Oh it's always so cold here in the uk welcome to episode two of Sleep! This video is all
about sleep hygiene by the way that doesn't mean how clean you are when you go to bed and
also sleep cycles and when you mix the two to sleep hygiene and sleep cycles together
you are gonna get an excellent night's sleep and feel super duper refreshed so this is a two-part
series on how to sleep episode one was all about how to sleep faster and different techniques to
help you fall asleep faster and this is episode two we're looking at sleep hygiene sleep cycles
and all the tips and tricks that are gonna help you sleep faster so welcome to my channel if you
haven't been here before we talk about everything healthcare to keep you healthy and happy and
as always in every single video i say it in the description below the whole video is chaptered so
if at any point you want to find a specific piece of information feel free to click it and click
on that relevant chapter however as i always say it's really important you watch the entire video
so you're going to get a good understanding of it all also if you do find this information helpful
please don't forget to click that like button it's going to help the video grow it's going
to help the video get to more people so it can help more people and it's going to help me out so
sending you those awesome vibes okay so before we begin let's do a quick summary of why sleep is so
important sleep is massively important at keeping us healthy when we sleep our brain refreshes it's
like restarting your computer it refreshes and it's super fast and it's super focused that's
exactly what happens to us and it helps us focus more it helps improve our memory it helps keep us
healthy it helps regulate hormone levels and also a lack of sleep and a lack of good sleep cycles
can contribute to an increased risk of cancer so bear that in mind as well now in this video we're
going to look at all the different things and tips and sleep hygiene cycles that are all going to
help you become more refreshed but if you haven't seen episode one i'm going to say one last time
if you haven't seen episode one you really need to watch that before you watch episode two which is
this episode because in episode one we talk about five different techniques that are going to help
you fall asleep faster so you need to watch them first and then follow up by this which is going
to work hand in hand and really be a beast of a video on how to fall asleep faster and you're
going to become a pro at it and you're going gonna have epic sleep as a result of it so if you have
watched episode one let's begin so let's begin with the tips and tricks that are gonna help you
fall asleep faster so tip number one is getting a warm shower or warm bath before going to bed it's
going to help relax all your muscles it's going to help relax all those stress levels and build
up that you're feeling or tense it's just going to help relax those muscles if you remember the
techniques that we spoke about in episode one it was all about relaxing those muscles so the warm
shower or one back are gonna work hand in hand to really help you sleep faster and actually
a study showed that warm shower before going to bed can help you fall asleep faster by up to 36
which is pretty amazing stuff to say you're just getting a shower moving on to tip number two you
need to stay away from those phones as laptops as tvs those macbooks those ipads whatever you
use those electronic devices you need to stay away from them they say two hours before going
to bed but i'm going to say three hours just to be on the safe side they admit blue light
which then reduces your natural melatonin which the melatonin is basically our natural hormone
that we make that helps us go to sleep it helps to make us feel sleepier and more tired especially at
night when it starts to get dark and you start to feel tired that's because your melatonin is
slowly increasing but then what happens is if you've got the blue light it's going to go boom
and it's going to go down and that means you're not going to feel sleepy and it's going to be
difficult to fall asleep so stay away from them moving on to tip number three you need to stay
away from caffeine at least six hours before going to bed so if you're going to bed at 10 p.m
the last cup of coffee or the last cup of tea needs to be 4 p.m maximum this again is going
to stop you from falling asleep especially if you have difficulty falling asleep you need to stay
away from that caffeine and also have a look at different drinks that you have because sometimes
they have caffeine in them certain drinks and teas have a lot of caffeine in them obviously
coffee is one but other drinks can have caffeine in them as well other foods can have them as well
so have a good little read do a bit of research as well after something in particular you always have
at night just check if it's got caffeine in it as well because it could actually have it without you
knowing moving on to tip number four it's all about having the room at a cooler temperature
this means about 16 to 20 degrees celsius which is about 60 to 67 fahrenheit the reason for this
is when it's a bit cooler in the room it signals to your body that it's time for sleep our bodies
like it a bit cooler when we go to sleep obviously you're going to be covered as well so you're not
going to be freezing at night but having a cooler temperature in your bedroom is gonna help you fall
