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10 Tips for a Blissful Night Sleep

Improve sleep and sleep quality

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Every health professional must have asked you this question? Amidst our busy schedule, Sleep issues have become alarmingly common.

Here are some of the reasons why you might not be getting proper sleep:-

  1. Distracted by thoughts
  2. Waking up at 3-4am (early hour insomnia)
  3. Constant interruption—night sweats
  4. Sleeping for more than 7hours but not waking up refreshed.

Poor quality of sleep is the most underestimated factor for weight gain, menopause, mood swings, low energy levels, fatigue etc. Sleep is the most important factor of a healthy lifestyle because the body repairs and regenerates during this time. It is also the time when your brain detoxifies and gets rid of waste products. Poor sleep patterns lead to hormonal imbalance and an increase in hunger hormones. Leptin and Ghrelin are the hormones responsible for the regulation of appetite, Leptin tells the brain that you are full and Ghrelin tells the body to eat.

Guess what happens when you don’t sleep well?

Leptin decreases and Ghrelin increases making your body think that you are starving. This either wakes you up to eat in the middle of the night or makes you overeat the next day. When leptin levels are low, the thyroid gland slows down your metabolism making you feel tired and increasing fat storage. Poor sleep increases the stress hormone—cortisol in the body leading to fat storage and can also increase insulin resistance leading to diabetes.

Here are some tips to help you sleep better:-

How-to-Get-a-Better-Nights-Sleep

  1. Keep it dark: The artificial light can reduce the production of hormone—melatonin which makes it hard to fall asleep. Try to keep your bedroom black. Switch off electronic lights (alarms, mobile, TV, ipad)
  2. Nice and early to bed: Practice going to bed at the same time every day. This registers in your subconscious mind and allows you to sleep well. This helps to regulate your body clock and could help you fall asleep and stay asleep for the night.
  3. Keep gadgets away: Try to keep your room gadget free. Charge your phone or laptop in a different room if you can or keep them away from your head, shut them down or put them on Airplane mode (this will reduce the EMF’s, Electro Magnetic Frequencies, that can interfere with your sleep).
  4. Relax your mind: Stress is one of the biggest factor of not getting good sleep. Give time to your mind to switch off from daily activities and get into sleep mode. Avoid thrillers or scary news at night. Try listening to soothing music, read books, meditation or deep breathing.
  5. Relax your body: Take a hot shower before bed or try Epsom salt bath. Epsom salts are rich in Magnesium Sulphate, a known muscle relaxant and detoxifier.
  6. Avoid alcohol: Alcohol leaves you dehydrated at the middle of the night, with low blood sugar and overtaxed liver. Alcohol also messes with your production of serotonin (the precursor to melatonin).
  7. Limit caffeine intake: Caffeine is a stimulant that can keep you awake. So avoid the consumption of caffeine 4-6 hours before bedtime.
  8. Pay attention to what you eat and drink: Avoid refined carbs like pasta, white rice, bread, pastry, sugar and processed foods as it will spike blood sugar at night and may wake you up. Eating a healthy dinner allows the body to absorb proper nutrients and provides the brain with the chemical environment required to produce neurotransmitters, required to maintain adequate sleep.
  9. Hydrate well in the day:  Your sleep can be interrupted if you’re dehydrated as this stimulates cortisol, which wakes you up.
  10. Supplement: Tryptophan is a protein that helps make melatonin. Food sources include whey protein, meat, fish, dairy, nuts and seeds. L-theanine is a calming nutrient found in tea (black and green), Magnesium helps to relax the body and increase a calming neurotransmitter. You can also use Ashwagandha, chamomile, lavender tea, passion flower and lemon balm to induce sleep. Refer to this blog for more info about this supplement.

Sleep is the golden chain that ties HEALTH and our body together. So Snooze and sleep well.

We hope this article helps you. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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Sleep Your Way to More Muscles

sleep your way to more muscleDid you know you can build muscles even while sleeping? The three aspects of the muscle building pyramid are nutrition, training and rest. Most of us pay close attention to the first two factors but frequently ignore the third and suffer the consequences. Sleep isn’t a luxury for the human body, it’s a genuine necessity. Extended periods of sleep deprivation can lead to amnesia, delusions and hallucinations. Shorter stretches cause forgetfulness, bad moods and irritability.

How Does Sleep Lead To More Muscles? 

If you’re trying to gain strength, sleep becomes even more important because it’s synonymous with recovery. If your body doesn’t get to fully recuperate from a hard workout, there’s no way it will be ready for the next one. Heavy training destroys tissues. In order for the tissue to be repaired, your body needs the proper nutrients and deep sleep. One of the key events that occur during sleep is that the body releases growth hormones which are critical for repairing tissues, maintaining tonus in the muscles and keeping the fat in the cells. Since the body releases growth hormones only during deep sleep, the question is how do you get deep sleep?

