The cold winter months is a great time to catch up on sleep, but if finding quality sleep is troublesome for you, check-in with these sneaky disruptive habits
Build your sleep hormones naturally. If you are taking an SSRI or anti-depressant, it may actually deplete your levels of melatonin- a main hormone that initiates sleep. The fact is many people have no idea how to build sleep hormones. Not to worry, I’ll share with you in my next blog post on how to do just that.
Avoid exciting or stimulating activities before bed especially those involving bright screens or electronics. Too much exposure to light at night can disrupt the timing of the sleep cycle. Also eliminating reading and responding to emails close to bedtime lowers the possibility of reading something urgent, which might make it harder to fall asleep.
Don’t have caffeine after lunch and avoid alcohol near bedtime as both can disrupt sleep and wreck havoc on your blood sugar levels throughout the night. No bueno!
Practice rituals that help you relax before bed such as taking a warm bath with Epsom salts, drinking nervine teas or journaling about your day
In the meantime, if you’ve tried everything but still having trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, you likely need to build up sleep hormones. A huge ( but pesky) problem impacting good sleep quality. Curious about what this means? Book a free consult, let’s talk about it.
XO,
Dr. Vera