Simple tip for better sleep:
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in response to darkness which has a powerful effect on your sleep.
Melatonin influences your circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycles.
Unfortunately the production of melatonin reduces as we move through life and there are also a number of elements to how we tend to live our lives which further compromise our own melatonin production.
Light has a big impact on our melatonin and while it may sound counterproductive because melatonin is produced in response to darkness in the evening, getting 10 minutes of sunlight in the morning actually boosts our melatonin production later on the day.
So this week's simple tip is to get out in the sunlight for 10 minutes in the morning every day.
Mornings can be busy, so you might need to get a bit creative if 10 minutes of morning sunlight feels challenging. Obviously a 10 minute morning walk would be ideal, but if that feels impossible due to your schedule, could you eat your breakfast outside? Or park a little further from school drop off or work to get a 5-10 minute walk in the sun? Or go outside for fresh air and some sunlight at morning tea time?
Another thing that can greatly reduce our natural melatonin production is exposure to artificial lighting and the blue light from phones and other devices.
Aside from setting a curfew for yourself where you avoid screen exposure after a certain time (ideally no later than 7-8pm), you can set your phone or screen to 'night time lighting' or invest in blue light blocking glasses.
I tend to wear my blue light blocking glasses from late afternoon onwards and I've noticed that this helps to reduce eye fatigue as well as reducing the impact of the light from the screen on my sleep.
I'm a big fan of the Baxter Blue glasses as they're aesthetically more appealing than the fluorescent yellow lenses that some of the blue light blocking glasses use.
https://www.baxterblue.com.au/collections/blue-light-glasses
Remember that your sleep quality is not only affected by what you do immediately before going to bed, but by what you do throughout the entire, starting with morning sunlight exposure!
