hey there everybody today we are talking about one of my favorite topics that's sleep I am your
host dr. dawn elise Snipes what we're gonna go over today are really just some basic tools to help you
improve your sleep when our sleep is out of whack when we're not getting good quality sleep every
night and for adults that is seven to nine hours of good quality sleep it doesn't go down once you
aren't a teenager anymore seven to nine hours of good quality sleep is important to regulate your
sex hormones to regulate your thyroid hormones to regulate your appetite and to regulate your
energy levels as well as just to help you feel energetic first thing you need to do is create a
routine what do we do with children when they come home from school generally they have playtime then
they eat dinner then they take a bath because they got dirty at dinner and then we read them
a story or play with them a little bit or watch a video with them and then we tuck them into bed
that is a routine and that triggers the child's brain to know okay start starting to be time to
get ready to go to bed so the brain says time to start producing melatonin melatonin helps us
drift off to sleep so by the time juniors getting into bed he is in full on melatonin and ready to
go to sleep and not just lay there and toss and turn create a routine for yourself as an adult we
can still have reasonable routines you eat dinner and what do you do after dinner maybe you read a
book okay you read a book that's what you do and then you take a bath and then you go to bed maybe
that's what you do or whatever your routine is identify three things ish two to four things so
three is the middle that you do every night that will help your brain recognize it's time for me
to start winding down and get ready to go to sleep for me after dinner I go downstairs I turn on the
TV just because I like watching tea - or having the TV on when I'm relaxing and then I play words
with friends and as soon as I start playing Words With Friends I start feeling sleepy in about 20
to 30 minutes my brain has learned that if I'm playing that that it's probably about time to go
to bed eliminate stimulants including caffeine and nicotine after noon if possible you may be
thinking noon really and yes it will take some time to gradually wean yourself off of some of
the stimulants but caffeine has approximately a six hour half-life which means it stays in
your body for 8 to 12 hours after you consume it so what you're drinking at noon may still be
affecting your sleep at midnight when you can you know start trying to wean down if you can't start
trying to wean down off of caffeine nicotine has a much shorter half-life it'll it's half-life is
only about two hours so four hours after you smoke or dip or however you get your nicotine then it
should be pretty much out of your system but that is four hours I know there are a lot of people
who smoke right up until the time they go to bed which means the first four hours of their sleep is
probably disrupted because of the stimulants that are in their system have a blood-alcohol level of
zero point zero when you go to bed and some people drink right before bed to help them relax and yes
studies have shown alcohol can help you drift off to sleep more quickly but when it starts to
exit your body you actually have much much worse sleep and may have higher levels of anxiety so the
quality of sleep through the night is much worse if you have alcohol in your system when you go to
sleep additionally if you have sleep apnea or are right on the verge of having sleep apnea alcohol
in your blood system or in your system has shown has been shown to make your sleep apnea worse if
you have a CPAP machine you know that's EE another double reason not to drink alcohol not to have
alcohol in your system before you go to sleep keep the room cool a lot of us think we want to
get warm in order to relax but surprisingly enough or maybe not surprising to you when your room is
cooler your body has to cool down in order for you to go to sleep when you relax everything in
your body slows down and you start getting cooler your body needs to be cool so try to keep the room
as cool as possible and try not to do things right before bed that are gonna get you super
heated up a dress bedroom ergonomics look at your bed make sure you have a comfortable bed this is
one of the best things that you can do for your health and your mood is to make sure that you're
getting a good quality night's sleep check your pillow make sure that you've got a pillow that
is ergonomically sound and you can go online and search for sleep economics or sleep positions and
find pillows and recommendations for how to have the most comfortable night's sleep super important
address pain if it is keeping you up if you have some sort of chronic pain I have this pain in my
side and back that has been persistent for about two years and I know there are certain things that
I do that make it worse and certain things I do that can make it go away but if that pain in my
side is bothering me before I go to sleep I am NOT able to get to sleep as quickly and it often wakes
me up it's important that you address pain so you can get a good quality night's sleep eliminate or
block noise and light light tells your body it's time to wake up so you want to minimize
light as much as possible use blue blockers 2 hours before bed so even if you are watching TV
you're not stimulating your brain to think it's daytime you can get a blue blocker that you plug
into the back of your TV so you have the benefit of that and you can download apps on your mobile
device to block the blue light from your mobile devices with noise most of us think of noise as
the television or the radio and we don't factor in the fact that our partner may be the greatest
source of noise if your partner sounds like a chainsaw throughout the night then he or she
may be keeping you up it's important to be able to get a good night's sleep which means you've
got to block out that noise either through noise cancelling headphones earplugs whatever it is that
works for you but it is important to be able to get into a place where your body where your brain
is not being stimulated by constant sound and finally minimize allergens and part of this also
means if you've got allergies to animals get them out of the bed I say that I don't do it I will
tell you I'm bad about this one but if allergens bother you and make you wake up stuffy or coughing
again they are interrupting your sleep you may not notice waking up but you're probably waking
up throughout the night and they're impairing the quality of your sleep which is gonna make
you feel more fatigued and have more difficulty concentrating the next day and may contribute
to depression and irritability when you're not getting adequate sleep pick one two or all of
these suggestions in order to start improving your sleep for better health and better mental health