ost people hate good sleepers. If you’ve ever sat next to someone who slept for 10 hours straight on a long haul flight while you barely managed to grab 20 minutes of shut eye, you’ll know the unique loathing you will feel for these kinds of people. Even though I’ve struggled with sleep a bit in the last few years, I’m still pretty ace at it and that’s mainly because I’ve researched the shiz out of it. I like to know the science behind everything and with some careful monitoring of my sleep behaviour in the past few years I’ve come up with the three top things that make me suck at sleeping.
1. Being still
I began tracking my steps religiously about three years ago and it changed my life. If I don’t complete my full 10,000 steps every single day, I will not sleep properly that night. It’s a fact. If I have a crap nights sleep, I check my steps the day before, and it will generally always be under 10,000. I cannot stress how important movement is to the quality of your sleep. I’m not even talking about hardcore exercise, just walking enough every day. If you don’t have a step tracker, get one. It will transform your life.
2. Drinking alcohol
I like to pretend that alcohol has no effect on me but it’s a total lie. Even if I have one or two glasses of wine, I’m not 100% on my game the next day. It’s cool – it just means I stick to drinking in moderation on the weekends when I have a bit more time to sleep and I try to keep my week nights alcohol free. I’ve used a sleep tracker app on nights when I’ve had a bit too much to drink and my sleep quality is consistently low. Alcohol does not play well with sleep patterns.
3. Being too hot
It’s been proven that you cannot fall asleep unless your core body temperature drops, which explains why it’s so damn difficult to fall asleep in summer. It also explains why I hate summer so much, because it directly effects my sleep. If you’re having difficulty falling asleep, make sure you drop your core body temperature. You can do this by having a warm shower which will consequently cool you off or by lightening your blankets on your bed.
This week Kelly and I talking about sleep on Straight and Curly. You can listen to it here.
You can listen to it on your podcast app too! If you have any feedback we’d love to hear it and if you’d like to leave a review that would be even better!
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Are you a good sleeper? Or a bad sleeper? Or does it chop and change?
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2 Comments
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What is the sleep app that u talk of please
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Author
It’s actually a step tracker app and I used the FitBit app to track steps and sleep. I now use the Apple watch but I don’t track sleep any more because I don’t like wearing things on my wrist in bed. Hope that helps!
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