Experience Restful Sleep - Part 2

If you notice that you have difficulty falling asleep even with a relaxing evening routine, you may need to look at your daily habits and see if they are interfering with you getting enough ZZZZZZ’s.

1. REST: Your sleeping and napping habits can affect your ability to fall asleep.
• Sleep schedule. Your body works best if it goes to bed and wakes up at the same time each day, even on the weekends. Although it is tempting to sleep in on your days off, it can thrown off your body’s sleep schedule, making it more difficult to get to bed when you have to work the next morning.
• Napping. Naps can also affect your ability to fall asleep quickly. While fifteen to twenty minute “power naps” can help you feel rejuvenated, taking longer naps may keep you up later in the evening.

2. ACTIVITY: Your activity levels can affect your ability to sleep well.
• Activity levels. Just like with food intake, too much or too little activity can make sleeping a challenge. One of the symptoms of overtraining is difficulty sleeping. Not getting enough movement can be just as challenging for your sleep patterns, as the body requires movement and may be restless at night if you are too inactive.
• When to exercise. The timing of your activity is important too. Exercising too late in the evening can disrupt sleep, as it excites your body and raises your body temperature, when the body needs to be relaxed and at a slightly cooler temperature to sleep. Exercising in the morning has been shown to help those who have insomnia get a better night’s rest.
• Learning when to say “no.” Those of you who forgot your mastery of this word as a child need to remember how easy it was to say. While you may like helping others and being active, sometimes saying “yes” too much means late hours of working and stress. Know when your plate is full and practice saying “no” even to little things, as many little things add up and can keep you from enjoying restful sleep.

3. DIET: What you consume affects your sleeping habits.
• Caffeine. Caffeine can affect your body’s ability to sleep up to ten to twelve hours after ingesting it. If you consume caffeine in large quantities or after two in the afternoon, you may find that it is difficult to get to sleep. Caffeine can be found in many teas (especially green and black tea), coffee, soda, chocolate, energy drinks, diet or fat loss pills, and other supplements.
• Alcohol. Although alcohol is a relaxant and may help you initially fall asleep, it also disrupts sleep later in the night. It is best to avoid alcohol the last few hours before going to bed.
• Nicotine. Nicotine is a stimulant, which can affect your ability to sleep if you smoke at night. Smokers also have difficulty staying asleep because they experience withdrawal symptoms in the middle of the night.
• Food intake before bed. Going to bed hungry can disrupt sleep, as can eating too much at night. Make sure your last meal is enough to keep you from getting hungry but not so much that you need to unbutton your pants. Ideally, more of your calories need to be consumed during the day when you are active and need them. Your evening meal should be smaller, so that you are not going to bed with a full stomach and can burn more fat as fuel as you sleep.
• Food choices. What you eat at night is just as important as how much. Greasy and spicy foods can upset the stomach and cause heart burn, which intensifies when you lay down. Foods that may help promote sleep include tuna, halibut, eggs, avocados, almonds, walnuts, bok choy, asparagus, apricots, and peaches (according to WebMD)
• Liquids. Drinking too much liquid in the evening may necessitate frequent trips to the bathroom at night, disrupting your sleep.

4. Other factors may also affect your ability to sleep
• Room Temperature. An environment that is too hot (above 75 degrees Fahrenheit) or too cold (below 54 degrees) can disrupt sleep. The ideal room temperature for sleeping is between 68 and 72 degrees.
• Body Temperature. If your body is too warm, sleep may also be difficult. Avoid exercising, using the sauna, or taking very hot baths or showers before bed.
• Light. Because our bodies are sensitive to light, exposing your body to bright light from the sun or from lamps when you first get up helps to set your internal clock, so that sleeping in the evening is easier. Avoiding exposure to bright lights in the evening also helps with this. If you have to get up in the middle of the night, use a night-light instead of an overhead light or lamp.
• Three’s a crowd. Whether it is children or pets, you want to keep them out of your bed, as their movement can affect your sleep. If you share a bed with your partner, it is also wise to have a bed that is big enough for the two of you, especially if one of you is a very active sleeper.
• Stress. Attitude is a huge component to your health and well being and research supports this. Studies report that people who score high on personality tests that measure optimism are less likely to get sick or have chronic illnesses. While you cannot always control what happens to you, you can control how you respond to life’s events. Learning to develop a habit of optimism can help keep stress levels down and allow you to sleep better.

Everything from the room you sleep in to your daily habits and environment can affect how well you rest and can be the difference between restful sleep and a night of endless tossing and turning. While it may take some time to change your habits to those that promote restful sleep, it is a good investment of your time as you will have more energy and wake up refreshed!

For more information on how to achieve optimal health, check out Chrissy's new book "The RAD Triad" (coming soon).