Research shows that poor sleep habits can have immediate and long term effects on your well-being. It can affect your hormonal balance, exercise performance, and brain function. Besides, poor sleep habits can have a severe toll on your daytime energy, productivity, emotional stability, and even weight.
The problem is that you may find yourself tossing and turning, struggling to get the sleep you need. Well, if you have been struggling to get a good night sleep, then we have a few tips that can help.
Tips to better your sleep habits
Exercise during the day
If you exercise regularly, you will have a better sleep and will feel less sleepy during the day. Regular exercise improves the symptoms of insomnia and sleep apnoea. It also increases the amount of time you spend in the deep, restorative stages of sleep. While exercising, try to finish moderate to vigorous workouts at least three hours before bedtime.
Also, consider relaxing, low-impact exercises such as yoga or gentle stretching in the evening as they can help promote your sleep.
Be smart about your diet
Your daytime eating habits play a role in how well you sleep at night. Consider the following simple eating hacks to improve your night sleep:
Limit caffeine and nicotine– caffeine can cause sleep problems up to ten to twelve hours after drinking it. So is smoking. To have a better sleep, consider avoiding stimulants that can disrupt your sleep close to bedtime.
Avoid alcohol before bed. This may interfere with your sleep cycle.
Avoid heavy meals at night. Eating heavy might cause you stomach discomfort, therefore, interfering with your sleep.
Avoid waking up to pee
If you get your sleep interrupted because you have to wake up at night to pee, then you need to find a solution for this. For starters, try as much as possible to avoid taking drinks shortly before bed. Depending on your age, your bladder might struggle to hold urine during the night. In this case, you can use authentic prostate supplements to help avoid waking up to pee. A good example is ProstaGenix which can help improve your prostate health. It can help you achieve more control over your sleep habits as you can minimize the number of times you get to visit the washrooms.
Improve your sleep environment
A peaceful bedtime routine sends a powerful signal to your brain. It informs your brain that it is time to wind down. You can make your room ready to support your sleep by observing the following simple steps:
– Keeping noise down
– Lowering the temperature of your room to keep it cool
– Make sure that you have a comfortable bed and mattress. This will prevent sore back and neck aches.
Stick to a sleep schedule
The recommended amount of sleep for a healthy lifestyle is 7 to 8 hours. Make sure that you go to bed and wake up at around a set time each night. Being consistent with your sleep schedule reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle. It will take you a short time before your body adapts to the schedule, and you will be able to enjoy sound sleep that will keep you healthy!
Final remarks
Sleep plays a crucial role in your overall health and well-being. If you are struggling with sleep hygiene, then you ought to find the root cause of the problem. You should also seek help from a doctor if the sleep problems persist.
With everything going on with COVID-19, your family’s health has never been more important. Despite the risks to health right now, especially for vulnerable people, staying at home due to lockdown is actually encouraging some healthier habits among families.
How are your family adjusting to lockdown? Will it make you rethink your habits in the future once restrictions start getting lifted? Permanent changes to your lifestyle can help your family live better and longer, as well as boost your immunity against sickness in the future.
Whether you’re already making changes or you want to form better habits going forward, here are some ideas for 15 ways you can improve your health this summer.
Daily exercise is important for keeping your body healthy. It not only helps you regulate your weight, but it can strengthen your heart and lungs, as well as your muscles. Exercise should consist of cardio, strength and flexibility to help ensure the best results.
There are some great exercises you can do at home to tone your whole body, making daily exercise easy.. Many people are looking forward to their daily exercise at the moment, so if you’re recently discovered a passion for running, cycling or walking lately – make sure you keep it up this summer!
2. Get some fresh air
Fresh air is important, and while a lot of people are making an effort to go for walks, etc., during lockdown, it’ll be easy to take it for granted again when restrictions are lifted.
Even if it’s just for a short time, a walk outside can do you a world of good. It can help you feel refreshed, get you some vital vitamin D and give you a break from whatever you’re doing.
