6 Tips to Smoothly Transition into Spring and Daylight Savings [VLOG #65]

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Hi Beauties,

Today I want to cover six tips for how you can smoothly transition into spring, including daylight savings. This is really key because so much of our body’s ability to balance, reset, and rejuvenate has to do with our bodies sleeping and resting very well, which means our body’s sympathetic nervous system gets a chance to relax during sleep.

When you’re deprived of sleep your sympathetic nervous system activity increases, this can increase your heart rate and decrease blood flow to the skin. 

During the day you’re bombarded by all these different stimuli all the time all day long. At night we really want to relax our system and that’s really key, as I mentioned, for harmonizing our overall balance.

Our overall wellness is such a huge, huge part of really feeling and looking our best. So, I’m gonna go into six tips for really springing forward into your spring, feeling your best.

These tips aren’t just great for the spring and the beginning of daylight saving time, they’re perfect for the Fall and the end of daylight saving time too!

#1 Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol

My first tip is to avoid caffeine and alcohol. Well duh! But still, it’s important to be reminded sometimes. :) These are substances that really can throw our rhythm off balance. Even if you like some coffee sometimes or some black tea, this is the time to be very aware when you want that coffee or that caffeine, and when you don’t. Don’t have it casually. Same thing for alcohol. We really want to make it as easy as possible for our bodies in this transition.

#2 Limit Screen-time 

The second has to do with screens. At night especially it’s really, really important. The research shows time and time again that the blue light that is given off these screens tends to stimulate our system, so just be really aware.

Put your phone in airplane mode. If you’re still scrolling through your phone at night, try to have some downtime. Meditate, read a book. As much as you can get off screens in the evening, it’s going to help with this whole transition a lot better.

Take a nice hot bath or a nice hot shower a few hours before bed. There’s research from the NYU School of Medicine showing that two hours before bed is a great mode. I usually do an hour or two.

What happens when you take a hot bath or a hot shower is your temperature goes up, and then in the cool-down period, it helps to make you sleepy, which again is going to relax your system, put you in that sympathetic mode, which is so great for deep rejuvenation.

#3 Massaging with Magnesium Oil

The third tip is lathering up your skin with magnesium oil. Now, this is really interesting. There was a study published in the Journal of Residential Medicine showing that magnesium helped in sleep time, sleep efficiency, and melatonin production. Our skin absorbs so much through it.

You can give yourself a nice little massage with magnesium oil and pair it with the shower or the bath, where you would wash whatever isn’t absorbed off the surface of your skin. That could be really nice in helping great sleep.

#4 Bedtime Routine

My fourth tip is about optimizing your bedtime routine. There are researchers from the University of Indiana finding that having a less active mind was the result of following a bedtime routine. 

This is really important for us as adults, to really relax our mind and go into a more relaxing mode where we can recharge and regenerate and let our organs do the same.

#5 Nighttime Elixirs

We’ve already talked about adding some magnesium oil, taking a nice hot shower or a nice hot bath, and I would also add drinking a sleep elixir. We have tons of recipes, available on the blog, that you an check out.

We just had my new book come out called Recipes for Your Perfectly Imperfect Life, which is perfect for this. Maybe some time to journal. We have lots of journal prompts that we offer every week in the Solluna Circle. Anything that feels really nice and relaxing to you in the evening is important to get into that rhythm of telling your body, reminding your body that it’s time to take a nice sigh and relax.

#6 Total Darkness

Finally, moving into total darkness. One study showed that keeping lights in your room while trying to sleep can suppress melatonin levels by 50%. So, anything you need to do, you can get blackout curtains.

You can wear an eye mask. Just put some black tape over the little blinking lights around your room. Anything you can do to really darken your room as much as possible is going to facilitate deep sleep, recharging our system, helping us feel amazing as we go into spring, as we go into daylight savings.

In Closing

I hope you incorporate one or all of these tips. Let me know how you do in the comments below. Sending you so much love, Beauty. Take your time. Look around the site. There are lots of other resources for you. Remember we also have our Feel Good Podcast, where I go much more in-depth on questions and interviews!

I will see you back here soon. Until then, lots of love.