Want help with falling asleep, getting better-quality rest, achieving all the health benefits that come along with it?
Sleep: The Supplement That’s Hard to Swallow
Sleep may be the most underrated supplement for weight loss and bodybuilding. It allows our bodies to filter out toxins and to restock essential supplies of beneficial hormones. Conversely, lack of sleep slows metabolism and spikes hunger hormones. If you’re not loving your pillow for at least seven hours a night, try these tips to help you achieve your sleep goals.
1. Establish Regular Sleep Patterns
After several weeks of making your bedtime and wake-up time consistent, your body clock will kick-in and naturally help you get more consistent sleep.
2. Put down the Fork
If you’re busy digesting, your body can’t rest. Eat your last meal two or three hours before you hit the pillow.
3. Don’t Clutter Your Bedroom
Designate your bedroom for sleeping and sex. Keep everything else, including work and television, in other rooms.
4. Keep it Shady
An hour before sleep, dim the lights and shut off the TV. The brighter the lights are before bed, the longer it takes for your body to produce melatonin, which helps you sleep.
5. Try Hot Magnesium
Soaking for 10 minutes in a hot bath with magnesium flakes or oil will help relax your muscles. Can’t find magnesium? Try Epsom salts.
6. Shape Your Sound
As bedtime approaches, trade music with a heavy beat for something calm. I like new age wind instrument tracks. After a week, you’ll begin to associate the sound with preparing for sleep.
7. Be Touched
Get yourself a massage, chiropractic or acupuncture treatment at least once a month. These treatments assist your body in releasing tension, calming your mind and correcting imbalances so you can rest.
8. Work It Out
Work out so you can sleep deep, and sleep deep so your workouts can make a difference. But since you’ll be releasing feel-good endorphins when you work out, try to not exercise just before bed.
9. Deep Sleep Tea
My “get me to sleep now” beverage is a combination of mint and valerian root tea. It’s not addictive and almost always works. Try it with hot almond milk.
10. Leave Your Troubles Outside
Before bed, write yourself a note chronicling any work issues you need to revisit and outlining the kind of problems that tend to keep you up at night. Physically leave it outside your bedroom. They’ll be there in the morning if you want them, but they won’t follow you to bed. Sweet Dreams!
Rick Dinihanian is a celebrity fitness trainer; learn more about him at burnandbuildbody.com.
Want more advice on living your best unconscious life? We talked a designer about creating restful sleeping spaces and checked out hot gadets and fads that just might send you to dreamland.
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Last modified: April 30, 2019
