I have to start this by saying that I have always been a good sleeper. I fall asleep early and almost never wake up in the middle of the night. I track my sleep with my Fitbit every night and it says I don’t get a lot of deep sleep. If you are not feeling refreshed in the morning you probably aren’t getting a lot of deep sleep either. According to Fitbit, deep sleep helps with physical recovery and aspects of memory and learning.
Over the past few weeks I have made a few changes that have helped increase my deep sleep and feel more refreshed during the day. This is the point where I have to tell you I am in no way an expert on any of this, these are just three things that worked for me.
- Be more active during the day. This has been much easier since we moved to San Francisco because we walk everywhere. I am averaging 4.5 miles walked per day now. The struggle was real for me at first though. I always have the overwhelming urge to just sit down and relax after work. When you have a desk job, you have to force yourself to stay active after work to wear yourself out. Just like you would play with a child before bed to wear them out.
- Stop charging your phone in your bedroom. This one was also a hard habit to break because I used my phone for an alarm. I now use the alarm on my
Fibit and charge my phone in the kitchen. The last thing I would do while waiting for Aaron to come to bed was scroll through social media. That doesn’t help you relax. - I take slow and deep breaths for two minutes before bed. This is what I do now instead of scrolling through Instagram. I have an app called relax that is installed on my Fitbit, but all you really need is a clock. You take slow and deep breaths for two minutes to lower your heart rate and relax your body before you fall asleep.
These three tricks have helped me wake up easier, most days before my alarm and feel refreshed in the morning. I would love to hear your tricks for better, more restfull sleep.