Tag: sleeping disorder

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Bad Habits to Ditch for a Better Sleep

Having a healthy lifestyle doesn’t consist of a good diet and daily exercise only. Having poor bedtime habits are one of the worst factors that drain our energy and creates fatigue, depression and body pain.

Balancing our life is a very important if not essential element for the sanity of our mind, body and soul.

Today I am sharing with some of my sleeping habits to try and some other to avoid.

Going to bed too early even if you are not tired or too late when you are over tired can make it very difficult to have a good night sleep. You have to change your sleeping routine. Try to sleep every night at the same time and wake up at the time. Fixed sleeping schedule will make your sleeping much better and easier, Trust me on this, it changed mylife. To achieve this I had to put the alarm everyday at the time so I can train my biological watch until I succeeded to achieve my goal, FIXED Sleeping schedule.

Also, always set your room temperature on 19 or 20 degree celsius. Sleeping in a room that is too cold or too hot prevent our body from napping.

Prepare a nice mood in your room, always have your favorite sent or candle in the room with clean and soft linen. Make sure your pillow and mattress are comfy and clean as well.

Use a calm and pastel color in your bedroom for the sheets and paint. Create a calm environment where you can relax and chill.

 

Bad Habits to Ditch:

1. Late-Night Caffeine and Alcohol: Avoiding Caffeine two to three hours before bedtime is not enough, since caffeine stays effective in our system for 7 hours. Shift to Decaffeinated coffee or tea 6 hours before time. For a better lifestyle if you cannot stop caffeine completely like myself, try to have your last caffeinated coffee at 4 pm. however, Alcohol are to be stopped 2 hours before bedtime, because alcohol can interfere with melatonin, the hormone that aids in sleep, and disturb our sleep cycle.

2. Late-Night Eating: This is the second biggest no no after caffeine. You cannot expect your body to relax and sleep with a full stomach. Our body will be busy digesting our late night meal before going into sleep mode. Stop eating at least 3 hours before time.
3. Lack of Magnesium: Magnesium is a relaxation mineral that aids in rest and digest, which is known as the parasympathetic nervous system. It also assists in regulating melatonin, which is a hormone that helps sleeping. Magnesium soothes stress and anxiety and can be a big help in improving our sleeping cycle and mood.
4. Soak Up the Sun “Sunlight, as well as bright light, has been shown in studies to nourish our natural everyday rhythm, which can help individuals who suffer from insomnia. If you are always work indoor, try to get outside as much as possible. Sunlight gives you positive energy and puts you in good mood as well. So get rid of your smartphone at night 30 min before going to bed because the blue light coming out of the screen can trick our brain in thinking that it still at daytime.If you try these steps and avoid all the bad habits and still you are not enjoying a good sleep, go see a specialist, it might be due to weight, or blood pressure, or heart disease.

Sweet dreams love…

                                                                                                                                   xoxo gracy …

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Tips on How to Increase your Focus and Memory Function

“If I make dinner plans for next week there is no way I will remember it if I don’t write it down”

Have you ever faced this horrific situation when you call someone and once they pick up the phone you totally forget why you are even calling? Or when you go to the supermarket or to the kitchen to ask for honey or sugar and you can’t even remember the word? Don’t worry, it happened to me and I started assuming that I am beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s. So I read about it a lot and discovered that it is all in my head and my lifestyle.

First, let’s understand how memory works

When we take information from the outside world, it goes through the brain to the limbic system. It is a part of the brain made up of several structures such as the hippocampus to store visual memory and the amygdala to store emotional memory. 

Our brain’s ability to store and retrieve or recall information can differ due to many factors in normal levels, including:

  • stress (this increases the level of certain hormones that can affect your memory)
  • alcohol
  • distraction or lack of concentration and inattention
  • instability in memory performance -like those days where you just can’t get your body or mind motivated to go to the gym or anywhere else
  • illness that can cause infections like pneumonia
  • sleep disorder or insomnia

How I got my memory back

So changing our lifestyle is the main factor in getting back our mental health again. Below I listed some changes that I made and some others that I am still working on in order to feel better:

  1. Change your EATING habits. Start eating half a cup of berries and strawberries (full of Antioxidants) two to three times a week.
  2. Eat two to three times a week wild fish that are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids.
  3. Practice good sleep, at least 7.5 hours a day. Avoid caffeine after 2 pm. Go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday. Avoid electronics, texting, and emails one hour before bed.
  4. Exercise at least 2 times a week or walk in nature, swim or take a walk on the beach.
  5. Have a ME TIME
  6. Make a list and organize your day, make your notebook your companion.
  7. Find a new hobby. I started cooking, it makes me so relaxed and focused.
  8. Cut back on sugar and carbohydrates and introduce a healthy diet to your routine such as grains and food high in fiber.
  9. Listen to music that makes you happy and relaxed. My sleeping playlist is chillout and instrumental music 
  10. Learn a new language. I still didn’t start with this step yet, but I am planning on learning Italian or Spanish very soon.
  11. Avoid alcohol and soft drinks, drink water and tea instead.
  12. I eat a banana before I go to sleep, IT works.
  13. I try to avoid distractions when I am focusing on something. One thing I did and really worked is that I created a corner for me where I have my laptop and notebook and trained myself that every time I am working or need to concentrate I move to this corner and focus.

I hope this blog really helps and motivates you in having a healthier lifestyle. If you have any additional questions, feel free to write them in the comments below.

 

                                                                                                            xoxo gracy…