Don’t forget you can enjoy fresh air at home too. Get involved in some garden games with your kids and enjoy some fresh air together.
3. Start each day with a hearty breakfast
A healthy, hearty breakfast is a great way to start the day. A lot of people grab something to eat in a hurry, which can often lead to some unhealthy choices. Even store-bought smoothies can be full of sugar, counterbalancing the added vitamins you’re taking in. Why not take it in turns to make breakfast each day so that it doesn’t all fall on one member of the household?
With most restaurants closed and takeout getting tired (and expensive!), more people are cooking from home right now. Some home cooking is ideal for preparing healthy dishes, without the processed ingredients that can be hidden in your food. Start getting into the habit of planning your meals for the week ahead, it’ll help you commit to eating healthier while cutting back on your food waste too.
One idea to get everyone excited about home cooking is to do theme nights. A simple theme like Mexican or Italian night can give you something to look forward to, and could encourage everyone to start helping in the kitchen.
5. Up your hydration efforts
During the summer months, hydration is more important than ever. Our bodies need water to function, and you’ll need even more of it when the weather is warmer and you’re losing more of it through sweat. There are plenty of ways you can stay hydrated, but drinking water throughout the day is the easiest and most important one.
Why not equip the whole family with their own water bottle and keep them close by to help everyone stay hydrated?
6. Take care of your skin
Taking care of your skin is important, and in the summer, when UV rays are at their strongest, it’s even more important. It’s easy to neglect your SPF, but by making it a part of your daily routine, you’ll be used to protecting your skin in all weather. Wearing SPF doesn’t just protect against skin cancer, but it can stop you experiencing premature ageing too!
7. Enjoy a break from tech
Technology can be all-consuming. We spend a lot of our daily lives on our phones, using computers, etc. That’s been even truer since lockdown restrictions have been put in place. Taking a break from technology is important, and when the sun is shining – why wouldn’t you want to get out and enjoy it?
Spending quality time as a family, away from tech, can be a great way for you all to bond and enjoy each other’s company. You might even find you don’t miss it as much as you thought you would!
8. Practice good hygiene
Practicing good hygiene is common sense. Washing your hands, keeping your home clean and showering often are things we should do anyway, but it might be time to turn things up a notch to help keep your family well.
There are steps you can take to keep your home germ-free, as well as practice better hygiene when you’re out and about. Carry hand sanitizer with you and use it regularly throughout the day – it could make a big difference to stopping germs from spreading.
9. Keep summer allergies under control
Dealing with symptoms of a cold can be miserable. But what if they weren’t caused by a virus, but by allergies instead? Hay fever and other seasonal allergies are common at this time of year, and can leave you feeling miserable. If anyone in your home suffers from common allergy symptoms during the summer, it’s worth making sure you have plenty of antihistamines and other medication to help ease your symptoms. It helps if you know what you’re allergic to, as this can make sure you treat your allergy symptoms accordingly. If you have air conditioning, use it instead of opening windows, but make sure to get the filters cleaned by an AC Repair company before you turn it on. The last thing you want is for pollen to be getting blown directly into your face!
10. Set some goals to keep you busy
Most of us focus on setting goals for the new year, but why not set yourself some part-way through the year instead? From making over your home to having a fitness goal, having something to aim for can give you some focus and put an end to those lazy summer days. By the time fall comes around, you’ll have achieved something amazing!
11. Walk more
Walking is one of the simplest forms of exercise, and it’s an effective way of keeping active. Staying at home recently has likely meant that daily walks are a part of your routine, and is something you can easily maintain when you’re at work or on weekends. A short walk at lunchtime or before dinner can help you make up for a day spent sitting down, while also boosting your cardio health.
If you find walking boring, why not try some fun walking apps that will be sure to get you moving?
12. Cut down on snacking
Snacking is many people’s go-to for relieving boredom, but all of those salty or sugary snacks could be contributing to weight gain, as well as making you feel tired and sluggish. Instead of reaching for the chips or chocolate, try a healthy snack instead. If you are snacking because you’re bored, you could take your mind off things by reading or finding a hobby that keeps you occupied.
