Sleep Sleep Sleep
I’m reflecting on all the trouble I’ve had in the past with falling asleep and staying asleep. This problem started in 2016 and probably went on for a couple of years until I made it a priority to figure out how to fall asleep without relying on gummies or melatonin drops, or unhealthy ways like Nyquil (yes not a proud moment).
I started listening to a lot of health and wellness podcasts during the lockdown in March 2020. I basically had all the time on my hands because my industry was shut down, and I had no work. I got into Andrew Huberman and about how he talks about sleep. What I started doing in my routine to guarantee better sleep were two major things:
Going for a 10 minute walk and getting direct sunlight (no sunglasses allowed) within the first 60 minutes of waking up.
The reason for this is that sunlight helps produce melatonin and it takes 16 hours for it to kick in. This ensures that we get enough melatonin produced in our body to get us a good night sleep.
Going for an evening walk when the sun is setting so that your body knows that it is time to unwind.
After doing this, my sleep quality has been so much better. I also started staying away from my phone screen at least 2 hours before bed. And I don’t charge my phone anywhere near my bed at night. If I HAVE to… like absolutely have to, then I make sure that my phone is on airplane mode so that I’m not soaking up any of the signals that it emits.