Wellness Wednesday Tip

This Wellness Wednesday is all about Sleep

Let’s talk about sleep for this week’s wellness Wednesday tip. Sleep is so very important. We all must have it to properly function at our highest level throughout the day. I know that when I don’t get at least 7 hours of sleep i’m usually feeling tired all day and end up needing a nap. I try to make up for it by drinking coffee in the morning but then I get the afternoon crash. As a busy mom it’s not easy to get a lot of sleep.

Sleep and Caffeine

I started investigating ways to feel better. This month I decided to reset my hours and completely stopped drinking coffee. ( I know it sounds crazy to stop my favorite morning ritual, coffee). I wanted to see if it would make a difference for my sleep experiment.

I did some reading and found out caffeine can greatly reduce the amount of quality sleep a person has. Drinking coffee or energy drinks too late in the day can interfere with getting to sleep quickly since the half life of coffee is 4-6 hours. Also caffeine can stay in your system for quite some time. If you have any issues with insomnia, it is worth trying to restrict you caffeine intake to mornings only. Even people who have no caffeine after twelve noon report better quality of sleep after quitting caffeine.

The Importance of Sleep

Through my research I discovered there are so many benefits from getting a good night sleep. Let’s start with the most obvious benefit of sleep, increased energy levels. Then we have all the rest of important benefits such as, improved brain performance like thinking clearly, improved mental health, decreased Inflammation, weight loss, strengthened relationships, strengthened immune system and less stressful and anxiety.

The Sleep Reset

I set my alarm for 8 am and made sure to go to bed by midnight to make sure I was getting 8 full hours of sleep. Within a few days I was feeling amazing and was at the top of my game. I will admit the first two days I had caffeine withdrawal with headaches. Day two I was feeling back to normal without the caffeine crash mid afternoon and my usual anxiety was even going way.

Reset Tips

To quit my coffee habit I switched over to hot water with a squeeze of half a lemon and about a 1/2 teaspoon of Manuka honey. This gave me that same warm comforting feeling in the morning without the caffeine and coffee jitters. Did you know lemon water has so many amazing health benefits? Lemon water is hydrating and gives you an added boost of vitamin C for helping with immunity.

Drinking a warm glass of lemon water in the morning can also detoxify the body and the presence of pectin. This helps in improving the metabolism and gut health, which helps in improving digestion. This drink even helps in accelerating the fat burning process in the body. However, it works well if you adapt a healthy lifestyle to go with it such as walking at least 20 minutes daily.

Luxury Bedding

In order to get my sleeping ritual in check, really comfortable bedding was a must. Realizing my pillows were not as fluffy as I’d like and my comforter needed a refresh, I decided to hunt down the best pillows around along with the most luxurious comforter. I found the Canadian Down & Feather company. I went ahead and ordered two different pillows to see what suited me best. Then ordered my new favorite comforter, The 625 Loft White Down Duvet (All Season Weight)

I highly recommend splurging on new pillows and refreshing your bedding for the coziest night sleep ever. It really makes a huge difference.

Down Pillows

If you are a side sleeper like me, the pillows I recommend are the Perfect Down Pillows.

3-Chamber design: This pillow has 3 compartments. The center compartment is filled with feather. Feathers have springy quills, which provide great support in pillows. Not everyone likes the feel of the quills, though. For this reason, they filled the top and bottom compartments with a small layer of soft down. This creates a soft buffer against the feather quills and makes them less noticeable.Robust support: This pillow works well for those who like a more supportive pillow. These people tend to be side or combination sleepers. RDS Certified,100% cotton shell.

Down Duvet

My favorite comforter is the 625 White Down Duvet

Down-filled duvet: down has the best insulating properties of any material – natural or manmade! Since down is so high performance, a little bit of fill goes a long way. This makes down duvets quite warm, yet lightweight.

All Season Weight: this warmth level pairs best with a cold climate or some A/C! 100% cotton shell: cotton is ideal because it is light and breathable. The cotton is 360 thread count and downproof (meaning it keeps all of the down inside and prevents leakage) RDS Certified down: the RDS certification indicates that the down is ethically and humanely sourced and traceable throughout our supply chain.

Go ahead and elevate your bedroom with the best bedding ever by See what’s on sale at Canadian Down & Feather Company” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener nofollow”>Canadian Down & Feather company. You won’t be disappointed.

Nightly Rituals

Before you go to bed try to do some sort of a nightly ritual to help yourself relax and unwind from your stressful day. This will help you fall asleep easier and help you feel your very best in the morning. For example, I like to take a bubble bath with a nice relaxing candle and enjoy a cup of camomile tea. Then I do my skincare routine, and put on my favorite silk pajama. Once the day is done I always enjoy reading.

I hope some of these wellness Wednesday tips help you get a better night sleep too. Follow my blog for more wellness tips. Sweet dreams!

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other post about my evening routine for more helpful tips on nightly rituals.