Today we're gonna be talking about healthy sleep. I mean, it's so basic, right? We all need healthy sleep. So you know why we should be getting healthy sleep. We've heard this time and time again. But just as a reminder, we need healthy sleep, because it can lower our risk for serious health conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and so many other things. It reduces our stress and just makes us happier, right? Aren't we so much happier when we have gotten a good night's sleep and we are rested? Not only that, it helps us do better at work and at school and it helps us get along with others. I don't know about you, but I'm not the nicest person when I haven't gotten enough rest.
It seems like getting enough sleep or restful sleep, or sleeping through the night is getting harder and harder. I definitely go through ups and downs with my sleep. I've learned a lot about how to really foster good habits that make it so that I get more restful and more consistent sleep every night. So I'm going to share some tips with you.
I understand that some of these might be difficult for you to implement. And I get it. I found that we don't really truly make change until we are just struggling so much that the change has to happen. I mean, some people are much more adaptable to change. But for many of us, we don't actually make a change until that change is easier than the struggle that we're going through. So if you're not doing very well with sleep you're gonna probably just be okay with it for a little while. But then once you have night after night of not sleeping or waking up at 4am and not able to sleep for how many days in a row, then you might start thinking, okay, I need to do something about this, I need to make a change. So again, I'm going to share some of the tips that I have learned and some of the things that have made me really sleep better and sleep longer and sleep more restfully.
So, this is going to be a hard one for many of you, but there's a lot of research that goes into blue light and screens and how they impact our sleep. So one thing that you can do is not have a television in your bedroom, not watch your computer screen, in your bedroom, not watch your phone screen in your bedroom, and to keep all of those electronics that emit a blue light, and keep them away from where you sleep. And also, to stop using them for a good chunk of time before you sleep. An hour would be great, an hour and a half is better. But to have a real turnoff time that you set for yourself. So say you want to go to bed at 10 o'clock, making it so that 9pm is the last time you're looking at a screen. So keep it away from your room, and make a real conscious decision to not have any sort of blue light in your face for an hour before bedtime. I didn't say it would be easy. So how do I implement this in my life? I don't have any screens in my bedroom. We have no television in our room. We don't have our phones in our room. We don't have any iPads or computers in our room. I do read on a Kindle. But I have the non blue light one. I have the paper white, I think it's called. And I specifically got that one because I didn't want to have any reading with a blue light. I used to read with an iPad and I just felt like this is another chance where my body is going to be impacted by this blue light. So I switched to the Kindle so that I would be getting less exposure to that blue light when I'm reading before bed. It's not easy, like I said, but if you are really struggling with sleep, this is one thing I would definitely start in your life.
Another tip that I have found really helps me calm down and get ready for bed is to have a nighttime routine. Sometimes I'm so tired, I don't go through all of the steps. But having a nighttime routine, something that you do every single night is preparing your body for sleep, it's reminding yourself that you're getting ready to go to sleep. So for me that involves flossing my teeth, brushing my teeth, washing my face, which is about a three step process. First I wash my makeup off and then they use my soap and then I put on my night cream and my anti aging cream. You know I love my Crunchi and I have plenty of episodes about that. I would love to help you with that if you're interested in a great skincare routine for going to bed. One thing I do love is that my Nightlight evening night cream has lavender in it which helps remind my body and it's some aromatherapy that helps drift me off to sleep. So that's a part of my nighttime routine. Sometimes if I'm feeling extra stressed or anxious, I will add in a bath with Epsom salts, which is a great way to get more magnesium into your body and to detox and that can really help you go to sleep as well. Then I get all dressed in my pajamas, I cozy up, I make sure I have my socks on so that my feet aren't cold and that's not keeping me awake. And then I read. I turn off my light, I keep it quiet. And that is my nighttime routine. It takes me probably 15 to 20 minutes every night. Now I have a teenager who frequently is not even home yet by the time I'm going to bed and that is something that is difficult for me because of course I worry about her and I'm waiting for her to get home. But I do my best to try and get that routine and get to bed at my designated bedtime and keep that consistent. My evening bedtime routine really helps remind my body okay, we're getting ready to sleep now. I'm going to fall asleep easily when I put my head on the pillow.
Having a regular bedtime is also a really good idea. Because it again helps your body get into a routine that tells it okay this is when we sleep now. And you often will have longer, more restful sleep if you have a consistent bedtime and a consistent wake time.
Another tip is to get regular exercise, especially exercise that is outside. The natural light really helps your circadian rhythms. So it's good to get up in the morning, go outside for a walk, do something outside that kind of wakes your body up, it tells your body it's time for the morning. You know that outside air is really good for you and it does really help with sleep.
If you're a person who has a lot of stress in their life or maybe you wake up in the middle of the night thinking oh, I have so much to do tomorrow, or you go to bed in the evening, just being stressed about the next day, it's a really good idea to keep a journal by your bed. You can either do a thought download at the end of the day and just put all of those thoughts, those worries in your journal. Or if you wake up in the middle of the night and you think I need to do this, I forgot to do this, putting it down in the journal in the middle of the night really helps. I've been through times in my life where I've been very stressed by work and this has really helped me get it out of my mind so that I could go back to sleep.
For this last tip, I just want to remind you I am not a physician. I am not a health care practitioner. But I have found that getting extra magnesium in my diet has also helped with sleep. So magnesium can be related to helping regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and protein production. And there's some research that demonstrates that it can help with sleep. So magnesium is found in some foods, like nuts, whole grains, soy products, dairy and leafy greens. And you can also get it through like I described earlier, taking an Epsom salt bath. You can absorb the magnesium through that bath. You also can take a magnesium powder before bed. I like Calm. It really helps not only with falling asleep it kind of helps relax your muscles. It also is something that I need more magnesium in my diet anyway, just because of some of my stomach conditions that I have. And so that's how I get my extra magnesium. It also helps regulate your bowels. So if that is something that you struggle with, magnesium could be something that might be worth trying.
Those are my healthy sleep tips. I hope that you maybe implement some of these and you find that you're sleeping better. If you are struggling with sleep,I am so sorry. I know how hard that is. And I've been through that before. Just want to say thank you for listening.
