Surefire sleep fixes
A brilliant beginning may actually start at your day’s end.
Sleep -- not only is proper rest the secret to high level focus, it is the key to resiliency. Sleep heals your system; the right amount can prevent the occurrence of unnecessary injuries, and aid in recovery from daily micro-tears, as well as sickness. But, if the pressure to get a good night sleep is overwhelming, you may need to implement the following techniques to reboot your routine:
Practice calm
Make it a habit to run-through relaxation methods apart from bedtime. Here is why: for some people bed-prep is not actually relaxing. Racing thoughts may hit all at once and invade the mind, pre-covers. Repetitive evenings of experiencing angst at bedtime can accumulate and build a negative association with sleep. If this is you, it is time to retrain your brain to associate hopping into bed with closing your thought-shop. For starters, try practicing meditative type exercises mid-morning or mid-afternoon, being mindful of how it feels to relax, free of intent. Then, after a few practice runs, implement bringing this feeling to life near bedtime. Aspire also created a daily four-point check-in relaxation method that is super helpful. Contact us to find out more.
Unset your bedtime
Self-imposed pressure to be in bed at a certain time, can boomerang negatively and equate to delayed sleep onset. Instead, loosen the rains a bit and head to bed when you are tired, and wake up when rested. Then, slowly extend the hours in the forefront, because most of the time sleeping closer to sunset is best.
Read
Make it a habit to read a simple book before bed. You can even take it to the next step and start a book share with a friend. Be sure to avoid reading on your phone -- traditional paper reading is a mindful exercise that stills the correct areas of your brain to be ready for rest -- unlike phone and computer stimulation.
Shower (save tub soaks for another time)
Often research claims that bathing relaxes you before bed — it is not that we disagree with this completely — but we are finding out by ongoing quantitative conversations with our athletes, that warm showers are helping before bed more than baths. Why? Possibly making the association to lying down, only in bed, and not twice helps trigger “sleep-mode” faster.
These are just a few of the many helpful tactics to retrain your brain into become a sleep master. Let us know your thoughts and progress!
