A good night’s sleep is just as important for a healthy lifestyle as a healthy, well-balanced diet and a regular exercise routine. In fact, a poor night’s sleep can negatively impact not just the next day (and make you yawn and doze off at work) but have long-term impacts on your hormones, athletic performance, and even your brain function.
It also causes fluctuations in your weight, bloating and increases the risk of disease in adults and children. But when you’ve had a good night’s sleep, you eat less, you’re easily able to exercise.
In the past few decades, people have begun to get less and less sleep, and quality of sleep has declined. If you want to optimize your sleep and get those essential hours, here are four top tips to make that happen!
Decrease your blue light exposure in the evenings or before sleep
Exposure to sunlight during the day is essential to build Vitamin D, but nighttime light exposure messes with your circadian rhythm. It tricks the brain into thinking it is still daytime and reduces hormones like melatonin, which help you relax into deep sleep.
The worst of this light includes blue light, which devices like your computer and smartphone emit. What you can do to reduce blue light exposure is:
- Wear glasses that block blue light
- Download apps that block blue light on your smartphone and laptop
- Do not watch TV, use your phone, or computer at least 2 hours before sleep
Avoid consuming caffeinated beverages late in the day
Caffeine is an understandable addiction, and has numerous health benefits like improving your alertness and liver health, enhancing your energy, focus, and improving performance.
However, it is best to consume it early in the morning, as if it is drunk throughout the day, it stimulates your nervous system, preventing your body from relaxing at night. Thus, it significantly worsens sleep quality.
Caffeine can stay in your blood for 6-8 hours, so do not drink it beyond 3 or 4 pm. If you want to have it anyway, stick with decaffeinated coffee post that time.
Don’t eat late in the evening before sleep
Eating your meals late at night is likely to affect your natural sleep quality, as well as the natural release of melatonin in your body. However, if you are used to eating late at night, ensure that you keep at least 1 hour between your mealtimes and bedtime.
The type and quality of your late-night snack may also play a role. In some cases, people who have missed meals throughout the day cannot sleep at night till they eat. In some cases, high-carb meals can help you sleep better, and in another one, it was proven that low-carb diets also improve sleep.
Choose your meals wisely depending on what works for you, and finish your evening meal by 7 or 8 pm if possible.
Take a melatonin supplement
Melanin is an essential hormone that tells your body to relax and that it is time to go to sleep. Melatonin is often used to treat sleep disorders like insomnia, and is useful when traveling and resting in a new timezone, helping your body’s circadian rhythm get back to normal.
If you are looking for a 100% plant-based and natural melatonin supplement, try OZiva Mela.Mag+. It is a specially designed formulation for better sleep that comes with the goodness of Melatonin and Magnesium.
It helps enhance deep, healthy and uninterrupted sleep with Melatonin, Magnesium, Vitamin B6 and Indian Valerian Root, and helps to keep the body stress-free and calm with standardized plant extracts like Chamomile, Jujube seed and Guduchi.
It also helps regulate Sleep-Wake cycle with the help of Phytomelatonin present in the plant extracts. To know more about OZiva Mela.Mag+, check out this video.
To read more about creating ideal bedtime routines before sleep, check out our other blogs on sleep!
Last modified: June 2, 2022
