduced immunity, and increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.

The connection between lack of sleep and weight gain

Feeling tired and craving food? The more sleep you lose the more food your body will crave. Two hormones in your body regulate hunger and fullness. Ghrelin stimulates your appetite and leptin signal your brain that you are full. When you don’t get the sleep you need your ghrelin (hunger) levels go up and stimulate your appetite. Then your leptin (appetite) levels go down and you want to keep eating.

To avoid this vicious cycle let’s get some sleep!!

Got Stress? Are you waking up in the middle of the night with your endless tasks and worries troubling your mind? Your adrenals may need support. You can read more about adrenal health and the connection to stress here.

It’s called beauty sleep for a reason. There are so many other benefits to proper sleep. For me, it enhances my mood. How do you feel when you get a good night of sleep?

Here are my Top 14 Sleep Tips:

1. Make your room dark. Install blackout blinds or curtains to minimize the external light.
2. Turn off electronics an hour before bed. To reduce blue-light exposure
3. Move technology at least 2-feet away from you. To avoid EMFs
4. Make your room quiet. Consider using earplugs, a fan, humidifier, or air filter.
5. Try deep breathing. You can find some techniques here.
6. Practice yoga during the day. You can find some classes here.
7. Workout earlier. At least 3 hours before your bedtime.
8. Make a to-do list. Write down tasks for the next day so you can relax.
9. Drink some herbal tea. Bedtime, sleepy time, chamomile, kava kava
10. Read a book or magazine. Choose something a relaxing
11. Go to the bathroom. Directly before going to bed to empty your bladder fully.
12. Create a sleep schedule. Stick to the same bedtime and wake up time to regulate your body’s clock.
13. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and heavy meals. At least 2-3 hours before bedtime.
14. Sleep 8-9 hours a night for optimal health and mental alertness.

There you have it! Try out these sleep tips on the regular and be on your way to a blissful night of sleep every night. Enjoy!