Want to sleep better?
It may help to get outside first thing in the morning. Your ability to fall asleep at night and sleep well is linked to your circadian rhythm, which is hormonally triggered by light.
Getting at least some exposure to outside light between 6:30 and 8 a.m. may be particularly helpful in getting your body to fully wake up in the morning, which allows it to produce and use its daytime hormone cortisol in time to make way for the nighttime hormone melatonin.
Shawn Stephenson
I learned this little tidbit (among others) listening to Shawn Stephenson on the Rich Roll podcast. He’s the author of Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success.
It was a great podcast (I listened to it on my long run yesterday) and a lot of his tips were pretty manageable. Especially for us morning runners who are often outside anyway!
I highly recommend checking out the podcast, and I’ve already reserved the book at the library. If it’s added incentive, Shawn has a lovely voice and personality to match. It made the miles fly by… and I wasn’t flying.
Go For The Low Hanging Fruit
One thing I loved that Shawn kept saying about his own journey towards health was that he’d always start by going for the “low-hanging fruit”. The most obvious, easiest changes first.
That’s such a great strategy, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by self-help books and internet advice. But we can usually find some low-hanging fruit. It’s easier for me to add going outside in the morning for 10 minutes every day to my routine than it is for me to stop reading in bed. That’s what Shawn would call a “pain point”, something that is hard to give up even if there’s evidence it’d be healthier for you.
So reading in bed is my pain point. I can get exposure to morning light. Use the “night” setting on my iphone and put it away 90 minutes before going to bed. Stop drinking coffee by mid-morning. These are low-hanging fruits for me.
I recommend checking out Shawn’s work and finding your own low-hanging fruit.
Who isn’t better when they’re rested?!
Reading in bed: frankly, it clears my brain of all the me stuff and I go right to sleep. Granted, I am almost asleep by page two . . . But, we read bedtime stories to children. I got read to, you got read to.
I sleep with the windows unshaded so the sun awakens me and the cats. I give up caffeine by mid morning. I sleep well. I need to read at bedtime in order to do that.
Tomato, tomahto.