Sleep is Your Superpower: Resources for Creating a Sleep Routine & Improving Your Sleep
Sleep is our superpower.
Here is a thoughtfully curated selection of my favorite elements of a sleep routine and product to help you prioritize your sleep and rest deeply and restoratively.
The foundation of all of our fitness and wellness goals is sleep.
It is the most significant element in the strength of our immune system and recovery from injury and illness, how well we respond to and recover from workouts, and how well we metabolize food into energy. Sleep is the number one influence on our stress levels and related cortisol hormone, which affects our ability to burn fat, lose excess weight, digest food, build muscle, and think clearly.
And it has never been harder to prioritize and sustain deep sleep,
given our relationship to digital devices, anytime streaming entertainment options, and stressful, volatile global events. It’s challenging to detach from platforms designed to addict us, so we must become intentional about guarding our rest.
This routine has supported me to train my body to drop into 7-8 hours of deep, restorative rest each night, and awaken naturally just before sunrise:
STEP 1.
Complete eating 2.5-3 hours before I want to go to sleep. The goal is 3 hours before, and maybe I have a little dark chocolate or adaptogenic sleep drink (linked below) up to 2 hours before. Avoid alcohol if you’re having trouble falling or staying asleep. Do everything you can to go to bed at the same time every night. Our circadian rhythms respond to routine.
STEP 2.
1.5 hours before bed: ideally, no screens (including phone, flatscreen tv, ipad). If you need screens, use blue light blocking glasses. Dim or turn off all lights in your home & light a candle. Maybe start diffusing some essential oils like lavender, eucalyptus, or copaiba to signal to your body that you’re winding down. Put on some chill music, like my savasana playlist.
STEP 3.
30min before bed: light yoga and meditative stretch, My Homestretch ALTER practice is a perfect guide. A great time to use your foam roller or massage gun to release tension that will otherwise keep you tossing and turning. My meditation albums will guide you through a brief (less than 10min) daily meditation to help you still the mind and release anxiety.
Before bed, read a novel that immerses you in another world or some poetry—nothing that will stir anxiety. Or journal a brief reflection on your day to integrate what you’ve learned and leave behind what you want to release. The daily pages in my Envision Planner are designed to guide you through this, and this nightly practice of leaving my worries “on the altar” while I sleep has been revolutionary to my sleep quality.
During your day and evening, try not to do anything in bed or in your bedroom other than sleep and rest. When you work or watch TV in bed, it trains your body to be confused about what this space is for. When you keep this space sacred for rest, it helps to signal to the body that it’s time to sleep.
STEP 4.
Use a sleep mask (this is my favorite - so soft and plush and protects your eyelashes. I don’t travel without it). And try mouth tape. This is my favorite: as small as possible and gentle on the skin for removal, but stays put. There is extensive research on how mouth tape can both improve sleep by training nose breathing, and of course also minimizes snoring (by a partner, of course!). I highly recommend James Nestor’s book “Breath” for research on this, and more. And if you have curly hair like me, you might love how a silk hair wrap or high quality silk pillowcase minimizes frizz. I also turn on an air purifier, which both cleans the air I’m breathing during sleep and also creates a little white noise, which helps me sleep through the windstorms that sometimes blow through Colorado mountains, or can help cover any outside noise. I now look like an (adorable) little sleep alien when I go to bed, with the mask, hair wrap, & mouth tape, but I’ve noticed all these little rituals help to prepare my mind and body to shut down for sleep. I feel “all wrapped up” and ready to drop into deep rest.
Favorite sleep-supporting supplements:
Recommended full-spectrum magnesium capsules
Magnesium-Om (or their extra Sleepy Magnesium-Om) is my favorite sleep supporting mocktail as an alternative to alcohol (I like to mix it with sparkling water)
Moon Juice’s Dream Dust is full of sleep-supporting adaptogens. Mix with a little bit of oat milk for a creamy evening drink.
For a adaptogenic capsule option, I like Focl’s Night Stack.
If you are regularly struggling to fall or stay asleep, this may indicate a nutrition deficiency, hormonal imbalance, digestion, gut health, and metabolic health issue, or a damaging anxiety or stress level. A blood & lab test can help you understand any of these issues. I highly recommend my favorite lab test & evaluation company, for its scheduling efficiency and thorough and understandable report on your results.
