Nutrition Guru, Lola Berry, discusses Sleep Health
This is a biggie and it’s one that we often let slip. Think about it, when we’re stressed out, worried or have a deadline to meet, sleep is more of then than not, the first thing to go. Did you know that a bad night of sleep could be harder on your health than a boozy night out on the town? You crave way more sugar when you haven’t slept well, and you have less control over how full you are because the hormones leptin and ghrenlin are all out whack, with just one night bad sleep. And it ages you too! Here’s a handy trick, every hour before midnight is the equivalent to 2 hours post midnight, so the earlier you get to bed the better.
Now I know this one is much easier said than done. I struggle with this one so much because for some reason all the creative ideas come to us at night time. But if you want to look after your health and feel happier than sleep is key.
I think a lack of sleep always shows in your eyes too, well it does for me.
So the answer; here’s a few tricks that I use that really help me out:
- ritual before bed; right before bed I pop a candle on in my room, and turn on my Himalayan salt lamp. Then it pick a book to have a little read of. This sets relaxing tone before I drift off.
- If you’re into taking supplements, the Kailo Nutrition range has and awesome product called “sleep well” it taste like hot chocolate; its full of collagen, magnesium and a host of sleep supporting herbs like passion flower, chamomile and lemon balm.
- Keep the laptop out of the bedroom, I always make sure my laptop is not in my sleeping area, not just to keep the electro magnetic radiation away whilst I sleep but also so that I’m not tempted to write that “one more email.”
- Social media, righto so 91% of humans have a mobile phone, so I know we all check social media right before we drift off and it’s usually the first thing we check when we wake up. But just try to give yourself 10 mins before bed that’s social media free, and when you wake up, try getting up and moving about, getting dressed before grabbing that phone. I know that one is real tricky but it will make a huge difference, I am a repeat offender of this one, I lose about 20 mins each morning checking social media, It’s that addictive.
- Bit of bed time stretching or yoges, I’m not saying you need to do anything fancy. Literally just lay on your back and put your leggies up the wall, straight, this has a real calming effect on the nervous system and has been studied for helping treat depression. So try it, legs up the wall before bed for just 3 mins.
- Calming, sleepy time teas; these actually work and again a nice little ritual to do before you get to bed; look our for teas like passion flower, lemon balm, lavender and chamomile.
- I have to throw this one in just for laughs, I have heard of this crazy old folk remember, and they say to treat nightmares you keep a jar of chopped onions beside your bed, then if you wake up with nightmares you open the jar and have a big whiff! Now I’ve never tried it but it does sound intriguing, might have something to do with sulphur content or the smell alone would scare anything away!
- Gratitude book; this might sound a bit hippie but it’s actually a real nice one. Just jotting down the things you’re grateful for at the end of each day. Just 3 things, it’s helps to let go of the day past and fall asleep not over thinking your day.
- Dream diary, this is really cool, and trust me on this one don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.. It’s so uncanny. So when you wake up you’ve got a 10 minuet window to recall the most of your dreams. Just write anything that comes to you down, names, places, feelings, then pop it aside. It’s an amazing little window into the subconscious mind, and it shows you just how on point you are. You’ll dream about someone and hear from them the very next day. It’s awesome.
- Few drops of lavender oil on the pillow really help, look out for sleepy time sprays too.
