8 easy and natural steps to help you fall asleep and improve the quality of your Z's.
1. Drink KIANO's Spicy Calm in the evening
Some foods make it difficult to sleep. It's important to pay attention to what you eat and drink, especially before bedtime. Tomatoes, cheese, fatty foods, caffeine and alcohol are all examples of foods that can make it harder for you to sleep, especially when consumed a few hours before bedtime.
KIANO's Spicy Calm has the opposite effect. Drinking it in the evening can help you get quality sleep. Spicy Calm helps to relieve stress, one of the biggest sleep disruptors. It also promotes more restful sleep thanks to its ability to make you feel calm and more relaxed.
2. Go to sleep the same time every day
Sticking to a sleeping schedule helps your body set its internal clock and optimise your long-term sleep quality. The reason for this is simple. Consistency reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle and creates a good sleep schedule. As a best practice, you should try to limit the difference in your sleep schedule to no more than one hour. You should even try to stick to your sleep schedule on weekends. Sound boring? Try shifting your weekend focus to daytime hours and outdoor fun, where mother nature will match and double up on a bunch of health benefits.
3. Take a warm shower
A warm shower before bed can help you relax and improve the quality of your sleep. Studies indicate that a warm shower or bath before bed can help improve overall sleep quality, especially among older adults. If you can’t take a warm shower, simply put your feet in warm water to get that relaxation underway.
4. Avoid blue light exposure
Exposure to light during the day is great for our inner clock, but it’s not great when it’s time to sleep. The blue light from your phone, computer or TV is especially disruptive. Softer, indirect light is less disruptive and it helps your body to relax. You can minimise the impact of blue light by turning down the brightness on your devices, using devices with smaller screens, or using light-altering software.
5. Ensure a cosy peaceful bedroom space
We are affected by our surroundings more than we think. Sometimes even small changes in our bedroom environment can have a substantial impact on the quality of our sleep. Aim to create a cosy and peaceful bedroom environment that is ideal for sleeping. More often than not, this means a quiet, cool and dark bedroom.
6. No phone 30 - 60 minutes before bed
The blue light emitted by your phone screen inhibits the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle. Disrupting melatonin production makes it harder to sleep. When you avoid your phone before bed, you avoid the blue light that interferes with melatonin production, so it's much easier to relax.
7. See your bedroom as a sacred place
You can programme your brain to react to your bedroom as if it is a sacred, relaxing place. By not working, studying, using phones or watching TV in bed, your brain will associate the bedroom with sleeping and cosy-fun times only. This will make it easier to wind down and get better sleep at night.
8. Listen to relaxing music
Calm, relaxing music is widely used as a sleep aid thanks to its ability to reduce stress and quiet things down. People across all age groups have reported improved sleep quality after listening to calming music.
Listening to relaxing music also works if you have a hard time falling asleep. Just make sure you have a timer on your playlist – it’s better for your brain and sleep quality to not have constant sounds around you all night.
If you want to enjoy optimal health, it’s prudent to make quality sleep one of your top priorities. Incorporating some of the tips above can help you do just that.
