What are the benefits of sleep!
We are all told that we need to get a good night’s sleep of about 7 to 8 hours every night. Why is this do you actually know.
Firstly, sleep is our body’s way of regeneration and stress relief and young children and adults alike during the sleeping hours actually process what has happened that day. Our dreams sometimes help us to put things into perspective.
We are all told that we need to get a good night’s sleep of about 7 to 8 hours every night. Why is this do you actually know.
When we get a good night’s sleep, we find that our stress levels are more balanced so it, therefore, affects the balance of our hormones and even our mood. It is widely agreed that a disturbed or bad night of sleep also dramatically affects how we eat the following day. Next time this happens to you check in how your eating pattern changes. And do it again when you have a good night’s sleep. What difference did you notice? You tend to make better choices and are less hungry!!
How to improve your sleep!
There are many ways to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep. I will cover a few here!
It can range from practical things to mindset and even the environment. These areas will always have an effect!
We are constantly now told with all the technology that we have around us that we should stop using all electronic devices including the TV for at least 30 mins to 1 hour before going to sleep. So why not get your favourite book out again and read a few pages before you turn the light off.
Have the room as dark as you possibly can so that your body can fall asleep more easily. Do you notice that during the summer months you are awake so much earlier? well that is how our bodies should work. We are designed to go to sleep when its dark and wake up at first light. Of course, we are in an era where we are perhaps shift working and who goes to bed at 6pm or earlier in the winter apart from the kids!!!!
What is the colour of your bedroom? This will also have an effect on our sleep, for example, a red room although beautiful is also an energising colour so may hinder restful sleep. If you really want some red use it as an accent colour with a cushion, but try and avoid the walls and solid colour curtains. Something to think about!!
Foods to benefit a good night’s sleep!
The hormone Serotonin is responsible for a good night’s sleep amongst other things. We are unable to actually make serotonin directly, we actually get it from an amino acid Tryptophan from our food.
Serotonin is so helpful for sleep and also our mood. I am sure that you have heard about having a warm glass of milk at night to aid sleep well this is absolutely true. The reason being is that it is full of Tryptophan the amino acid that the body needs to make our serotonin. The benefits of more serotonin include:
- healthier and better quality sleep
- relief from depression and anxiety
- increased emotional well-being
- strengthened pain tolerance
The top 9 foods that contain Tryptophan include:
Milk
Turkey
Chicken
Almonds
Oats
Seeds especially pumpkin
Cheese
Chocolate (Dark)
Bread
Banana (not recommended late at night as it takes ages to digest)
Does Meditation Work!
Meditation especially now has become a real key buzz thing, for one reason, it works and on so many levels. If you have never tried it why not give it a go!
There are plenty of mediations online that can be downloaded and listened to. I find it really is a personal thing, as you need to be comfortable with the voice and the pace of who is talking to so check things out and try it for 7 days. Monitor how you felt before and of course again afterwards.
Let me know what has made a difference to your sleep and your mood and even your productivity!