Improve your life and transform your training with our quality sleep tips
As mentioned in some of our other blog posts, there really is no replacement for a better mood, enhanced performance in and out of the gym, and speedy muscle recovery than a consistent amount of quality sleep.
But we do understand that in today’s 24/7 world, it can feel impossible to wind down at an appropriate time to get the amount of rest that we really do need to benefit from.
So, to help you get that all-important shuteye, we’ve comprised this short list of tried-and-tested tips that, if practised consistently, will sure enough sort you sleep out and provide you with a handful of benefits as a result.
1. Darken your room
If it’s not possible to make your room any darker than it already is at night, get yourself an eye mask.
2. Keep it cool
As far as keeping your room cool goes, we’ve heard from our members how much this small change has transformed their sleep quality. If your room is naturally warm at night and you don’t want to / can’t open a window, we would recommend purchasing a small fan to keep beside your bed,.
If your ability to sleep relies on no-noise, we would recommend you also invest in some earplugs. You can get some really good ones for under £10 in most pharmacies and online stores like Amazon.
3. Keep a consistent bed time.
Being disciplined in this area may be difficult at first but once you feel the benefits of having a routine at night such as extra headspace and more quality sleep time, you’ll feel a strong incentive to stay with it.
Apparently, it takes 21 days to form a habit, so if you try and give yourself 21 days to nail this, then at least you know you don’t have to carry on if it doesn’t work.
4. Introduce a 30-minute wind down period
The blue light that is emitted from today’s technology devices is capable of keeping us awake for hours, so if you really want to start sleeping better for longer, turn them off at least 30 minutes before you hit the hay. That includes your TV, phone, ipad etc.
If you have to for the first few weeks, remove them all from sight so you aren’t tempted to check for any last emails or texts or scroll endlessly through social media - something we’re all guilty of, so don’t try and deny it!
Some of our members have replaced their late night watching for a good book or using mobile Applications like Headspace and Calm (of course we’ll waive the no-phone rule for this) to help them drift off with soothing sleep stories and sounds.
5. Utilise power naps (10-20 mins MAX)
Sometimes when we’re over-tired, we end up feeling anxious about getting enough sleep and are often unable to get much sleep as a result - Oh, the irony!
This is where falling asleep when it feels most natural – which is sometimes during the day – can come in handy. We must stress the 20-minute limit, however. Exceeding this will start to shift your body and brain into rest mode, which is unfavourable if you’re in an office and / or have work to do.
Knowing when to start your wind-down period at night can be difficult. We suggest you aim for a minimum of 7-8 hours’ sleep, especially before and after exercise days. That means, if you need to wake up at 6am, start winding down at 9:30pm.
So, there you have it, 5 fantastic tips to getting quality sleep. Nail just a couple of the above and you’ll benefit massively through improved moods, better performance in and out of the gym and faster recovery from training injuries and everyday life.
Try some or all of these tips for a week or more and feel free to share with us how you’re get on with your sleep.
If you want to know more about how a quality fitness and sleep routine can benefit you and how we can help you achieve one, send us a message and one of our professional trainers will be in touch.
Until next time,
The M3 Team.