Sleep Hacks: For better quality sleep
Quality sleep is the cornerstone of good health!
Under stress and anxiety many of us have upended our sleeping habits. While you may know you need to change this, you may not quite be sure how to help yourself sleep better.
Disadvantages of poor sleep habits:
- Deplete your immune system
- Disrupt blood sugar levels
- Ruin reproductive health
- Increase your risk to illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, heart disease or cancer
- It can also be disruptive to your weight. You are likely to feel more hungry with insufficient sleep due to a hormone that activates hunger, and suppresses the hormone that sends the signal of feeling satisfied with food, when you have slept poorly. This leads to over eating, and lower calorie expenditure
- Practicing a diet without sleeping enough leads to weight loss from lean muscle mass and not fat. This is contrary to what you should be seeking for
Get the benefits of good sleep! Here’s how:
- CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is one of the effective first line treatments for insomnia. This will help identify anxiety provoking thoughts and help you deal with them efficiently.
- Stay away from screens at least an hour prior to bed time.
- Establish a routine with bedtime and wake up time, even if it involves an alarm clock till your body gets accustomed to it
- Retire for the night only when sleepy and avoid random naps
- Keep your bed for sleeping only. Have other designated spaces for chilling or working. This way, you avoid laying on the bed unnecessarily and your brain starts to learn it can wind down and de-stress when you enter your bed.
- Remove anxiety provoking foods from your diet such as coffee. Smoking can also impact the quality of sleep as nicotine is a stimulant.
- Avoid large meals or beverages at night and foods high in sugar or carbs, especially if consuming right before sleeping
- Data tracking devices are a good way to monitor sleep.
Sleep is a strong pillar of good health, without which other attempts at fitness may prove futile.
Sleep is an investment that will give returns with high energy, happiness, productivity, creativity and fulfilment.
At FitCru, we believe in looking after and advising you on all your health needs in a wholesome way. If you have any doubts or wish to know more, get in touch!
