We all have a stressful life and sometimes it becomes too much. We lose sleep and our anxiety is through the roof! So what do we do when real life stress happens and how can we make the most of a stressful situation before we sleep?
Stress Reliever Tips
- Relax
First of all, this may be a bit cliche but resting before you go to sleep will help. It may not be the most obvious thing to think about but allowing your body to slow down is great! Take a couple deep breaths and start paying attention to your breathing patterns. When we can get more control of our heart rate and calm our body (literally) we can tend to have a better chance of successful sleep.
- Exercise
Before going to sleep, exercise can be a great stress reliever. Don’t discount how powerful the body really is. Sometimes we just need to get “it” out of our system. Go to the gym, go for a run, do some yoga… Whatever routine you can incorporate into your daily life as stress relief the more calm and relaxed the body will be overall.
- Diet
Stress comes from all sorts of angles in our life, we know that. But something most of us don’t look into is the diet we have. What types of food are you eating? When are you eating? How are you eating? All of these questions make or break a stressful situation. It is suggested to stop eating sugars and carbs around dinner time so your body doesn’t need to have the sense of using those calories which are in general, short-term energies our body is naturally trying to burn off. The excess calories and carbs we intake turns into sugars and fats in our body and can affect our sleep cycle.
To take a quick assessment of your body’s reactions, do a juice fast or a fast of carbs or sugars for a week. It will be really hard and we don’t suggest doing it long term but it will help reset your body’s natural dependencies on those things to perform throughout the day.
- Schedule
A lot of life and stress comes from the lack of planning. It’s a simple fact that most stress comes from the feeling and sense of being overwhelmed. If you are reading this and this feeling is you then maybe it’s time to start having a schedule and an action plan throughout your day.
A simple plan is to break down your day into objectives, numbering the priority of importance and knock those things out first. If you are working an hourly job and don’t have as much freedom and are really stressed from work then maybe it’s time to start cutting out the excess activities and commitments you have out of your life. Living a simple life will have less stress so let’s start working our way to reducing the amount of stress you have in your life so you have the best opportunity to control your sleep.
Conclusion
Sleep is essential, so is stress, to our daily lives. If you have stress currently in your life it’s time to take a step back and assess where the stress is coming from. Incorporate a daily routine and plan out your day so you have more control of where the stress is coming from. If you don’t workout or have any physical activities to do in the day, start moving around and see the instant result of happier, healthier sleep.
