If your complaint every morning is ‘I’m soooo tired’, we feel you. This coming New Year, aim to make better sleep a part of your lifestyle to feel on top of your game always.
Singaporeans are not getting enough sleep. A recent poll by international market research agency, YouGov, has found that 44% of Singaporeans sleep less than the recommended seven hours a night.
Poor sleep is not only linked to an increased risk of chronic health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.
Get more and better quality sleep with these tips:
We’ve all heard of the old wives tale that eating dinner past 9pm causes weight gain, well it turns out, there is some truth in that. Sleep deprivation can cause weight gain and being the last meal of the day, your dinner can cause you to lose some zzz’s as well.
For better sleep, aim to get dinner at least 2-3 hours prior heading to bed. Yin, a nutritionist at Kinohimitsu says that, “It takes your body about 3 hours to digest food and heavy meals interfere with your body’s internal clock, leaving you with less restful sleep.”
So what do you do when you’ve got dinner in but you’re hungry again right before bedtime? Yin recommends small, carbohydrate-rich snacks like warm milk, fruit or biscuits to help your body produce serotonin that’ll put you right to bed.
The impact of digital devices on our sleep has been so great that The UK Sleep Council has coined the phrase ‘Junk Sleep” to explain it. The phenomenon is described as sleep that does not feed the brain the rest that it needs to function properly.
If you’ve ever felt sleepy and tried to fight it with a smartphone game or so, you would have found that after a round or two of playing, you did not feel sleepy any longer. Digital devices have that effect on our sleep, emitting blue light that messes up the body’s circadian rhythm by suppressing melatonin, the sleep hormone.
For better sleep, try keeping your phones and screens away an hour or so prior to bedtime. Better yet, try a pre-bed ritual to soothe and prep you for a good night’s sleep! We love stretching out with a short yoga routine or two and snuggling down to a good book as part of our daily wind-down.
Great news for those resolving to get fitter in 2019, working out regularly can actually help to improve your sleep. A poll done by the National Sleep Foundation found a link between exercise and better sleep.
People who were regularly active reported better sleep when compared to people who were not physically active, even on the same amount of sleep per night! Working out also provides a hit of relaxation, helping to relieve stress, anxiety and negative feelings that may keep you up at night.
So for better sleep, get moving this 2019! For information and fitspiration, read our guide on getting fit in the new years!
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Kinohimitsu Diamond Nite is a collagen-based beauty drink, made with GABA and Manuka Honey, ingredients that have been scientifically proven to give better quality sleep.
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Charlene K
Author
Charlene enjoys long walks to the fridge, makeup and emotional eating. A former journalism student and avid skincare nerd, you'll find her on the weekends reading up and writing about the properties of ceramides, acids and oils.