Happy December, everyone!
I hope you are ready for the holidays and the final month of the year.
This month, I will share actions I have taken to improve my sleep over the past several months in case you’d like to research or test any of these areas. Good sleep is such a foundational health pillar that I like helping people keep this in mind. I just finished a streak of getting 7+ hours of sleep for 11 nights in a row, and the streak was only broken by my dog waking me up too early.
Here is what is helping me:
Morning sunshine: I like getting sunshine in the morning if possible because this helps your body build a good circadian rhythm, so it knows when to wake up and when to fall asleep.
Not eating 3 hours before sleep: I have been practicing a form of time-restricted eating for the past several months. The version of this I feel confident in sharing with people is to try to avoid eating about 3 hours before you go to sleep. Your body has a lot of clean-up work to do at night, but digesting food takes a good amount of energy that can distract from these other duties.
Turning off electromagnetic field (EMF) sources: This is a big one for me. I make sure my mobile phone and my Wi-Fi router are off. Some people aren’t as sensitive to EMF as others, but this is a big one for me that lets me sleep longer. If you can’t turn EMF sources off, you can also test moving them farther away to lower the impact.
Limit screen time close to bedtime, especially for active projects like work.
Staying cool: Keeping your bedroom cooler has been shown to help with sleep.
Weighted blanket: This has been a fun addition to my routine. The hypothesis is that the weighted blanket can activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you relax and is more conducive to sleep.
Limiting caffeine intake: All of these improvements have helped me cut down my caffeine intake. I believe caffeine in moderation is fine, but if you can stop drinking caffeine fairly early in the day, it’s less likely to impact your sleep.
Let me know in the community if you have any thoughts about these recommendations! Good sleep is one of the best ways to see "Crisscross Effects" that spark other areas of life!
For some readers, this will be the last month using our app/website. If you want to continue staying in touch with me/us, you can simply go to sparkamerica.com and join from here to access a free account that won’t have your company’s wellness program attached. You can connect with me in the community if you’d like by finding my “SparkGuy” username.
Happy Holidays!
Chris “SparkGuy” Downie
PeopleOne Health Co-founder & Motivation Expert
