“Early to sleep and early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.” - Since when have you been hearing this old phrase? Since school times we believe? But what if the word “early” here hasn’t been able to make justice in your life? As we grow, things like responsibilities, commitments and hectic schedules go parallel, be it in personal or the professional front. Such states of minds then bring forward health impacts, insomnia being one of the common ones for it has hit a large population of the world today.
Disrupted sleep patterns or no sleep at all hugely affects the life of an individual. He or she tends to lose focus and brings forth a series of complications leading to poor work performance and of course, poor health. The lifestyle of an individual plays a major role in defining how he is or would be doing with his health and poor sleep quality is one of the important symptoms that can directly define one’s health.
Let us first start with the simple signs that tell whether or not your sleeping habits have been working for you lately:
- Lack of Concentration: When a body lacks enough sleep, a huge impact falls on the focus of a person. This lead to reduced concentrations and confusions on studies or work, leading to deteriorating performance. When you sleep, everything that you learn or go through during the day is processed in the memory and any interference on the same can lead to these issues along with impaired judgement among the many.
- Workouts Turn Nightmares: The neurotransmitter levels are revitalised by the body when it goes to sleep. However, when the body lacks the same, you will find yourself having less desire to exercise, decreased energy and the ability to last longer. A negative energy and lethargy are also highly experienced, leading to mood swings, decreased activity levels and many more.
- Unwanted Body Fat: If you have weighed yourself and discovered a sudden increase in weight, then maybe your lack of sleep is to be blamed. When you do not sleep well, your body stays hungry and craves for food that fall into the what-not-to-eat list. Poor sleep develops excess body fat by demanding more and more intake or calorie and thus increasing unwanted weight.
- An Unhappy You: The time you sleep is when your body sets to work to generate fresh neurotransmitters that contribute towards keeping your mood light and emotions well regulated. However, if your mood takes roller-coaster rides every now and then, then it is due to lack of sleep and the body’s inability to regulate hormone production which can maximise the risk of depression.
- Menopause: While this situation isn’t due to lifestyle changes, menopause is that time of a woman’s life when her ovaries stop producing adequate estrogen and progesterone, which leads to experience excessive sweating and hot flashes when sleeping. This makes it difficult to sleep which eventually leads to insomnia and daytime drowsiness among several others.
There are and can be dozens of other signs apart from these common ones and the reasons for the same can vary hugely depending on person to person. Additionally, several considerations can be kept in mind and implemented as convenient to bring back the right sleeping patterns. The foremost consideration to take is to ensure sleeping for at least 8 hours as well as maintaining a common time to sleep and wake. Set alerts or alarms respectively or invest on a device that specifically senses your sleeping patterns and reminds you the ideal time to go to bed and rise like the sunshine.
Hitting the snooze button is another mistake many of you conduct, which results in keeping you sluggish and yawning the rest of the day while also increasing sleep inertia. Get up, stretch a little and move right away once you open your eyes to ensure you do not fall back into another sleep hugging your pillow! Once you succeed doing this important step, here are other simple steps that you can gradually add to your routine and enjoy tremendous results:
- Exercise: Keeping your body active in the form of exercise is a sure shot method to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Exercising, be it workouts, yoga or any cardio, optimises the hormone levels and works to bring back your body’s normal routine for each hour. What you must also keep in mind is not to go way beyond because intense activities for a long duration may extremely tire your body and make you sleep for longer hours.
- Minimal Dinner: Unlike post breakfast or lunch, the body doesn’t undergo activities and only desires to rest. This is why you should enjoy small to medium sized dinner, which boasts the perfect combination of the three macros - Protein, fats and slow-digesting carbohydrates, along with some micros to not let you wake up hungry.
- Limit Caffeine and Alcohol: Elimination of both caffeine and alcohol, especially in the evening, can do a great job to sleep better. The compounds found in them have been proven to disrupt sleep, leaving one tossing and turning all night long.
- Add Magnesium: A common yet significant form of minerals, magnesium highly contributes towards improving sleep patterns and is actively used in hundreds of cellular body reactions. Along with treating bone and muscle function, fighting inflammation and improving heart health, magnesium regulates neurotransmitters and regulates the hormone melatonin that are responsible to send signals and maintain the sleeping cycles of the body respectively.
- Ditch Electronics: After giving them company all day long, at least 20-30 minutes before bed should be the time you ditch your smartphone, tablets and laptop. Snuggle in your blanket and spend a few minutes reading a book instead of articles on your electronic device and enjoy a beautiful sleep while allowing your body to produce the essential melatonin and regulate metabolism.
- Rejuvenate your Soul: The long hours of work demand for destress activities that will help soothe your body and leave you calm and relaxed. A few minutes of meditation in the morning, a brisk walk in the park or a refreshing shower before bed can help your body destress and guide you to a good night’s sleep.
For those with a busy schedule and unable to regularly practice these steps can also indulge in magnesium supplements that prove safe and effective for consumption. Based on your accessibility and ease of consumption, you can buy magnesium supplements in liquid or tablet form. In fact, the same can also be found in combination with other nutrient supplements to provide the body with additional benefits and overall wellbeing.
It is okay to take baby steps to make these simple tips a part of your life, but ensure you start immediately and do not cause further delay. You can consult those around you and motivate yourself to dig out the best in you. Apart from maintaining these habits, certain foods also promise a good quality of sleep and assure you of waking up fresh in the morning. Milk, bananas, sweet potatoes, chamomile tea, fatty fish, turkey and almonds are a few easily available and common foods people love to savour around the world and can be consumed in moderate amounts before bed.
So make a fair deal with your body by starting with these tips as early as possible and allow it to receive enough ways to promise you a great night’s rest for an amazing and stressless day.
