5 Ways to improve your sleep as of today

Sleep is on of our primary functions as humans and also one of the most important ones. If we don’t get enough, aside from experiencing fatigue and a bad mood, we are not giving our bodies a chance to recover and build. Same thing goes for our brains, sleep is the time where the brain processes and stores new things we learned and repairs itself to be able to deal with the inputs of a new day. We are constantly bombarded with how sleep is important and how we should aim for 7-8 hours of sleep. It’s easy for some but for most of us, it takes a while before we can fall asleep and it may be a daily (nightly) struggle. Here are 5 things you can do as of today, to make sure your body has all the right signals to fall asleep when your head touches the pillow.

1.- Walk more:

Walking has 2 major benefits to help with sleep.

1) Anxiety: Walking reduces activity in the threat detection centers of the brain, which reduces feelings of anxiety.

2) Fatigue: You get this with your training but basically physical fatigue is a cue for your body to help you fall asleep.

2.- No caffeine after lunch:

Caffeine stays in the system longer than you think. The time it stays in your body is around 5 to 7 hours. This is the "Half-life". Meaning that if at 4pm you get 250mg of caffeine you may still have 125mg at 11pm.

3.- Evening decompression:

Most of us need to process our days mentally for sleep to come easily. To do that, we must set aside time without any input like screens, housework, etc. 10 minutes to digest your day can be a good start before you go to sleep.

4.- Watch the sunset:

It's that easy and it does make a difference. Evening light tells your body it's time to sleep by releasing melatonin, a crucial hormone that helps you fall sleep.

5.-If possible, no food before +/- 90 minutes before bed.

This is not always easy as it depends of your working or training schedule but basically when we sleep we release the most growth hormone, which is vital for muscle building and recovery. If we eat we tend to spike our blood sugar and doing this before bed prevents that much growth hormone to be released.

Now you have some things to put in practice, best day to start doing this was yesterday, next best time is today.