Struggling with sleep during this lock down? You are not alone.
Social Psychologist Dr. Dylan Selterman stressed the importance of maintaining good sleeping habits while chatting with the team on "Chicago Today." She offered these four steps to help increase your odds of falling asleep and staying asleep every night.
And with all that that sleeping you’ll probably be having more dreams. To watch Dr. Selterman discuss why vivid dreams are currently on the rise, tune in at 11:30 a.m. Friday.
4 Steps to a Good Night’s Sleep
- Consistent bedtime – with everyone’s wild schedules it’s very hard to maintain the same bedtime every night. Start treating your bedtime like a very important engagement. You wouldn’t be late for a wedding or the work day or a date, right? So why be late for bed when it’s so important to our daily function.
- Turning off any artificial light device.- Stop looking at your phone before bed. Our phones are addicting and the artificial light tricks our brain into thinking it’s still time to be awake. Stop looking at you phone 30 to 60 minutes before your set bedtime (don’t forget step 1) and you’ll notice a big difference in how quickly you fall asleep.
- Don’t have a really big meal right before you go to bed – Keep the eating to a minimum 3 hours before you hit the hay. It’s not a good idea to rev up you digestive system when you’re trying to get your body to slow down for the night.
- Getting more exercise – the best way to get a good night sleep is to make sure you’re actually tired! We should all be getting in at least 30-60 minutes of cardio exercise every day. Be sure to get that heart rate up and break a sweat. Need some inspiration? Click here. (Hyperlink to one of our Big Joe workouts.)
