Sofia Adamson | Waking Times
Quality sleep is one of the single most important things for your wellbeing.
Hundreds of scientific studies have proven that sleep deprivation is strongly correlated with weight gain, immune system dysfunction, brain fog, heart disease, diabetes, and fatigue.
So if you want to feel your best and decrease your risk of disease, taking steps to improve the quality of your sleep should be your top priority.
This is where some people think to themselves, “I get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep, so I’m all set.”
The problem is, even if you get enough sleep, the quality of your sleep is likely subpar. This means you are still not giving your body the opportunity to rejuvenate.
To improve both the quality and quantity of your sleep, here are 4 powerful tricks you can use to get the best sleep of your life.
Avoid Blue Light
Have you ever sat by a campfire at night and noticed how quickly you get tired? This sleepiness is a normal reaction that occurs when you are not exposed to artificial light at night.
Televisions, smart phones, computer monitors, light bulbs and any other artificial light sources emit a large amount of artificial blue-spectrum light.
This blue-spectrum light tricks your body’s internal clock into thinking it is still daytime. As a result, anytime you are exposed to artificial light at night, you set yourself up for poor quality sleep.
Blue-light exposure at night is specifically shown to increase sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep) and cause you to get significantly less deep sleep. This can leave you feeling completely exhausted when you wake up in the morning. Even if you get plenty of shut-eye.
To avoid the negative effects of blue-spectrum light, all you need to do is pick up some blue light blocking glasses. Alternatively, you can install blue-light blocking apps on your phone and computer.
By blocking blue light 2 hours before bed, you can drastically improve the quality of your sleep.
Get Sun Exposure
For the same reason why exposure to artificial light can disrupt your sleep, direct sun exposure during the day can regulate your body’s internal clock which can upgrade the quality of your sleep.
While the concept of light and sleep may sound odd, there is a large body of scientific evidence that supports this correlation.
One study published in the Sleep Journal run by Oxford University, for example, found that people who were exposed to natural light during the day experienced marked improvements in how fast they could fall asleep and how much REM sleep they got throughout the night. REM sleep increases your memory, ability to learn new skills, and decreases stress.
With this trick, it is best you get sun exposure earlier in the day. It only takes 10 minutes of sun exposure to make a big difference in the quality of your sleep.
Exercise
Exercise is another important factor involved in sleep quality.
Researchers have found that consistent exercise routines can improve your sleep efficiency. In other words, exercise can allow you to get more out of your sleep without actually having to spend more time in bed.
This is huge considering the fact that most people are often too busy to get more than 7 hours of sleep per night.
Take CBD Oil
If you are looking for a zero-effort way to radically enhance the quality of your sleep, CBD oil is the way to go.
CBD oil has the unique ability to decrease stress, improve the amount of deep sleep you get at night, decrease inflammation, and ease sleep-disrupting aches or pains.
These effects collectively make CBD oil an incredibly powerful sleep-enhancing elixir.