13. Take some time to yourself
It’s important to take some ‘me time’ now and again – life gets busy, after all. When you’re working and taking care of a family, it’s easy to become exhausted. If things start getting too much, make sure you ask for some help – friends and family might not realize that you’re struggling.
Treat yourself to some time to do the things you enjoy – it can help you rest and recharge ready to face a new day.
14. Get plenty of sleep
Sleep is important, but do you ever find it’s harder during the summer months? There are many reasons for this. The sun rises earlier and it’s hotter – making sleep uncomfortable. Learning to sleep in the heat will help you get your 8 hours, so try everything you can to keep cool at bedtime.
15. Don’t forget about your mental health
While it’s easy to just think about your physical health, it’s important to focus on your mental health too. You can take care of your mental health by following many of the steps above, especially by exercising and taking a break from time to time. If you’re concerned about your mental health, or anyone in your family, make sure you book an appointment like you would for a physical problem. There’s help available to you, you just need to seek it out.
Taking care of yours and your family’s health should always be a priority, even during the carefree summer months. It’s a great time to form new habits and enjoy being outdoors, as well as spending time together as a family. Use the time you have at home to help your family become healthier and stronger – when restrictions are lifted, you’ll be able to keep up your self-care habits ready to enjoy your time together.
When we consider the ways of keeping our kids healthy, it’s not just about the obvious things like eating right and exercising but it’s about encouraging healthy habits in life. We can look back and realize that we made certain mistakes or instilled unhealthy habits because we do them ourselves. A very good example is television. The latest Infinity Dish statistics show how television plays a role in almost everyone’s life. Perhaps there were a few times when you needed a break so you put your children in front of the television but this has now spiraled out of control and now you’ve got couch potatoes for kids! But when we look at the idea of watching television there are ways for us to encourage some healthy habits.
Being Aware Of Questionable YouTube Content
It’s something that we think is pretty harmless, especially for toddlers. When we put on a kids YouTube channel that plays nursery rhymes we may not realize that there is a lot of unhealthy and questionable content out there that individuals are trying to sneak into the videos. We should monitor our children’s living habits but we should also think about the streaming services we use. If you have a Firestick it’s so easy to install apps that have various questionable shows and cedars. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is something that might help and if you’re wondering why would you use a VPN for Firestick it is a good way to keep yourself anonymous so you’re not easily targeted with specific content. Using a VPN can also be useful when travelling abroad, as some of your child’s favourite shows may be blocked by the local internet. For this reason, if you’re traveling to a foreign country like China, make sure to have a reliable service like ExpressVPN China at hand to ensure a fast and secure connection without encountering any common restrictions. Whether you are at home or abroad, once we get into certain viewing habits the algorithm kicks in and so we are suggested more and more questionable content, so having a degree of privacy can be important.
Turn The Television Off
It sounds obvious, but the television becomes a background to our lives. Turning the television off when visitors come by, eating meals, or doing other tasks means that you don’t rely on the television to become a babysitter of sorts. Our children can easily become distracted by what is on television and when our children are young, this is the perfect opportunity to make sure they don’t rely on this for the rest of their lives. This can mean a lot of harsh lessons for ourselves when we are used to watching television. But when you live by the rules yourself it’s far easier to enforce them. It’s a good idea to impose certain time limits. For example, if your children have started school, two hours should be the maximum. And when you start to schedule their day after school it gives you an opportunity to incorporate other important skills.
Choosing Educational Content
This is such a difficult topic to get our heads around. It’s easier when your children are preschoolers because there’s a lot of shows out there about counting and giving your children certain nuggets of knowledge. But as your children get older it can be harder to monitor this. Not allowing your children to plan their own weekly viewing schedule can seem a little bit on the harsh side but when you allow a certain time limit consider incorporating things that you think are educational into their TV watching time.
Television can be a good thing, just as long as we approach it with the right balance.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
