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Amber Erickson: Denver Content Marketing Strategist & Freelance Health and Lifestyle Writer

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Trouble Sleeping?: The Key to Better Sleep

by Amber Erickson

sleeping rhinos - better sleepGetting good sleep is necessary for a happy, healthy life. Yeah, it’s that important, but many of us just don’t sleep that well. We wake feeling tired, struggle through the day and then lie awake at night. Luckily, there are some things you can do to get better sleep.

Why Sleep Matters

During sleep, your body is able to rest and repair. This rest and repair doesn’t happen during waking hours, so it’s vital to have quality, uninterrupted sleep to allow your body to work its magic.  Outside of resting and repairing, during sleep you are also consolidating memories and releasing hormones. These hormones regulate everything from appetite to growth. Getting too little sleep leads to fatigue, mental cloudiness, prolonged illness, compromised immune system and an inability to heal and regenerate cells properly. Falling into REM sleep (about every 90 minutes during sleep) your brain is the focus. This is when dreams occur and the brain is being recharged for the next days’ activities. If you aren’t sleeping soundly and getting into this stage, you will wake feeling exhausted and unable to focus. This makes productivity and creativity really challenging.

For adults, 7-9 hours per night is the commonly accepted rate. There is evidence that less than 7 or more than 9 hours per night is detrimental to health, so aiming for this range is best.

How to Get Better Sleep

So how can you get better sleep? Some people have sleep disorders and may need to talk to their doctor or sleep specialists for possible treatment methods. For those of us who have busy minds and or just don’t allow ourselves to sleep enough, here is a list of solutions to help you get more restful sleep that promotes health and longevity.

1. Create a perfect sleeping environment. Keeping your bedroom cool enough will help promote sleep. Also, the key is dark and quiet. Consider noise and light reducing shades for your windows if you live in well-lit or noisy areas (cities). Earplugs can help as well. Finally, keep the room clean and tidy, decorate in a way that makes you feel happy and comfortable. Remove excess stuff, especially from the nightstand. Use your bedroom only for pre- and post-sleeping activities like sex, sleeping and dressing.

2. Avoid stimulants after noon, especially caffeine and nicotine. Similarly, avoid alcohol because while it might make you feel sleepy, it disrupts the sleep cycle.

3. Don’t eat too late (or too early). You don’t want to go to sleep too full or too hungry. Ideally you’d still be satiated, but not at the hungry stage when you crawl into bed. If on occasion you can’t help but eat late, keep it light.

4. Exercise and move your body. Movement, sweating and ridding yourself of excess energy can help you feel tired and fall asleep. Avoid late-day exercise, especially stimulating varieties, but it can be nice to end the day with very slow, restorative types of movement, like yoga. Yoga and/or mediation are great to promote sleep because you can learn to calm yourself, calm your mind and relax your body, all necessary to falling asleep and staying asleep. With consistent practice, it’s possible your body would need less sleep because during meditation your body and mind are able to rest much like during sleep.

5. Get outside. You may remember being a kid and playing outside all day and then just collapsing at night. Blame it on the fresh air, but getting outside, getting out of your chair and being active is a great way to get tired. Wearing yourself out (within reason) is a good thing for sleep quality.

6. Develop a consistent schedule. Attempt to go to bed and get up at roughly the same time everyday, including (and perhaps especially) on the weekends. You may be tempted to sleep in, but establishing a routine is better for your quality of sleep in the long run. Sticking with a schedule will teach your body to start getting tired at a certain time and to wake up at a certain time, without an alarm.

7. Create a pre-sleep routine that prepares yourself for restful slumber. Avoid electronics, which mess with the brain’s ability to tell if it’s tired. Pick a time every night when you start to wind down. At that time, shut off the t.v., put away the phones and tablets, do not work or do stimulating activities, but instead, do calming, enjoyable activities like taking a bath, reading, listening to calm music, meditating, journaling or doing restorative or gentle yoga poses. Keep lights low or use only candlelight and make the activity meaningful to you. Before bed is a great time for spiritual practices, which are often calm and peaceful activities. Taking the time to set the tone for sleep can help you feel relaxed and tired by the time you crawl into bed.

8. Reduce stress. Again, yoga and meditation can help. Often poor sleep comes because you can’t turn your mind off or you’re stressed or worried about something. Yoga and meditation can help you calm your mind and more appropriately control your emotions. Other ways to reduce stress include setting priorities, delegating tasks, simplifying your life and taking a break from your biggest stressors. one way to work through stressors and get them out of your head before bed is journaling. Sometimes just giving them your attention for a few minutes, including potential action plans or to-do’s to reduce the stressor could help clear your mind before bed.

With these suggestions you should be sleeping like a baby in no time. What else helps you fall asleep? Share your experiences in the comments.

