ReVamp Your Sleep

Recently I’ve been fascinated with studying and learning about sleep. I’ve been working on optimising and improving my own sleep and so I shared a reel on my Instragam showing my night time ritual. I thought it would be good to start the discussion here too.

Quality and quantity of sleep is essential for: “physical and emotional recovery and repair, brain development, cardiac function and body metabolism, as well as support learning, improving memory and mood” (SA Health, Good Sleep= Good Health). It can also impact your weight with increasing evidence showing that “people who get too little sleep have a higher risk of weight gain than people who get seven to eight hours of sleep a night” (Harvard, “Sleep”).

Lets get straight to it, here are my top tips for improving your sleep:

1. Figure out your sleep chronotype. You can do that by completing an MEQ quiz online. This tells us your bodies natural inclination to sleep at a certain time.

2.Get off of your TV/Phone/IPAD screens 1-2 hours before your planned bedtime.

3.Phone out of your bedroom. If you need an alarm set it in another room or buy an alarm clock.

4.Start to dim the lights before bed.

5.Wind down with a book, a meditation, a bath or shower.

6. Supplements; Ashwhaghanda is a supplement that helps with sleep and stress. This supplement is only suggested for use up to 3 months as the long term effects are unknown. Consult your dietitian or GP before commencing any new supplements.

7. Making sure you’re meeting your nutritional requirements. Undereating or not having the right balance of all the core food groups can impact the quality of your sleep.

8. Stop eating 1-2 hours before your planned bedtime.

Want to know more? Here is a great podcast to listen to:

Zoe Nutrition and Science- “ The secrets of a good sleep”

As always if you want to talk things food and nutrition to optimise your sleep, reach out via the contact page on my website :-)

Cheers

Mattea