Five Tips to Help Rehab Your Sleep

Taking a magnesium supplement before bed is a great way to help prep your body for rest.* Your neurotransmitter, GABA, is key to your body’s regulation of its sleep system, and GABA receptors in your brain rely on magnesium to function properly.*

Melatonin is a hormone that is responsible for regulating your sleep-wake cycle and is derived from the neurotransmitter, serotonin, and the amino acid, tryptophan. It is supposed to be low in the morning to help wake you up and high at night to help get you ready for sleep. However, certain activities can throw this delicate rhythm out of balance.

Blue light emitted from cell phones, laptops, and other screens send signals to your brain that it’s daylight and can inhibit your body’s production of melatonin. To help facilitate healthy melatonin balance, limit screen time in the evening and shut off all electronics a few hours before bed. But if you do have to look at screens in the evening, wearing amber-colored glasses can help block blue light emitted from screens.

A regular meditation practice can do wonders for prepping your mind and body for a night of deep sleep. Set aside 10-30 minutes right before you go to bed to meditate, take slow deep breaths, and enjoy the calm silence.

In addition to calming our bodies when we lay down, we also need to calm our minds - which can sometimes run wild thinking of all the things that may worry us or the long list of to-dos for tomorrow. While meditation works for some, for others it may be a little more difficult. The truth is that 90-95 percent of our thoughts aren't new thoughts; instead, our minds are repeating the same ones over and over, and more often than not, they're negative ones.

To combat these from taking over, try processing them through journaling. Whether it's writing about your day, a list of your top three priorities for tomorrow, something new that you learned, or any anxious thoughts that you need to release, writing it on paper can help get it out of your head and off your chest. If you need a bit of help or don't know where to start, try writing whatever is on your mind - whether it makes sense or not.