The Five Elements to Feeling Your Best: SLEEP

I start with sleep because it sets the foundation for everything else. According to the Mayo Clinic, even though the recommended hours of sleep per night falls somewhere between 7 and 9, it's less about the quantity of sleep hours and more about the quality. If your sleep is frequently interrupted, that isn’t quality sleep.

Raise your hand if you had a newborn and were frequently waking up in the middle of the night? I know you can’t see but my hand is raised too! We all go through it, some worse than others. And I still sometimes have trouble staying asleep through the night, but I can tell you I have gotten a hell

of a lot better at sleeping and I want to share some universal tips and tricks that I have found to help tremendously. You know how there are sleep coaches and trainers for babies, I wonder why there aren’t any for adults, there really should be! Here are a few great techniques to incorporate into your life to get optimal sleep.

1. Ensure the temperature in your room is cool and dark

2. Wear blue light glasses at least 2 hours before bedtime

3. Brain dump before turning in for the night. Clear your head of any ruminating thoughts,

whether you type it out or write it out just get it out

4. Don’t drink too much liquid before bedtime or you will be up all night feeling like you

have to go to the bathroom

5. Ideally finish eating 2 hours before you go to bed so your body can digest and rest

during the night versus having to digest while you are trying to sleep

6. If you can and it’s available to you, charge your phone in another room or across the

room versus next to you on your nightstand. It’s so tempting to pick up your phone right

when you wake up in the morning or if you get up in the middle of the night at 3am and

think it will help you to get back to sleep by doomscrolling. I’m here to tell you it won’t

and I did it many nights, even just for 20 minutes it could then set you back hours from a

sleep perspective.

7. Avoid alcohol before bed. Alcohol takes 1 hour to metabolize 1 serving of alcohol. So

that martini you had with probably about 2-3 servings of alcohol could take 2-3 hours,

and that’s just one, have 2 and it’s more. Alcohol may seem like it’s helping you to sleep

because it does help you fall asleep quicker, it’s not quality sleep. The Cleveland Clinic

goes into more detail on how alcohol affects sleep, bottom line, alcohol, while fun, does

not help you sleep better.

8. Try a meditation before bed to relax. Check out some of my meditations here to get

started. There are also a bunch of apps like Calm that have a huge library of meditations.

9. Do the 4-7-8 breathing technique. Here is a link to my instructional video on how to do

this. Essentially you will breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 7, and exhale for 8. You will

repeat this 4 times, but no more than that. And it could take a while to get up to that.

It’s recommended to do this 8 rounds or less.

10. Remind yourself that it’s time for sleep and imagine yourself shutting a light switch off

to signify shutting down your ruminating brain and moving body to rest.