Ugh. I feel like this is a problem that most people struggle with – getting enough sleep. I can’t function on anything less than 8 hours, although I have to most days of the week. Last night I went to bed with this terrible sinus headache that still lingered when I woke up this morning. Those are the worst. I realize that there are some things that I do that always help me get a better night’s sleep. Here they are:
1. Shut down your computer and stop looking at your phone at least 30 minutes before bed. The bright lights from electronics can keep you awake longer, and playing games on your phone before bed is addictive! I’ve spent many hours at night playing Flow Free (my favorite cell phone game at the moment), before realizing what time it was. EEK!
2. If you have to check work emails, do so a few hours before bed time and don’t look at them again. I’m serious. I always find that if I look at my work email right before heading to bed, all it does is stress me out. There’s not much I am able to do at 11PM that will save the world.
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3. Take a warm shower at night. I’ve always taken my showers at night, but for those of you who don’t, I recommend it every once in a while. The warm water soothes my muscles and joints and helps relax my entire body before bedtime.
4. Don’t have caffeine after 2PM. I like to stop my caffeine or high sugar for the day by 2PM. Sometimes, I’ll have a cup of coffee mid-day, but for the most part I find that I sleep best when I cut out the caffeine early afternoon.
5. Take time before bed to meditate. I’d like to learn more about meditation in the near future, so I’m not going to offer my advice in this post, but there are lots of ways to meditate. Here are some great links:
Huffington Post – “How to Meditate”
Vipassanadhura.com – “How to Meditate”
ZenHabits.net – “How to Meditate Daily”
Talk to Me
- How do you ensure that you get enough sleep every night?
- How many hours of sleep do you typically get?
- What’s your favorite bedtime ritual?
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Such great tips! I need to work on getting more sleep, some times it’s like 3 and a half hours! That can not be good on my body!
haha no!
I usually get about 7 hours/week, but it never feels like enough; I’m always tired! I just started showering at night this year, and it makes my morning 100x easier! Oh, and my sister just introduced me to Flow Free this weekend… very addicting!
I hear ya on that one. I’m always tired. Ever since starting to juice I’ve found I’m getting a lot more energy.
Love the idea to meditate before bed. I’ll have to try that one. I am trying to log off my computer by 8pm as much as possible.
IF I let myself, I would be on my computer until probably 3AM. So terrible.
I have to have everything done by 8:00pm, just to make sure that I can get into bed and relax and be falling asleep around 8:30pm.
I’m like you, I NEED 8 hours to function correctly, otherwise I can’t remember anything and am just a mess lol.
I ALWAYS read before bed. It allows me to forget everything else and just relax. A good 30 minutes later and I’m out like a light!
reading is great. I need to find a new great book to get my hands on. I typically only go for non-fiction!