How To Get A Good Night's Sleep
Do you know just how important sleep is to our overall health? Being well-rested has both immediate and long term benefits. Once I learned how crucial sleep is to your well-being, I set out on a mission to find out how to get a good night’s sleep. Prioritizing sleep should be a top priority for anyone looking to optimize their health.
There are both immediate and long-term health benefits of sleep. Some of the immediate benefits include:
Improved Cognitive Function: Adequate sleep has a profound impact on cognitive function, including memory, concentration, and decision-making skills. When we sleep, our brain consolidates memories and processes information, allowing us to better retain new information and make better decisions.
Reduced Stress and Anxiety: Lack of sleep can significantly increase stress and anxiety levels, while getting enough sleep can help us better manage stress and promote emotional stability. When we sleep, our bodies produce hormones that help regulate our mood and keep us feeling calm and relaxed.
Enhanced Physical Performance: Sleep is essential for physical recovery, especially for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. It's during sleep that our bodies repair and regenerate muscles, allowing us to perform better and reduce the risk of injury.
Improved Immune Function: Sleep is essential for a healthy immune system. Lack of sleep has been linked to an increased risk of developing infections and illnesses, while getting enough sleep can help our bodies better fight off disease and infection.
Lowered Risk of Chronic Diseases: Studies have shown that getting enough sleep can help lower the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy metabolism and regulating hormones that control appetite and blood sugar levels.
Increased Productivity: Lack of sleep can significantly impact productivity and performance in the workplace or in school. Getting enough sleep can help us stay focused and alert, making it easier to complete tasks efficiently and effectively.
Whew!! Just that list alone is enough to make you want to hop into bed by 9pm. But in addition to these immediate benefits, sleep has substantial long-term health benefits as well, like:
Reduced risk of chronic diseases: Studies have shown that getting enough sleep can help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Sleep is essential for regulating hormones that control appetite and metabolism, and for promoting healthy immune function.
Improved cognitive function: Sleep is essential for cognitive function, including memory, concentration, and decision-making skills. Research has shown that getting enough sleep on a regular basis can help improve academic and work performance, as well as promote overall brain health.
Enhanced physical performance: Sleep is essential for physical recovery, especially for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. It's during sleep that our bodies repair and regenerate muscles, allowing us to perform better and reduce the risk of injury.
Improved mental health: Sleep is essential for maintaining good mental health, including reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Getting enough sleep on a regular basis can also help improve mood and emotional regulation.
Longer life span: Several studies have shown that getting enough sleep on a regular basis can help increase life span. This may be due to the beneficial effects of sleep on overall health, as well as reduced stress and improved immune function.
I always slept well, until I became a mom. Of course, it’s very common for new parents to lose sleep, but did you know that new parents can lose the equivalent of six years of sleep? It's a common experience for new parents, especially mothers, to experience significant changes in their sleep patterns after having a child. According to a study published in the journal Sleep, mothers of young children get an average of 1-2 hours less sleep per night than women without children. This can add up to several years of lost sleep over the course of a child's early years!!
The study found that mothers of infants (aged 6-12 months) slept an average of 1 hour and 48 minutes less per night than women without children. Mothers of toddlers (aged 1-2 years) slept an average of 1 hour and 24 minutes less per night than women without children. Even mothers of school-aged children (aged 6-12 years) reported getting less sleep than women without children.
As someone who struggled with insomnia for years after becoming a mother, I knew I couldn’t try to strive for good health in all other areas of my life if I wasn’t getting good rest. I just didn’t know how to get a good night’s sleep. The long-term benefits of good sleep are even more important to me than the short-term benefits, so I started implementing a sleep routine.
Here are my five essentials resources for how to get a good night’s sleep.
Invest in a blackout sleep mask
Natural blue light during the day (aka the light from the sun) is a good thing - it makes us feel awake. But after sundown, blue and green light (like that emitted from electronics) has been shown in studies to be disruptive to melatonin production and disrupt our sleep. My husband often stays up later than me watching TV in our bedroom, so trying to block blue light and stay on a healthy circadian rhythm can be a challenge. I love this Blackout Contoured Sleep Mask from Bon Charge designed to give you a perfect night's sleep. Featuring built in hollow eye cavities, it actually conforms around your face for the perfect fit to block all light while you sleep. As someone who loves a dark room, this is heaven. This soft contoured mask really stays put comfortably, allows for zero eye pressure and works for back, side and belly sleepers. this has been a great tool for improving my sleep.
Eliminate screen time OR at least use light-blocking glasses
Of course, eliminating screen time completely before bed is ideal, but it’s often unrealistic. I love to wind down with a good TV show, which is why I was super excited to discover these light-blocking glasses, also from Bon Charge. These glasses with red lenses block both green and blue light, and should be worn starting two to three hours before bed to stimulate melatonin. They’re definitely worth the price point.
Find a good sleep meditation
We all know the benefits of meditation, but if you struggle with calming down your nervous system before bed, you may want to start a meditation practice before you go to sleep. There are so many benefits to sleep meditation, like lowering stress, anxiety, and balancing the nervous system. I personally love the sleep meditations from Peloton, but you can also find many free meditations on youtube or free meditation apps. Some tips when you meditate before bed: make sure you’re lying down in your comfortable sleep position, no matter what. If you’re a side sleeper and you try to lay flat, it might not be as effective. Also, make sure your phone or device is facedown, so no blue light escapes (although if you’re wearing your sleep mask, it shouldn’t matter!).
Find a sleep supplement that works for you
For me, when I started using full-spectrum CBD tincture at bedtime combined with a sleep support supplement (the one I use is linked here!) it was a total game-changer for my sleep and overall well-being. CBD was truly the key for how to get a good night’s sleep for me. If you want to learn more about why CBD is such a powerful sleep tool, I wrote about it here. Other helpful sleep aids are magnesium, L-Theanine and ashwaganda.
Plan your day (at night)
I always take a few minutes before I wind down to look at my calendar for the next day. With juggling different kids’ activities, work calls or appointments, it helps me relax when I’m able to take a bird’s eye look at that day ahead of me. If I’m feeling motivated (this often happens on Sunday evenings) I may whip out my planner and dive a little deeper into my day, time blocking and planning so I wake up feeling ready to take on the day. Bonus points if you add in a gratitude practice - write down three things you’re grateful for that day.
If you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep, consider adding in these five simple additions to your night time routine. They were the key for me to get consistent, restful sleep that had me waking up feeling energized and refreshed instead of tired and groggy. A game changer for your day and your overall health!
