You’ve heard this over and over: Sleep is a critical piece to a body’s rest and recovery. Getting good, quality sleep is the key to achieving overall wellness and offers a whole host of benefits: improved clarity and mental health; reduced risk of inflammation, illness and disease; the list goes on!
At Fuel 4 Ever, this is a priority — we want to help you sleep better and finally wake up well rested, each and every day!
Here are six steps to a better night’s sleep:
Step 1: Make exercise a priority. Get 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week; avoid nighttime. Late night exercise causes adrenaline spikes and releases endorphins; releasing less hormones will lead to a more relaxed, ready-for-sleep you.
Step 2: Prepare a sleep schedule to follow nightly. Sleep preparation can take up to an hour. Talk to your partner about coordinating bedtimes. If you have kids, figure out what time the kids will go to sleep and then what time you’ll go to bed.
Step 3: Refine your sleep environment. This is a big one and may require some fine tuning. Here are some things to consider:
- Turn on a fan or ambient sound.
- Keep room temperature on the cooler side, comfortable enough for a light blanket.
- Turn off all lights before climbing into bed.
- Move all of your pets into another room.
Step 4: Turn off all electronic devices one hour prior to bedtime. Refrain from phone calls, texting and TV during the sleep preparation window.
Step 5: Commit to relaxing before bedtime. This can take many forms!
- Try taking warm magnesium salt baths, which stimulate the body to release melatonin naturally.
- You can also read during your sleep prep window but remember, no lights on in bed.
- For those who are anxious at bedtime, meditation is a great tool for reducing anxiety, calming you down and leading you to experience deeper states of REM sleep. Check out the Calm app or take a more instructive course on how meditate properly.
- Allow your imagination to wander, consciously creating a dream or story in your head that will hopefully ease you in to a slumber state.
Step 6: Consider calming supplements. Look beyond melatonin, which is already produced naturally in the body and therefore, if added in pill form, will prompt the body to stop production. Supplements like our new, all natural SLEEP formula have other natural ingredients like magnesium and lemon balm that offer a calming effect and will help you fall sleep.
Bonus Tip: Be careful what you eat before bed, and limit alcohol intake and caffeine prior to 4 pm.