Top 10 Tips for a Great Nights Sleep

Getting a great nights sleep is absolutely vital if you are going to look and feel your best! This blog post shares my top 10 tips to make sure you get a great night’s sleep both in terms of quality and quantity.

1. Develop a Sleep Routine. Our bodies and minds respond best to routine. Routine allows us to form habits and then our bodies and minds do what they need to with little effort or thought. If you are having trouble sleeping, then your body has simply formed a new (and not particularly useful) routine which we need to replace.
2. Bright Lights from anything will make your brain think it’s daytime and therefore will interfere with your ability to get off to sleep. So put your smart phones and tablets put away an hour before you want to get to sleep, and ideally create a pitch black environment to sleep in with black out blinds.
3. Regular Exercise definitely helps you sleep better. In addition to being tired physically, exercise also causes the release of chemicals which help you get to sleep and sleep soundly.
4. Avoid Alcohol. Whilst alcohol may seem to assist with getting off to sleep, it interferes with your sleep quality meaning you are highly unlikely to wake up feeling refreshed.
5. Remove all stimulants from your nutrition (tea, coffee etc) by no later than 5 hours before you aim to be asleep.
6. Keep your bedroom clutter free. Create a space that looks and feels calm and peaceful. Remove all other electrical gadgets which have a light (no matter how bright). Consider a fan or other source of white noise if you suffer from noisy neighbours to create a calm peaceful environment.
7. Have a warm bath or shower before you go to bed, and gradually reduce the water temperature. This cools the body and sends signals to the brain which starts the process of sleep.
8. Reading can help clear the mind of all the events of the day, however avoid reading anything that might make your brain active! Remember you want to avoid stimulation so make sure any reading done in the hour or two before bed is not work / study related!
9. Music may also help you drift off to sleep however volume needs to be low and again choice of music will make a difference. Music choice is very much personal preference.
10. Lavender really calms the central nervous system and can make a huge difference to sleep quality. So either a candle or diffuser or spray can make a huge difference. My favourite brand for this is by NEOM and their tranquility candles. This tip is my favourite as its so easy to do, and it makes a huge difference.
11. Temperature also pays a vital role. Too hot or too cold both cause sleep problems so aim for somewhere around 21 degrees centigrade.

And finally

I hope you have found these tips helpful. Sleep is vitally important for a wide number of reasons. Indeed to illustrate the importance of sleep consider that one of the quickest ways to elicit insanity it to completely restrict sleep!

Getting a great night’s sleep makes everything else in your life easier. In addition to good nutrition and mental well-being, optimal sleep is necessary for you to really enjoy life. Not getting enough sleep is linked to increases in depression, decreased cognitive ability, immune suppression, blood sugar imbalances and obesity.

Enough good quality sleep makes a huge difference both to willpower and weight loss.

So, if you are determined to look and feel your very best your goal is simple and you don’t have an option: make optimal sleep a top priority in your life and you will be amazed at the positive impact it has on all areas of your life.

If you struggle to get great sleep and want some help then get in touch! I’d love to help.