asleep faster and better and tip number five this one's a bit of a random one but it's all about
the clock that you might have in your room now if you have an analog clock which goes tick tock tick
tock okay definitely get rid of that because that can go on your mind and you're just constantly
thinking of that sound and as you're hearing it and you can't fall asleep it makes you feel more
anxious and stressed because why am i not falling asleep and i've got work tomorrow at this time and
i've got to be up at this time and it's now 12 o'clock or whatever so get rid of that analog
clock if you've got one in there and also if you've got a digital clock that makes no sound
still get rid of it because you're going to be tempted to keep turning and looking at it when
you keep looking at again it's going to ruin that cycle that we've created from the techniques in
episode 1 for you to fall asleep so get rid of those things so they're not a distraction when
you're going to sleep okay so moving on to tip number six the next tip that i want to talk to you
about is managing physical symptoms look if you've got a cold at the moment if you're congested at
the moment if you've got a headache all of these things can stop you from falling asleep or are
going to make it difficult for you to fall asleep so let's say for example you congested your blood
nose and you've been struggling go and speak to your pharmacists go and speak to your health care
professional get some treatments for it try some remedies or watch some of my videos on
colds and flus and how to recover from them i will leave a link to up here and in the
description below there's loads of different things that you can do but they're going
to help with those physical symptoms that are going to stop you from falling asleep
now moving on to tip number seven this is all about optimizing your bedroom look first of all
your bedroom should only be for sleeping if you're using your bedroom for i don't know eating in if
you're using your bedroom to work in this is one of the worst things you can possibly do
because you are creating this association with work and pleasure or whatever you want to call
it in the bedroom and it's not a place for sleep so your brain thinks it's that kind of place
so you need to cause a disassociation you need to disassociate that section your bedroom from
anything else and it's only there for sleep so your brain knows as well as soon as you go into
that room it's sleep time it's not work time it's not watching tv time it's sleep time also
make sure it's super dark in your bedroom look if you're going to sleep and you've got really
thin curtains and you've got a light outside your window and there's that light coming in
it's going to be difficult falling asleep anybody is going gonna find it difficult to fall asleep me
anyone okay so it's not just you who's gonna find it difficult to sleep when there's light coming in
so invest in some good curtains some good light blocking curtains invest in something like that
get an eye mask get whatever you need okay to help you fall asleep better these kind of things
are all going to impact you and certain things that we just don't think about we just think oh
i can't fall asleep but these could be causing it as well now moving on to tip number eight
it's all about food make sure you're not having a massive heavy stodgy meal late on in the evening
look you're cut off really really should be eaten in meal about 6 p.m nothing after that okay 6 30
pushing it but if you're gonna have your evening meal as well make sure you're not having a massive
stodgy meal full of complex carbohydrates like bread and rice and all that sort of stuff okay
all that sort of stuff is just going to make you really bloated and it's also going to be difficult
to fall asleep because your body's working hard to break down all these sugars and the molecules are
going in so instead have a light evening meal okay have a salad have some some fish with it you know
light things not really really heavy foods and that again is going to help you fall asleep faster
also make sure you're not drinking alcohol in the evening that's a given as well if you're having
alcohol in the evening again it's going to be difficult to fall asleep as well so these are
little tips they're going to make a big difference now moving on to tip number nine it's all about
exercise look exercise is great when it's done during the day but it's not generally
recommended to be doing high intensity exercise just before going to bed however there hasn't
been some new recent research that actually doing exercise closer to bed that isn't you know super
intense can help with sleep and can also help reduce the morning grogginess but again
more research is needed than that as well but for the time being do your exercise
just make sure it's not just before going to bed leave a couple of hours at least
you know if you if you want to do it late late on in the evening talking you know 6 p.m and then you
know if you're going to sleep at like 9 10 that's perfect okay just make sure you're not doing super
super intensity exercise like i don't know running a marathon okay at 6 00 pm and then wanting to go
to sleep because that's going to be difficult as long as there's moderate intensity exercise
it's all good and moving on to tip number 10 for the sleep hygiene bit tip number 10 is all about
