Turn off technology and bright lights at least 2 hrs before bedtime to get your body into its natural sleep rhythm. Rub your temples with calming essential oils like lavender, clary sage, vetiver, vanilla or diffuse the oils in your bedroom all night using a fan diffuser. Treat yourself to an Epsom salt bath 2-3 times a week and upgrade your bedding for a better night's sleep.

Do you feel like there is never enough time to get enough sleep or to make a proper breakfast? Now summer is ending, and winter is looming and, for many of you, kiddies are off to school. So, our sleep is about to change! Hey, I have got 10 ways to upgrade your sleep routine, today!!

Sleep should be an essential part of your health goals. You simply cannot reach your health goals without looking at ways to improve your sleep. Proper rest is an opportunity to give your vital organs a chance to rest, but it is also a way for our busy, busy brains to regenerate for the day ahead.

After years of dealing with anxiety and high stress in my own corporate job, I have finally come up with solutions to improve the quality of my sleep and to wake up and dominate my day before 9 am.

Now, let us get started with my “nighttime rituals” and end with the “morning rituals”:

Nighttime Rituals

Electronics After 9 PM Are A NO-NO

Turn off technology and bright lights at least two hours before bedtime to get your body into its natural sleep rhythm. Social media or watching TV is too stimulating to our brains that it will not allow it to shut off. I have personally set my lap top with a Flux setting which dims the screen based on the outdoor light, so if I am working after dinner time, the light is not so jarring to my eyes.

However, I have got a fix. The nightshade glasses can be worn throughout the evening to help with light obstruction. I even put them on if I have to go to the bathroom throughout the night. So, when I put the light on, I am not shocking my system making it harder to go back asleep. I have installed smaller lamps into my bedroom for more soothing light.

Diffuse Essential Oils

Scents evoke feelings and the smell of lavender, clary sage, vetiver, and vanilla essential oils help to ease anxiety and lull me to sleep.

I either drop EO’s into my bath, rub onto my temples or diffuse in my bedroom. Either way, the benefits of using essential oils in your sleep practice are endless!

Magnesium-Rich Baths

Two to three times a week, you will find me in a bath that is blended with a mixture of magnesium oil, Himalayan sea salts, and essential oils. Magnesium, in particular, is considered the “calming” mineral which is essential for a peaceful sleep.

Plan, Plan, Plan

It was not until I started to plan my meals and my to-do list for the week, that I started to see improvements in my health and an increase in my own productivity, especially when it came to personal and professional tasks. There is less stress when you plan, people!!!

Is It Dark In There?

I love my place. There are tonnes of windows everywhere making it the perfect place to wake up, but not the best place to sleep. In order for your brain to shut down and to start the process of “going to sleep”, you need a dark space as light can be jolting to our neurosystem making it harder to fall asleep.

There are two ways to go about this. Installing dark shades into your room or investing in a sleep mask that is equipped to shut out the light.

A Healthy Mattress

This is such an important step that we often do not think about. Is your mattress supporting your sleep? If you have a lumpy or perhaps too soft of a mattress that does not properly support your body, you may wake up with more aches and pains that you want to. And, that does not necessarily support your health.

Morning Rituals

Wake Up Gently

This is so, so hard, isn’t it? But, waking up in the calmest manner and avoiding a jolt to your adrenal system, is the best way to start your morning and day. Prefer a gentle wake up alarm tone over the harsh/loud ones.

Hydrate

This is just the simplest way you can help to wake up and energize the body, along with jump starting metabolism. I start every morning with two cups of room temperature, filtered water with the squeeze of one lemon.

And, if I really feel sluggish, I go with my elixir of water, lemon, turmeric, black pepper, and if needed, a bit of honey.

Stay Unplugged And Stay Connected

Instead of rushing into emails, use a more quieter space that mornings offer to do the things that are the most important to you. I do start to work on parts of my business before I go to my day job. And, this completely lights me up. This is also were I sit down and plan my week or my day.

Fuel Your Day With Breakfast

Generally in the morning I prefer to fast until 9 am so about 12 hours in total as it allows my digestive system time to rest. However, I do drink lots of my elixir first thing in the morning and my bullet proof-version of coffee. After that, then it is generally a delicious fat-filled green smoothie that keeps me full right up to lunch.