5 Evening Habits To Optimise Sleep and Increase Sports Performance
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Are you a triathlete who struggles with their sleep? Whether it’s falling asleep or waking up during the night?
A relaxing and sleep-inducing bedtime routine could be your key to a deep, blissful nights sleep for optimal recovery and performance.
A bedtime routine enables you to wind down from your busy day, taking you from feeling stressed, anxious and overthinking to feeling calm, relaxed and ready to sleep.
Sticking to a consistent evening routine also gets your mind and body into a great circadian rhythm, which means when it’s time to go to sleep, your head will hit the pillow and you’ll be in dreamland.
Become a super sleeper with these 5 powerful bedtime rituals:
HABIT 1: ESCAPE THE BLUE LIGHT
60-90 minutes before sleep.
By turning off all electronics (computers, laptops, phones, iPads, televisions etc.), you’ll immediately positively impact your sleep.
The blue light emitted from these screens triggers your body to produce more daytime hormones and therefore disrupts your body’s natural sleep preparation, resulting in sleep issues.
So be rebellious; unplug from your screened world and plug into real life.
HABIT 2: PLUG INTO REAL LIFE
60-90 minutes before sleep.
Luxuriate in these 60-90 minutes of tech-free time.
Spend quality time with your family, pets, reach for a book, listen to a podcast, play a board game, have a relaxing magnesium reach bath or anything else tech-free that fills you with a relaxing joy.
HABIT 3: GET READY FOR TOMORROW
60-90 minutes before sleep.
Anything you need for tomorrow, get it ready tonight.
Lay out everything you require for your morning and action-packed day; pack your bag, lay out your clothes, make your breakfast etc.
This will make tomorrow morning flow more easily and calmly.
HABIT 4: GRATITUDE PRACTICE
15 minutes before sleep.
An evening gratitude practice is so important because it places you in a positive and abundant mindset.
And by making how we see our reality a conscious process it will help you maintain this outlook throughout your day, weeks, months and years - even when life throws you a curveball.
It will also help you stop and lessen any negative thought processes now and in the future. Just list out in the evening 3 amazing things that happened to you today.
HABIT 5: BOX BREATHING
5 minutes before sleep.
Box breathing is a type of meditation that’s highly effective at relaxing the body - and also enhances your body’s recovery.
5 Steps To Box Breathing (if you're not signed up to my brain training programme)
1.Sit comfortably, close your eyes or softly focus on a specific spot, exhale all of your air and then inhale through your nose while counting to 4.
2. Hold your breath for the count of 4.
3. Exhale all of your air out for the count of 4.
4. Hold for the count of 4.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 ideally for 5 -10 minutes.
If the count of 4 is too hard, you can take the count down to 3. If it’s too easy, you can take it up to 5, 6 or 7 etc.
