How to sleep better

 



Sleep is always one of the most important factors that people tend to overlook.  Not only is sleep crucial for recovery (healing your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments after a workout), but sleep deprivation leads to an imbalance in your system from a health perspective.



 

 Sleep deprivation may lead to the following side effects :

• Increase in appetite => you experience so many lows due to a lack of sleep that your body starts craving foods that will give you a quick pick-me-up.  Foods that do that are usually high sugar/calorie/processed foods.
• Headaches
• Loss of memory
• Increased stress and irritability
• A general increased risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart problems
• etc

  
 

Through lots of trials, tribulations, and research, I’ve realized that the following formula helps in fixing my sleep:

1)      Increase amount of physical activity

a)      It is not the best kept secret in the world, but when you actually increase the amount of physical activity you will see great results

b)     If you are already very active, try increasing the intensity

c)      Be careful not to engage in physical activity more than a few hours before you sleep

2)     Wind down

a)      In order to wind down, prepare a nightly routine so that your body knows when it is time to sleep

b)     Try to slowly decrease the amount of light wherever you are winding down è that has proved to be the most effective tool to help me wind down

3)     Cut out caffeine at least 5 hours before your target “bed time”

4)     Try not to eat a couple of hours before you sleep as eating is a direct source of energy

5)     Read books

6)     Drink chamomile and other non-caffeinated teas and tisanes

If you have gone through all of the above and you still find it hard to sleep or develop a healthy sleeping pattern I would definitely NOT recommend taking any type of sleeping pills, over the counter or prescription.

Instead the only treatment I would recommend (and I have tried myself and found great success) is to take Melatonin 3-10g.  Melatonin is the sleep-inducing hormone that your body naturally produces to signal that it is time to sleep.   Melatonin supplements do not have any side effects when taken short term (less than 3 months).  Within 2 weeks, give or take a few days, you will start to naturally feel sleepy during the time you were taking the melatonin pills. Though in order to feel more comfortable I would suggest you ask a doctor before you undergo the melatonin approach.  A few guidelines:

1)     Take every night at the same time

2)     Make sure you are winding down when you take melatonin

3)     Take it for 2 weeks and try hard not to skip a night

4)     Enjoy the sleep!