everything you need to know about improving sleep quality
+ tools to encourage the behaviour changes required
Welcome to MAY. I have had many requests to dive into the topic of sleep, so here we are. For the audio recording of this post, keep scrolling!
Sleep is, in my opinion, an incredibly fascinating (and complex) topic. If we’re sleeping well, we’re spending more than two whole days each week asleep. 121 days A YEAR. Let that sink in. Growing up and well into my late 20s, sleep was never something I prioritized or deemed important. I actually think it took having a physically demanding job (teaching movement) to change my perspective on sleep, and rather than view it as an annoyance and waste of time or something I could do when I’m dead, I now view sleep as a barometer for one’s overall health. It’s the window of our day that we get to heal, repair and recover – that is, if we are sleeping optimally.
The fact is, the quality of our sleep is simply a symptom for something going on behind the scenes. It’s actually less a process of improving our sleep, and more-so an exploration of addressing the why behind sleepless nights, difficulty falling asleep, waking up groggy, etc. Having said that, I do think there are some key sleep conditions that need to be met in order for quality sleep to happen. These are conditions that apply to all of us, and if you’re serious about your sleep, integrating these non-negotiables is the first step to identifying what kind of sleeper you are. In other words, if you put these things into practice and still find yourself waking up alert at 2am or suffering from insomnia, then it’s a signal there is something else at play. This could be high cortisol, blood sugar imbalance, chronic stress, imbalanced hormones, etc.
Here are the basic conditions that need to be met for us to have a high quality, deep, restful sleep:
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