napping look you need to make sure that you're not napping throughout the day if you are napping
throughout the day having little short bursts of sleep having half an hour 20 minutes an hour
all of these are just going to help reduce that sleep cycle that we're working with so it's really
important that we're not napping throughout the day and we have a set time to sleep we're going
to go through this next as well okay so i hope you find this information helpful so far if you have
please don't forget to click that like button it's going to help the video grow it's going to help it
get to more people so more people aware of it and it's also going to help me out as well so
the next thing i want to talk to you about is the importance of sleep cycles and the importance of
getting the right heart was first of all this video is intended for adults and children should
get more hours than adults okay if you want more information on that i will leave it in
the description below but if you're an adult and you're watching this video i recommend you get
eight hours of sleep per night when we're talking about sleep cycles there's actually four stages
in the sleep cycle and healthy people who are sleeping generally transit between each cycle
every 90 minutes or so so let's learn a bit more about them so stage number one is what we call
the transient period this is the period that you're actually falling asleep or beginning to
fall asleep it's the period that you're trying to sleep and you start to have little thoughts
and you might start to have little dreams and you and you start to forget where you are exactly okay
that is the transit period of the sleep cycle so you sort of forget your surroundings and
you're falling into sleep now once we're done with stage one we're moving on to stage two
of the sleep cycle and this is where our heart rate and breathing rate starts to slow down we
should spend about half of our sleep in stage two so after this comes stage three and this
is either what we call slow wave sleep or delta sleep that's because the delta wave of the sleep
actually slows down and this then allows our body to start recovering itself from regenerating
the first time you go into stage three it usually lasts about 45 to 90 minutes and after that when
you go back into stage 3 it's a lot less than that now stage 3 is a really important part
of our sleep but as we age as well our stage 3 period so that section actually reduces as well
some people who are very elderly actually have no stage three so moving on to the fourth stage which
we call stage r it's also known as rem sleep which you've probably heard of which stands for rapid
eye movement and in rem sleep the first stage usually happens about 90 to 110 minutes in to
your sleep and it continues every 90 minutes so it cycles but it's a period where our brain is super
active and there's a lot of chemicals flying about as well and also what during rem sleep your heart
rate does go up as well and it's usually a period where you kind of dream more and it's usually the
period where you remember your dreams more as well so why are these sleep cycles so important
well these sleep cycles are important because it's a time for our body first of all to break
down the glucose it's kind of a time actually for our bodies to recover ourselves it's like
a mending period like i said it's like restarting the computer and everything refreshes and that's
exactly what your body's doing so it's breaking down the glucose breaking down certain hormones
creating hormones it's also helping up your immune system so loads of different things are
happening during the sleep cycle to keep us nice and healthy so it's super important that we're
getting good sleep and good sleep hygiene to give us the correct sleep cycles if we're not having
good sleep hygiene we're gonna we're not gonna be able to get that good sleep cycle that we need
to regenerate and restore our body to help us feel refreshed so the next question is
when should you seek medical advice if you're struggling to sleep well there's quite a few
scenarios for this so what i will do is i'll leave a box here full of different scenarios
where you should actually see medical attention for it feel free to pause the video right now
give it a read if it applies to you please please please speak to your health care
professional because that is the most important thing because your health is the most important
thing i also do have other videos on how to sleep faster as well which i'll leave a link to up here
and down here and i'll leave a playlist for you actually to make life easier and i really do hope
that you find this information helpful i hope you found it one helpful and i hope episode two helps
as well like i said they work hand in hand so you need to do them both together to really get
solid night sleep help those sleep cycles work properly with the sleep hygiene and help you feel
super refreshed let us know how you get on don't forget to like the video don't forget to share
the video tell your friends tell your family tell your lovely tell everyone that you know i really
hope that you found this information helpful always remember you're awesome and i will see you
next week okay moving on to tip number six okay that's it and i'm moving on to tip number ten
and and it also allows i don't know hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
to click that like follow or subscribe button now to stay up to date with new weekly videos