To get the best out of life, maintaining a healthy body & brain is a must. Lifestyle choices play a huge role in maintaining a healthy body and mind. Having a sound nighttime routine ensures that your brain and body get rested properly, promoting good sleep and good health.
If your body and brain don’t rest and recharge, your productivity can suffer. To ensure that you get a good night’s rest, here are a couple of pointers for a well-rounded nighttime routine.
Go to Bed at the Same Time
One of the best ways to improve your health is by having a consistent bedtime. Doing so can help your bio clock adapt to a fixed timeframe, letting your body know when to “shut down” for the night. Medical experts term this phenomenon as the circadian rhythm.
Two things you should avoid at bedtime are working or eating. Doing so can confuse your biological clock, preventing it from adapting to a routine. Your bed isn’t the place to work, so avoid using it for anything other than sleeping.
Turn Off Electronics
Any type of light, especially blue and red lights emitting from gadgets and devices, can keep you up at night. To prevent this effect, turn off all electronic devices before going to sleep. If you need to charge your smartphone or tablet, position it so that you can’t see the light from the bed.
No lights also mean no browsing on the phone while you fall asleep. Playing games or scrolling can also stimulate your brain instead of helping you unwind. Try avoiding your screens as much as possible in an hour or two before heading to bed.
Have Cool-down Activities
If you want to have a healthy body & brain, doing “cool-down” activities can be a great way to prepare yourself for sleep. Instead of waiting for your eyes to shut down on their own while mindlessly scrolling on your phone, having some activities near your bed that will help you sleep and keep you from reaching for your phone.
Reading a book or magazine, writing, journaling, and doing a crossword are just a few examples of some of the things you can do to cool down. The key here is choosing activities that don’t stress you physically or mentally. Having a glass of milk before bed is another nightly ritual many people follow. Milk helps with sleep due to an element known as tryptophan, which allows the body to relax.
Stretch and Meditate
Stretching and meditation is a popular way to unwind before bed for millions of people worldwide. Stretching takes care of relaxing sore muscles while meditation relieves stress and other negative emotions.
There are many different ways to do meditation, but not all of them are suitable for unwinding before bedtime, as some of them involve sitting on your knees or with your legs crossed. Breathing exercises are also part of meditation, but you can do them separately if you want. On a final note, avoid doing complex stretching exercises before sleep; keep things low-stress and simple.
Upgrade Your Sleep Setup
Having the right sleep setup is more crucial for maintaining a healthy body and brain than you might think. Even if you have a solid nighttime routine, your efforts won’t pay off if your sleep setup isn’t conducive to a good night’s rest.
Ensuring you have the best mattress for your sleep needs will allow you to wake up refreshed and energized the next day. You can do so by identifying your sleep preferences and which mattress type aligns with your unique needs.
The newest trend in the mattress market is air foam mattresses, which are similar to memory foam mattresses but don’t trap as much body heat as their memory foam counterparts. Before committing to a bed with this new technology, check out a few air foam mattress reviews.
Better Sleep Means Better Quality of Life
Enhancing your sleep setup and nighttime habits can go a long way to improve your overall physical and mental health. After all, you spend roughly one-third of your life sleeping. By prioritizing high-quality sleep, you’ll find yourself feeling more energized, mentally present, and physically capable.
Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Pinstripe Magazine. Creative thinker and menswear designer who has been writing articles dedicated to men’s fashion, lifestyle, luxury items, home design, gear, grooming and gadgets since 1998. For info on PinstripeMag, any editorial needs or to contact me please email at marv@pinstripemag.com.
