How to have an amazing sleep

Some of the factors that can help you have a better sleep:

• relaxation exercises in the evening  (meditation, breathing, journaling), calming cup of tea or a relaxed conversation

• disconnecting from technology (screens) couple of hours before going to sleep; and avoid coffee, sugar and heavy meals in the evening

• making your sleeping place dark, minimizing noise (as much as possible), managing temperature not to be too cold or especially not to be too hot

• investing in quality mattress and pillow

• use low-intensity bulbs (think “romantic lights”) in your bedroom

• maintaining regular sleep schedule – (going to sleep and waking up at roughly the same time every day) and ideally aligning it with the day/time cycle

• engaging in physical activity during the day, so we tire out our body and not just our mind – but not in the last couple of hours before going to sleep 

• for sleep, it is especially important getting outside in the morning, as exposure to direct daylight (even on a gloomy day) kicks off our circadian rhythm

• a bit paradoxical: not stressing in moments when we cannot sleep – being it insomnia or small kids/worries/night shifts…. but instead, immerse in a good relaxed book, do a meditation exercise, or a bit of journaling 

• … and looking for ways to recharge and recover in other moments throughout the day, while this challenge with sleep passes

• try out progressive muscle relaxation – a type of meditation that consists of relaxing every part of your body one after another, starting from the feet all the way to the head, for deep relaxation

• prone to overthinking and having to active brain in the evening? try relaxing breathing exercises (you can find many on Insights Timer, an amazing app for meditation – just google “breathing for relaxation) or brain dump, where you write all your thoughts and all to-do lists before bed so you are not thinking about what to remember for tomorrow