Getting enough rest is critical to your overall health. Lack of sleep, even for a single night, can have a huge effect on your immune system. Research has shown that there’s a 20-30% drop in the immune system cells that fight cancer and viruses after just one night of sleeplessness. If sleeplessness continues over several days, the percentage of decreased immune system cells climbs drastically. The good news is that you can bring the number of cells back to normal with a solid night’s sleep.

So How Much Sleep Is Enough?

That depends on individual to individual and it depends on many variables. Ideally, one should aim to get at least 7-8 hours of sound sleep. Sleep is the most critical variable affecting our workouts. How well we have slept the previous night will determine how good a workout you do the next morning.

Work-related stress is one of the many reasons that most suffer from sleep deprivation. One of the best things you can do is slip in to a nap prior to your workout. You don’t want to drop off into the deeper stages of sleep before training because it will make you groggy. 20-30 minutes is plenty before a workout.

How Can You Induce Sleep Quickly? 

Deep sleep at night is very important and here are some of the things we can do to get sleep fast:

  • Read to relax
  • Take a shower or soak in the tub
  • Listen to soothing music
  • Try Chamomile tea
  • Warm turmeric milk will induce melatonin, which is a sleep hormone
  • A light snack can be useful in promoting a more relaxed state, but it’s smart to select foods that contain the amino acid tryptophan, which converts to serotonin in the brain, helping you to feel drowsy. Milk, yogurt, cheese, turkey and fish contain tryptophan.

What to Avoid Before Sleeping 

Now here are some things you should not do if you want to have a good night’s sleep:

  • Don’t overindulge in alcohol
  • Avoid eating large quantities of food. Eating a large meal before bedtime isn’t conducive to sleep as the food will trigger various systems, including the heart, to work harder. Also, the digestive tract may become upset and disrupt sleep even more.
  • Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine. This includes tea, coffee and soft drinks as well.
  • Avoid any form of strenuous exercise or participating in a competitive sport as it will work against you. Vigorous physical activity stimulates the body, and it takes some time to calm you down.
  • Don’t take your work to bed. If you make your bedroom an extension of your office, you’re sure to carry business problems with you at night. Your bedroom should be a cool, dark, sleep chamber.

You may have to experiment a little to find out what works for you. But if you’re having trouble getting a good night’s rest on a regular basis, make some changes in your lifestyle, quickly. The “magical one-third of your life” is a critical variable in your quest to gain strength, so be mindful of that.

We hope this article on sleep for muscle building helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more on muscles and sleep, check out Healthy Reads or speak with a GOQii Coach by subscribing to our Personalised Health Coaching program here.

#BeTheForce 

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2 Breathing Techniques For Better Sleep

breathing techniques for better sleep

Do you have trouble getting sleep despite the fact that you are tired? Sleeping well is an art. It needs a perfect blend of healthy habits and control of mind. A clean body and mind, relaxed mood, physical exercises, and perfect dietary control are some of the basic sleep-inducing methods. However, one of the best ways to bring the body into its relaxed state is – BREATHING! How do breathing techniques for better sleep work? Let’s find out!

Breathing Techniques For Better Sleep

Breathing deeply has been proven to affect the heart, the brain, digestion, the immune system and even the expression of genes. Research has shown that breathing exercises like Pranayama can have immediate effects by altering the pH of the blood, or changing blood pressure. But, more importantly, they can be used as a method to train the body’s reaction to stressful situations and dampen the production of harmful stress hormones and help induce sleep.

Here are 2 important breathing methods to calm the mind and induce sleep naturally.

1.  The 4-7-8 Technique

How To Do It?
This process is recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil, a practitioner and teacher of integrative medicine for the last thirty years. To do this exercise, sit up in bed with your back straight or lie down on a straight back and press the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your front teeth. Maintaining that position, close your mouth and inhale through your nose for four counts, hold that breath for seven counts, and then exhale through your mouth around your tongue for eight counts. Repeat this pattern until you have completed four full breaths.

How It Works?
The 4-7-8 breathing technique is effective because it encourages the fast removal of carbon dioxide. Doing so equates into a better preservation of the bicarbonate pool; our reservoirs for helping maintain an appropriate pH balance. Also, it allows the lungs to become fully charged with air, allowing more oxygen into the body, which promotes a state of calm.

2. Left Nostril Breathing 

How To Do It?
Simply take your right hand and with your fingers outstretched, block off your right nostril by putting gentle pressure on it with your right thumb.  Be sure to keep the rest of your fingers straight and pointing up. With a long, slow, deep breath, gently inhale through your left nostril.  Then, just as gently, exhale long, slowly and completely, again through the left nostril. Do this for at least 3 minutes; chances are you might doze of even before that!