{Photo Credit: Diane Yuri}

Filed Under: Beauty, Blog, Careers, Creativity, Exercise, Food, Holistic Health, Home, Yoga Tagged With: better sleep, exercise, restfulness, sleep, sleeplessness

Staying Healthy While Traveling: Some Basic Keys

by Amber Erickson

Photo of cakeThe topic of staying healthy while traveling is complex. The type of trip, destination and other factors play a role in how you stay healthy, what items to bring to maintain health and things to watch out for. We’re talking in general today – maybe another time we’ll discuss jet lag, overseas travel, traveling with kids or family and other more specific issues.

This week I’m in Minnesota visiting my parents. My sister and I took the trip together, leaving our significant others and dogs behind. This trip is basic, no fancy location, no hotels, no unique destinations or reading maps. Trips home, like this one, have different kinds of challenges. The key to staying healthy and happy on trips like this can be divided into three main groups.

Sleeping

Different routines and time zone differences can make sleep a challenge. Here I’m staying up later than usual, but luckily am able to sleep in a little later too. The challenge has been crazy humidity (luckily I’m in the basement) and sharing a bed with my sister (a small bed at that). The upside is the days have been busy, so I’ve been tired, and it’s quiet here so I’m able to sleep soundly.

Regardless of the situation, the key to feeling good while traveling, even if just “going home” for the weekend, is sticking with your normal routines as much as possible and getting enough sleep.

Eating

Do as I say here and not as I do, sticking with your regular eating habits is one of the major keys to staying healthy and happy while traveling.For those with go-with-the-flow eating habits, this won’t be hard to do but for anyone with dietary restrictions or who eats very specifically at home, travel can be really hard. This week, I’ve been indulging in root beer floats, rhubarb pie (ala mode of course!), poppyseed cake (again ala mode), coffee anytime of day, french toast, breaded fish, candy, sandwiches, muffins, beer bread and chips. I should add, in my regular eating habits, I am gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free (unless I’m off the wagon like I have been the last couple weeks).

I have done well to eat relatively healthily during mealtimes because I know desserts and treats are inevitable at least once throughout the days. My sister requested a pie and it’s my dad’s birthday, so we have cake. It was also my grandma’s boyfriend’s (man-friend I think she prefers) 77th birthday so we had cake there. It’s also been hotter than hell with crazy humidity, so 4 o’clock coffee time, where my dad gets away from his welding business for 30 mins to socialize, rest and have an afternoon snack, has turned into ice cream and chip snack-fest. None of us are hungry anymore, but somehow the food keeps coming and my stomach is not happy. I can’t handle dairy, yet of course I’m eating ice cream with my cake. It’s my own fault, my narrow food preferences (requirements) are not fitting in well.All you can do is do the best you can. Or throw all requirements to the wind and eat what you want for a few days. The beauty is it’s your choice, but you must understand the consequences.

My problem is I enjoy all these foods – love them actually. It’s fun to eat them and indulge and just enjoy the memories wrapped up in making fish after a day of fishing or snacking on licorice in the boat. Sometimes this nostalgia wins, as it is this week. However, we still have to be smart and make good decisions for our bodies where possible. Energy, bloating, gas, the feeling of fullness and lethargy are all directly wrapped up in food choices, so choose wisely (or don’t – it’s up to you!).

Managing Activities

Trying to do too much will leave you exhausted. Doing too little might lead to boredom or a feeling of guilt that you didn’t fully utilize your time to explore and do new things. Keep your activities manageable and ensure your expectations are realistic for your situation. My week (Tuesday early a.m through Saturday a.m.) has included arrive in MN mid-morning (after super early wake-up time in CO), lunch with mom and grandma, two-hour drive to parents’ house, couple hours of work/rest, VFW for dinner, bingo, home late, Wednesday do some work, bike ride to town for coffee, little more work, grandma’s for cake, mini-golf, go-kart racing, dinner, home late-ish, Thursday town to get fishing licenses, walk to grandma’s, lunch at Just Like Grandma’s, fishing all afternoon, clean fish, clean ourselves, casino, home late, Friday early morning breakfast with cousin at grandma’s, work, golf, wake up Saturday, pack up, drive two hours to cities, lunch, airport, home. Lots of activity. Although we did have some down time some of the days to get work done, it wasn’t as productive or lengthy as it could’ve been to keep up. But I got done what I needed to get done, and still did a lot of fun stuff that I don’t do often, like fishing, golfing and playing bingo. While it feels busy, I’m glad we kept active rather than having too much down-time. Activities for us leads to a lot of laughs and fun, so it’s definitely worth it. For others, this kind of schedule and busy-ness could lead to stress and worry.

The whole idea here is just to take care of yourself. Sleeping enough, eating similarly to usual and keeping an achievable schedule will help you stay calm, have fun, feel good and have a great trip.

Share your experiences: Any fun summer trips planned? And how else will you keep yourself healthy and happy while traveling?

 

Filed Under: Blog, Travel Tagged With: activity, nutrition, sleep, stress, travel, vacation

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amber@mindfullywritten.com
952-250-1739

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