Longer nights should mean more sleep (if you want/need it), but many people find themselves fighting insomnia, instead.
Most of winter insomnia can be tied to electricity, especially now that there are phones, tablets, and tvs to amuse us. Way back when, it was common to bunker down during winter with stored provisions and tell stories around the hearth. Without artificial light in our faces, melatonin levels came on naturally to get sleep started.
Now, life and jobs are different, there’s no reason to call the day quits at sunset, and lots of light from screens can stall the natural onset of sleep. During winter, light is a more critical part of evenings, making insomnia flare up more than normal.
What can you do? Normal tactics to fight insomnia still help: working out will help your body to naturally tire out (and doing it in the first part of the day keeps that runner’s high from interfering with sleep), a healthy diet and better digestion mean less sleep disruption, and staging your bedroom to accommodate all your senses will make it a trigger for sleep when you’re training your body to have a more natural and healthy sleep pattern.
But there’s no reason to live like it’s 1700. If you can trim down on light sources before bed, great, but if not, that’s OKÂ too. Just make sure to help your body out by supplementing with night time nutrients, like those in our Sleep Support Pack.
A little bit of melatonin (following research that adding too much can actually work against you), and other nutrients that your brain and body use a lot of at night (including minerals like calcium) can help you get a better night’s sleep!
Sleep is important. Your brain and body so a lot of maintenance work while you slumber! And being tired is your immune system asking you to slow down and let it work on you. So don’t put off correcting insomnia—get help from our Sleep Support Pack today.
What sleep tricks work for you? Add them in the comments!