Time to upgrade your sleep quality!

Whatever your background or goals, finding a balance with your environment is paramount. Today I would like to start the set of articles on how to improve your life quality.

Sleep is the best meditation!- Dalai Lama
If you can dream it, you can do it. – Walt Disney
Sleep is half of my training. – thriathlonist Jarrod Shoemaker

It is a common wisdom that adults need 7-8 hours of sleep which means they need to spend 8-9 hours in the bed.The studies of the University of Warwick observed that lack of sleep (6 hours and less on constant base) results at 12% increase of the risk of mortality.
While sleeping new neurones connections (synapsis) are build, which means you remember, process, improve during your sleep. You are another person when you slept or had a nap.
Overall, there 4 important stages that your brain need to come through during the sleep. One cycle of these stages lasts 90 mins and we need, at least, 3 of them during the night. 4.5 hours – your minimum (though dangerous for several days in a raw!).

Before sleep
• Your bedroom should be dark. Use the curtains or sleeping mask.
• Avoid blue spectrum of light (at least, use Flux for your laptop and night mode for the phone)
• Sleep on your right side of the body so that you do not stress your internal organs.
• Try sleeping withput a pillow and notice the difference. Explore yourself&find what fits you best!
• Ventilate your bedroom during the day and before sleep.
• Use the humidifier. Most people feel more comfortable with 30-50% humidity.
• Temperature of the body is decreasing during the night so it is vital to maintain certain temperature around. For the most people, it is around 18-22 degrees Celcius.
• Also cold shower, sleeping naked and avoiding the stimulation of the central nervous system have been proved to increase the quality of sleep.
• Empty your mind of the worries of the day. Gratitude journals (try to remember three things which you feel grateful for) meditation, affirmations, breathing exercises – you can believe it or not but that helps millions of people to live less stressful life.

During the day
• Get enough blue spectrum light (especially right after waking up) in order to maintain your alertness and circadian rhythm.
• Excersice around 2-30 mins every day.
• Massage, sauna, yoga, meditation, stretching – everybody knows the benefits, but less people actually do that. Join the club of happy people by treating yourself with the best the humanity have explored.
• Avoid caffeine (cofee&tea) 5-8 hours before sleep. Limit late-evening alcohol consumption (at least 90 mins before going to bed). Instead hydrate your body with water daily!

Sleep in our age is extremely important since we are constantly learning new things and improving our skills. For the brain and body to operate properly we just must sleep well. Remember it when you have a dilemma of staying up vs. tomorrow`s exam or recovering from the sports training.

Credits to Biohacker’s Handbook which is written by technology expert Teemu Arina, medical doctor Olli Sovijärvi and nutritional expert Jaakko Halmetoja.