How It Works?
When we’re under stress or feeling anxious, we tend to breathe mostly out of our right nostril, which is connected to our left brain. This activates our sympathetic nervous system, the channel responsible for the classic stress response – dilated pupils, increased core temperature, sweating, and increased heart rate and blood pressure. And when we start breathing through the left nostril the parasympathetic system gets activated which slows us down and helps our body automatically run its day to day jobs of digestion, elimination, sleep cycles and more.

Apart from these 2 breathing techniques for better sleep, you can also try meditation or mindfulness by just observing your breath as it goes in and as it comes out. Connecting with this rise and fall of the breath, and noticing where you feel that breath move within the body can help you begin the process of relaxing tense muscles and create a coherent heart pattern which brings an instant state of tranquil and helps you drift off to peaceful deep sleep.

We hope this article helps you sleep better! Do you meditate before you go to bed? What helps you sleep better? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on sleep, check out Healthy Reads or you can get tips directly from a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

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How To Improve Sleep and Sleep Quality

sleepThere’s no denying that a healthy diet, exercise and stress management play an important role in living a healthy life. But, there’s one aspect that most of us miss and that’s getting adequate sleep! Why exactly is adequate and good quality sleep necessary for the body? 

Benefits Of Good Quality Sleep 

Good quality sleep is essential for overall health and well-being. Here are some of the key benefits of getting enough restful sleep:

  1. Improved Cognitive Function: Sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating memories and enhancing cognitive functions such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. It helps with information processing and improves focus and attention.
  2. Enhanced Mood: Quality sleep is linked to better emotional regulation and a more positive outlook. Lack of sleep can lead to irritability, mood swings, and an increased risk of developing mood disorders like depression and anxiety. It also helps reduce stress and promotes a sense of calmness. It allows the body to recover from the day’s stressors and prepares it to cope better with future challenges.
  3. Physical Health: Adequate sleep is associated with better physical health. It can help maintain a healthy immune system, reduce the risk of chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, and promote a healthy metabolism and weight management.
  4. Increased Energy and Productivity: Good sleep provides the body with the necessary rest and rejuvenation, leading to increased energy levels and higher productivity during waking hours.
  5. Cellular Repair and Growth: While sleeping, the body undergoes important restorative processes. Tissues and muscles are repaired, and the body releases growth hormones, essential for overall growth and development.
  6. Cardiovascular Health: Sufficient sleep is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. It helps regulate blood pressure and reduces inflammation in the cardiovascular system.

Now that you know why you need it, let’s look at how to improve sleep and sleep quality.

How to Improve Sleep Quality

In case you are not getting adequate rest or aren’t getting any quality sleep or are facing issues falling asleep, we have some tips to help you out: 

  1. Bedtime and wake up time should be the same: Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time daily. Practice the same routine on weekends too. 
  2. Maintain Sleep Hygiene: Do not consume alcohol 6 hours before bedtime. Also, avoid caffeine 4 hours before sleeping and do not smoke before going to bed.  
  3. Limit Screen Time: Stay away from your gadgets and mobile phones at least an hour before sleeping. Put your phones on DND mode for uninterrupted rest.
  4. Environment Is Everything: Keep your bedroom environment clean, calm, dark and quiet. Make sure that your mattress and pillows are comfortable. 
  5. Eat a Light Dinner: Strictly avoid heavy meals at night and finish your dinner 2-3 hours before going to bed. If possible, go for a light walk after dinner every day. 
  6. Try Music: In case you find it difficult to fall asleep, you can listen to light, soothing music 45 minutes before bedtime. Music generally soothes our nerves, reduces stress levels, and helps us fall asleep faster. 
  7. Deep Breathing: It is a very effective tool for inducing good quality sleep. Perform deep breathing 10 minutes before bedtime daily to improve your sleep and reduce stress levels. You can also try these breathing techniques: https://goqii.com/blog/breathing-techniques-for-better-sleep/  
  8. Take a Shower: A Lukewarm Shower 1-2 hours before bed is a well-known remedy for sleeplessness. It significantly improves sleep quality and reduces anxiety.
  9. Lavender oil: It is used for aromatherapy which improves sleep quality, especially for people who are fighting with insomnia, depression, and anxiety. You can put  2-3 drops of lavender oil on your wrist or pillow at night, it will soothe your nerves and help you fall asleep easily.

If you’ve tried the above techniques and still face issues with sleeping, start drinking warm milk with a pinch of nutmeg or turmeric 30 minutes before bedtime. It should help. If sleeplessness issues persist, consider consulting a doctor. 

Making sleep a priority and striving for good quality sleep is crucial for overall health, cognitive function, emotional well-being, and physical performance. Developing healthy sleeping habits and maintaining a consistent schedule can significantly improve your quality of life.

You can find more techniques on how to sleep and to learn about sleep-related issues here. If you’re facing issues and need guidance to improve your health and lifestyle, speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here. 

#BeTheForce  

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