If there was one absolute rule to achieve your best health what would it be?
What can you do right now to feel better, look better and be more successful?
One word: Sleep!
Sleep is something so many of us shrug off and or take for advantage. We make excuses...there's kids sports, the Bachelorette, laundry to do, clubs to go to, work to be done. But, most Americans aren’t getting enough sleep. Are you?
You should aim to get 6-9 hour of sleep a night. There's some talk about what hours are best to get the deepest rest, but ultimately, start there. Here's a few things that can help you beat the slug and get better rest.
1. I know I'm guilty of this: Having your phone be the last thing you see before you close your eyes. We go to bed at 10pm and scroll through our phones for an hour. By the time I'm finally putting my phone down 30-60 min later, I'm tossing and turning thinking of what I just looked at. (There's other medical reasons with brain stuff, but I'm no neurologist.) We need to be off our phones a good hour before we go to bed. If you really need to put your phone in a different room do it! It sounds so little but trust me you’ll thank me later when you get up feeling fresh and ready to conquer your day.
2. Get your workout in. I know, you don't have time for it, you're so tired. Yeah, me too. But a quick burst of cardio, a few power lifts or simply bedtime yoga can drain the last little bit out of you and cause your body to need rest.
3. It prevents irritability - and wouldn't we all like to stop being snippy? When you don’t get enough sleep you feel tired, fatigued, you get annoyed easily. You crave junk food/fried food, you over consume caffeinated beverages, and the last thing you want to do is eat healthy and go workout.
4. Sleep detoxes our bodies. Just like anything, we have to shut off to recharge. Our digestive system, nervous system, lymph systems and everything in between need energized. The body needs to sleep to rejuvenate.
When we're trying to get healthy, we think of food and workouts. We say we're living a healthy life, but still not seeing the weight go away or our energy bounce back. By using even one of these tactics - then adding on one more and one more to finally get into a habit of good sleep - we will start to see that last little bit of our health transform.
Try making sleep a priority and watch yourself life change.
T&E