NOTE: For some of our listeners, the podcasts were mixed up and they heard the “Beauty Sleep” podcast last week and missed the “Detox Beyond Food” podcast. If so, you can listen to the Detox podcast now by clicking here. (The post has been updated.)
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Below is the sleep podcast and post, with show notes:
In this podcast, Kim and Tony talk about the importance of beauty sleep. Sleep deserves the same attention as diet and exercise when it comes to overall health and beauty. These tips will help you set a routine that enables you to get the amount you need. Remember that sleep is cyclical and habitual and it will take time to make changes stick. Better sleep habits won’t happen overnight, but you can make gradual changes to shift your life into a mode that allows for more rest.
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Beauty Sleep Podcast Now
Disruptions to Your Regular Healthy Sleep Patterns
In college and high school, you may have gotten used to skimping on sleep because you had to study and then get up early the next morning for class or work. Procrastination can cause problems because you have a rush of things you have to get done at the last minute and that causes you to stay up late. Your mind racing late at night because you haven’t had adequate time to wind down can cause insomnia, too. Even artificial light several hours after sundown can be a problem.
Harvard article on artificial light and melatonin production
Tips for Winding Down and Promoting Restful Sleep
Try reducing the time spent on your phone, laptop, or in front of the television several hours before bed and dim the lights in your home in the evening. Keep your room as dark as possible and remove electronic devices that have lights, or just unplug them, and put your phone on airplane mode.
Dinner Starts Your Evening Routine
Just as you start the day with a moment of quiet, fresh water, hot water with lemon, and your Glowing Green Smoothie, you need a nightly routine that lets your body and mind know it’s time for bed. Settle your mind, starting with dinner several hours before bed (or a light snack around 6:00 and a light dinner after work if you’re going out with friends). Use digestive enzymes if you have to eat late. With a gap between dinner and bedtime, you’ll digest better and sleep better.
Morning and Nighttime Rituals
Setting the tone for the day each morning will keep you more efficient and grounded while allowing you to get more done earlier in the day and allow that restful time before bed at night. Wake up a few minutes early to savor a little quiet time before the family wakes up. At night, eat dinner earlier, watch your favorite TV shows earlier (fast forward through commercials!), go through your nighttime beauty ritual (remove makeup, brush teeth, etc), enjoy some hot herbal tea while you read a book, meditate for a few minutes, then sleep.
Beauty Sleep Routines Are Individual
Adapt these tips to your life, making gradual changes where they fit for you. Implement what you can at the moment. The important thing is to create space between the work day and sleep.
Being a person that has bi-polar, it is recommended I sleep to avoid mania. But, I’ve noticed and been reflecting a lot lately, and sleep makes you me more productive, happier, feel better, look younger, and just realize myself better. I used to be the opposite because I was on a race to success. Now, I’m just day by day putting what didn’t get done until the next day, and getting my 8 hours of sleep.