Building Better Habits: Improving Your Quality of Sleep

Mar 21

How well are you sleeping? Could your sleep habits use improvement?

Sleep is essential to literally every process in our bodies – physical, mental, emotional, mood, immune health, and metabolism.

In our fast-paced life, many do not prioritize sleep. As the saying goes, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” The question is, how well are your body and brain functioning if you are not getting the rest you need?

Culturally, we need to shift our mindset and build better sleep habits. Sleeping, stillness, and breathing all activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is half of our nervous system. It is just as important as the sympathetic nervous system that keeps us moving. If we spend all of our time and energy on doing and never just being, that can lead to anxiety and depression, immune dysfunction and all manner of disease.

When we begin prioritizing our sleep and creating a consistent routine it can greatly benefit all aspects of our health. Ideally, we recommend getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. You can even use a sleep tracker to keep tabs on your bedtime, the time you wake up, energy level, mood, diet, screen time, and significant stressors of the day. You can track this over the course of a week and begin to see what works best for your body.

To get you started, we have created a sleep tracker that you can use to gather information. It’s a simple chart that you can find here: Mana Wellness Sleep Tracker.

If you would like something more advanced there are watches, wristbands, and rings with apps that can track your sleep habits more in-depth. They can track how long you are in certain stages of sleep and the overall sleep quality based on metrics.

As time goes on and you get more data from tracking your sleep, you’ll be able to pick up on things that are impactful, and you can implement positive changes in those areas. For instance, if you find that eating too late or having an alcoholic drink affects your quality of sleep or energy level the next day, you can choose to avoid those things. There is power in the awareness of what's happening with your body.

To learn more about how Mana Wellness Medicine can help you optimize your sleep and improve your overall health, schedule a free call with us today - bit.ly/3tb36Ft. We look forward to guiding you on your wellness journey!