For the first installment of our series, we will talk about something that seems obvious. 

Our first culprit is a lack of quality sleep. Sleeping is highly under-rated by our current culture.  “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” is often heard.   In many corporate cultures, being able to get by on 5 hours is often a badge of honor.  Just as a side note, many of the people I used to work with in the world of high-tech, who had this point of view, are some of the sickest and saddest people I know. 

Sleep is restorative for the body and the brain.  It allows us to release toxins, balances our hormones, creates memory, enables learning, makes us more creative, enables our organs to function properly, and creates an environment for weight loss for those who desire it.  Without sleep, you have the opposite effect of everything I listed.  In order to get good quality sleep, start with following these rules just for a week and see what happens with your sleep.

• Exercise at least 30 minutes each day, preferably in the morning.
• Keep “Prayerful Silence” for at least 10 minutes each morning, when you just pray, focus on deep breathing and listen for the voice of God in stillness.
• Eat a clean/wholefoods diet.  Read labels, and keep the sleep stealing toxins out!  That includes sugar.
• Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of clean, filtered water each day.
• Create a bedtime routine and adhere to it!
  1. Schedule your sleep.  Take the time you have to wake up and count backwards 9 hours.  Go to bed at that time.  Up at 6am?  That means in bed by 9pm.
  2. Before bedtime, stop using technology for at least an hour.  If you must be in front of a screen, wear blueblocker glasses.  The blue light from your computer, cell phone, tablet, LED light bulbs, and television trigger serotonin which is the hormone that says…”Good Morning! Let’s stay awake and get things done!”
  3. Make sure your bedroom is clear of EMF’s.  That means no cell phone, no cordless phone, and the best thing…turn off your wifi at night before bed.
  4. Total darkness is key.  Make sure you don’t even have a nightlight or glowing alarm clock.
  5. Keep it cool.  Around 63 degrees is optimal.
  6. Take a 20 minute bath with Epsom salts and add a couple drops of lavender essential oil. (Make sure you rinse off afterwards, since this will also draw toxins out of your body)
  7. A small cup of Chamomile tea about an hour before you turn in.
  8. Take a book with you.  Something that takes your mind off of the day.  The goal is to read yourself to sleep.  In my scenario of being in bed by 9pm, it takes into account that reading will take place before nodding off.
  9. Before getting into bed, have an evening prayer rule.
  10. Write 3 things in your gratitude journal about what you were grateful for that day.
  11. You can also write down the 3 major things you want to accomplish the next day, so that they are out of your mind for the night.

Try these simple steps to getting a better night’s sleep, and if you are still having issues after a week, reach out to me, and we will talk about the next steps.

Next week…

Food And How It Affects Our Energy