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Unless you live under a rock, you have heard that sleep is vital to your health. I feel like this is one of those things that everyone knows but never takes seriously. I know that I have struggled getting eight hours of sleep. Sometimes getting in that last episode on Netflix or getting some extra work done comes before sleep!

Your body needs proper sleep to function properly and effectively. Yes you can get four hours of sleep and then drag yourself to work, but you won’t be functioning at full capacity. Prioritizing sleep can be one of the best self-care activities you can do for yourself.

So why does sleep matter so much? Lack of sleep can cause:

• Depression and anxiety
• Lower immune function
• Higher risk of heart disease
• Higher risk of stroke
• Lack of concentration
• Lack of productivity
• Poor sleep is linked to higher weight, type two diabetes, and poor athletic performance
• Higher inflammation
• Duller skin
• Hair loss

Now I don’t know about you, but none of those things sounds fun to me. If I don’t get enough sleep, I typically get really bad headaches. Mix that with stress and I get really bad migraines. The recommended hours of sleep to get a night is eight and I try to shoot for at least seven a night. I am someone who just needs seven hours or more of sleep a night or I am useless.

For a while I was having a lot of trouble falling asleep. Even though I would position myself to get eight hours of sleep, it was taking me two hours to fall asleep and I would wake up multiple times a night.

I have changed a number of things in my routine to help myself fall asleep faster, and stay asleep.

Screen Time

In this day and age, screens are everywhere. We carry little screens in our pockets all day. We stair at screens for work all day. Then we come home and stare at the tv screen. It’s a lot of screen time! When you look at a screen, blue light is emitted which is like sunlight to our bodies. Our bodies are designed that when we receive blue light, our melatonin is cut off. So when the sun goes down, our bodies naturally produce melatonin to get us ready to go to sleep. When we look at screens that emit blue light, we don’t produce that melatonin which means we have a hard time falling asleep.

I set a rule for myself that I can not look at my phone thirty minutes before I go to bed. Now, there is still an issue with the tv screen. My husband stays up quite a bit later than I do so he like so watch tv in the bedroom. I plan to buy some blue light blocking glasses to see if they make a difference for the tv screen, but I have read a lot of mixed reviews on them. I can say that not looking at my phone has helped tremendously. My brain shuts off, I’m not thinking about anything, and I am able to fall asleep so much faster!

Journaling

For a while I couldn’t get my mind to shut off. I would fall asleep stressed about things and wake up multiple times still thinking about the things that stress me out. My friend suggested to me that I do a brain dump before I go to bed and just journal about everything to get it out of my head. It worked so well! I was able to leave everything in a journal rather than tossing and turning about it all night.

I will say, if you are stressed to the point that you’re waking up in the middle of the night, you should probably look into your stress levels and find ways to reduce them. It is not healthy at all to be waking up in the middle of night due to stress.

Set a Night Time Routine

Your body loves routine! When you set a night time routine, it signals your body when to start to feel tired. Better yet, if you go to bed at the same time every single night, your internal clock will be set and falling asleep will be ten times easier. I typically do the same thing every single night. I juice, then start my bed time routine, read some of a book, then close my eyes. I try to be in bed by 9 every night and my eyes closed by 9:30. This has helped keep me on schedule!

Make Your Bed

This is a silly one, but is so good! Who likes to get into a nicely made bed at the end of a long day? I know I do! It feels so much better and so much more cozy! It’s just a simple thing but it really does make a big difference. Since I am the first to leave, it’s a little challenging getting my husband to make the bed before he leaves. He tries but sometimes if he doesn’t get it done in the morning, I’ll do it once I get home.

Turn Down The Thermostat

When we sleep, we like it as cold as possible! There is something really nice about the air outside being really cold while you’re wrapped up in warm blankets. It’s also been shown that if you keep your room around 60 to 68 degrees, melatonin is stimulated in your body, which makes it easier to sleep! So turn that thermostat down and open a window!

Get a Decent Mattress

I had no idea how much our mattress could be effecting our sleep. We were sleeping on a mattress that was hard as a rock and just not what we needed! We would wake up every single morning and our bodies would ache. But my brother gave it to me and at the time, free was all we could afford. We just got a new mattress last month and it seriously has been such a game changer. Now I wake up without my body aching and feeling like all I did was toss and turn.

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I hope these tips will help you get a good nights sleep!! Sleep is so so important so make sure you are getting the full rest your body needs!