5 More Tricks That Will Have You Sleeping Like a Baby
If you are still having issues falling asleep each night, try these 5 tips for a better slumber
Cold Room
Time magazine writer Markham Heid answered the question: Is Sleeping In a Cold Room Better For You? While there is much science around the best temperature for sleep, Markham states, “here’s the bottom line: keeping your head nice and cool is conducive to good sleep. To achieve that, set your thermostat somewhere around 65 degrees, research suggests.
Magnesium
In 2006 the Journal Science Direct published Rapid Recovery From Major Depression Using Magnesium Treatment. Authors George and Keren Eby summarized the following: “Magnesium deficiency is well known to produce neuropathologies. Only 16% of the magnesium found in whole wheat remains in refined flour, and magnesium has been removed from most drinking water supplies, setting a stage for human magnesium deficiency.” Additionally, “Magnesium was found usually effective for treatment of depression in general use. Related and accompanying mental illnesses in these case histories including traumatic brain injury, headache, suicidal ideation, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, postpartum depression, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco abuse, hypersensitivity to calcium, short-term memory loss and IQ loss were also benefited. Dietary deficiencies of magnesium, coupled with excess calcium and stress may cause many cases of other related symptoms including agitation, anxiety, irritability, confusion, asthenia, sleeplessness, headache, delirium, hallucinations and hyperexcitability, with each of these having been previously documented.”
The Journal Article The effect of magnesium supplementation on primary insomnia in elderly: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial concluded “Supplementation of magnesium appears to improve subjective measures of insomnia such as ISI score, sleep efficiency, sleep time and sleep onset latency, early morning awakening, and likewise, insomnia objective measures such as concentration of serum renin, melatonin, and serum cortisol, in elderly people.”
If you decide to use a supplement, magnesium threonate is one of the best sources of magnesium as it seems to penetrate cell membranes, including the mitochondria, which results in higher energy levels. Additionally, it also penetrates the blood-brain barrier and seems to do wonders to treat and prevent dementia and improve memory.
Power Down Electronics
The WebMD.com article entitled Power Down for Better Sleep (Found Here) states the following: “One of the most simple but important reasons technology affects our sleep is cognitive stimulation,” says Mark Rosekind, PhD, former director of the Fatigue Countermeasures Program at the NASA Ames Research Center and president and chief scientist at the scientific consulting firm Alertness Solutions.
As your brain revs up, its electrical activity increases and neurons start to race -- the exact opposite of what should be happening before sleep. A second reason has to do with your body: The physical act of responding to a video game or even an email makes your body tense, explains Rosekind. As you get stressed, your body can go into a “fight or flight” response, and as a result, cortisol, a stress hormone produced by the adrenal gland, is released, creating a situation hardly conducive to sleep.
That “glow” from electronics is also at work against quality shuteye. The small amounts of light from these devices pass through the retina into a part of the hypothalamus (the area of the brain that controls several sleep activities) and delay the release of the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin.
All together, our wired way of winding down at night means we’re sleeping less and less. “As you stay up later on a consistent basis, you readjust your internal clock, and delayed sleep phase syndrome sets in,” says Rosekind. “Now, your body physically can’t fall asleep until that new, set time, whether it’s midnight or 2 a.m.”
The No. 1 way to get better sleep: Turn off the technology, especially in the sanctity of your bedroom
Use Your Bed for Sleep and Sex Only
The National Sleep Foundation recommends using your bed for sleep and sex only. Doing so strengthens the association between bed and sleep. According to new study recently published in the Journal of Sleep Research done by a group of researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) and the National Competence Centre for Sleep Disorders the bedroom should be reserved for sleep and sexual activity. However, many use it for working, eating, etc. It is thought that if you engage in these and other waking-hour activities over an extended period, in a while you will be linking the bedroom to activating stimuli. Instead of triggering sleep it will be associated with alertness and activation
Foam Roll Before Bed
How do you feel after you’ve had a massage? Right! Nice and relaxed. Foam rolling and other forms of massage activate our parasympathetic nervous system which help us calm down and relax.
Kelly Starrett is a physical therapist, author of Becoming a Supple Leopard, owner of San Francisco CrossFit, and creator of MobilityWOD, a resource for helping athletes address the issues that limit movement. He suggests that you take 10 to 15 minutes to roll as you’re winding down for bed. Consider it a bedtime message. Keep the roller by you couch or nightstand and then roll as you watch the last few minutes of a show. In an interview with Men’s Health Starrett said, “This is the perfect time to turn on your parasympathetic nervous system because you’ll help your muscles recover, reduce tightness that built up during the day, and help your body and mind fall asleep faster.”
We recommend the Trigger Point Performance “The Grid” Foam Roller found here.