Sleep Like a Bear

Sleep is everything. Truly folks, if you aren’t sleeping well you are stressed, fatigued, more likely to get sick/flu, you carry more body fat, your digestion is slower, you crave more sugar (to fuel your brain activity due to lack of rest), you are more likely to get acute injuries from lack of focus, and you are less productive in life and work. Do I need to continue on at all to how you how important sleep is? I didn’t think so. 

Here are some tips on how to make sure you are getting the most out of your sleep and the time you have for it.

This is how to optimize your sleeping environment.

• Put your phone away 20-30 minutes before bed. The less blue light exposure before you get into sleep, the better!
• Black out your room. The goal here is to see as little outside light or noise as possible. 
• Make your room as cool as your spouse will let you. Studies show we rest in our deepest state of sleep and move around the least when we are at a cool body temperature. (This also gives more reason for cuddling and a nice thick blanket.)
• And maybe just before bed having some light static stretching with deep breathing, this can be a game changer for those who struggle to actually fall asleep

Next, everyone should create a schedule. You must have a routine! 

• Set an alarm when you should start getting ready for bed and keep it as consistent as possible. 

This should take you through a series of events like going to the bathroom, brushing your teeth, some light reading/ meditating or stretching, maybe taking night time supplements, getting into bed and going to sleep. Everyone's routine will be different but the key is to create one and fight for it to be as consistent as possible. 

Sleep or lack of sleep will strongly dictate the way your day unfolds, the way you look and especially the way you feel. We are not all blessed with the ability to get 7-10 hours of sleep each night. However, many of you reading this assume you don’t have that ability but in fact you really do. The number of people who stay up too late doing things that only take away from their quality of living like “watching Netflix or an equal substitute” is simply far too large. And the same people claim they don’t have time to sleep more, silly humans. Here is the last bit of applicable advice I’ll give to you. Never stay up late for something you wouldn’t wake up early to do. 

Sleep more.
Sleep better.
Be happier.
Achieve more.
Rise up.