Have you noticed that as winter drags on, waking up becomes harder and harder? All of those gloomy days and our bodies’ lack of Vitamin D can tend to make our minds and bodies feel overly tired and sluggish upon waking.
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Luckily, sunny days and warmer weather are just around the corner, which will give our bodies the natural boost of energy needed to make waking up more bearable. In the meantime, here are five evening habits that will ensure you get a good night’s rest so that you wake up feeling ready to go as soon as your alarm rings in the morning.
1. Avoid food and caffeine before bed.
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Develop a schedule that will allow you to eat dinner at least two to three hours before you plan to hit the sack. Limit your sugar intake and overly sugary desserts. Also, caffeinated drinks can affect your body as long as six hours after consumption so your mid-afternoon coffee break should be your last intake of caffeine for the day.
2. Turn off bright lights and lights not in use.
This is an easy and obvious one – bright light signals to your body that it’s daytime while dimmed light trains the body to relax and slip into sleep mode.
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3. Put away your phone, iPad, and TV (basically anything with a screen!).
These devices are addicting and hard to put away, but they are notorious for messing with our melatonin levels and disrupting our sleep.
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4. Snuggle up with a book in bed.
Reading before bed is a good way to wind down, to clear your head of the day’s stresses, and to avoid the bright lights and screens noted in 2 & 3 above.
5. Jot down to-dos.
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It seems that our brains are running 24/7 and this constant chaos in our heads can make it extremely difficult to let go at the end of the day and give our brains a break. Keep a notepad and pen on your nightstand so that you can make a list of to-dos and anything plaguing you while you’re trying to sleep. Putting it down on paper releases the stress and allows you to drift off to sleep to dream of better things.
Now that you’ve learned what you can do in the evening to make waking up easier, learn how to jumpstart your morning!
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