What I Learned About Sleeping Better
Photo courtesy of jonnnnnn on Flickr.
I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a class about how to improve your spiritual health by improving your sleep.
This class has inspired me to make some simple and long-needed changes in my choices.
For far too long, I have dragged myself out of bed in the morning because I didn’t sleep well at night. This was almost everyday. I decided to change a few things and see what happened. The results were immediate and lasting as long as I keep doing the things I’ve listed below.
Our Pineal Gland is intricately involved with our ability to sleep because that’s the gland that produces Melatonin.
Our body is a complete system, so when one part of us is “out of whack” the rest can have problems because of that. Because of this, we need to take care of our whole self to improve anything.
One of the fastest ways to improve the health of your body and your endocrine system is to enable your pineal gland to make the melatonin that your body needs to sleep well.
5 Easy Steps to Improve Sleep
1. Eat Raw Food for your Supper. Choose foods like nuts, fruits and vegetables. Eat other foods early in the day. I try to eat meat, dairy and sweets for breakfast, lunch and daytime snacks. This has helped me lose weight and sleep better.
2. Do not eat after 7:00 pm at night, and don’t take your vitamins (or other nutrients) after 7:00 pm either. Your body needs to sleep when it’s time to sleep. If you eat a late snack or take your vitamins and then go to sleep, your body is busy digesting and processing instead of sleeping.
3. Follow a bedtime routine. This takes a small amount of discipline, but pays off big-time. At least an hour before bed, shut off the technology, TV, phone, computer, video games, and anything else that disconnects you from your own mind and body. This allows your body to begin the process of slowing down for sleep. This trick works wonders for children and adults.
4. Meditate, write in your journal, visualize your goals or follow a quiet spiritual practice during your bedtime routine. This only takes 15 minutes or so, and allows you to come back to yourself. Our thoughts and energy are bouncing everywhere throughout the day. The focus of meditation and writing brings our energy back to us and helps us quiet our busy mind.
5. Replace the Caffeinated Drinks with a healthy alternative after 3:00 pm in the afternoon. I am an Iced Tea drinker, so this one is a challenge for me. Stimulants, like caffeine keep your mind zipping right along and probably make you have to get up to use the restroom during the night. Try drinking water, lemon water, fruit juice, or smoothies.
While I am sure that you can find many more tips on sleeping better, and I know there are a ton of articles about improving the health of your pineal gland, these 5 steps are helping me the most.
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