Sharing some of my favorite products for a healthy sleep stack. As always, talk with a doctor before making any changes to your health or wellness routine. This post is not medical advice.

Hi friends! How are you? I hope that you’re having a wonderful morning. I have a podcast interview today and am looking forward to taking a yoga class with Liv later.

For today’s post, let’s chat about one of my all-time favorite topics: sleep!!

(It’s one of Mazer’s favorite topics, as well)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned on my own wellness journey, and after helping hundreds of women rebalance their bodies, it’s this: you can’t out-supplement poor sleep. Also, what you do in the morning and during the day will impact your sleep quality!

We all know how terrible it feels to toss and turn all night… and how hard it is to feel like yourself the next day. Mood swings, cravings, sluggish workouts, hormone imbalances, and even gut issues can stem from poor quality sleep. When I don’t sleep, I feel like my whole world has come crashing to the ground. Take away my sleep, you take away everything. (I think this is one of the biggest reasons why postpartum was such a struggle for me.)

Over the years, I’ve tried many approaches to improve my sleep, from meditation to blackout curtains. While those all help, I’ve found that a few key tools consistently make the biggest difference. This is my current go-to healthy sleep stack that I use as part of my nighttime routine.

As always, please check with your doctor before starting any new supplements or products, especially if you’re on medications or managing a health condition. This is simply what works for me and many of my clients. 

My Healthy Sleep Stack: What I Use for Deep, Restorative Rest

What’s in My Healthy Sleep Stack?

1. Adrenal Soothe from EquiLife

Chronic stress is one of the most common sleep disruptors, and most women over 35 are dealing with some degree of it, whether they realize it or not. Adrenal Soothe is a blend of targeted adaptogens including ashwagandha and phosphatidylserine that can help reduce nighttime cortisol levels. This can lead to deeper rest and more consistent energy during the day.

Sharing some sleep hygeine hacks to help you get a better night’s sleep. 

Hi friends! Happy Monday! I hope that you had an amazing weekend. We’re back from a whirlwind trip to Vegas! It was such a blast to spend the weekend with friends in one of my favorite places. I’ll share some pics of the shenanigans in Friday Faves!

Today, let’s talk about sleep!

In today’s fast-paced world, quality sleep has become a luxury rather than a necessity. Yet, it’s essential for our overall health and well-being. Sleep hygiene, the habits and practices that promote healthy sleep, plays a crucial role in achieving restorative rest each night.

10 Sleep Hygiene Hacks

In this blog post, I wanted to share 10 effective sleep hygiene hacks to help you optimize your sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. (Little note: this is not medical advaice and I’m not a doctor. If you’re having trouble with sleep, please reach out to your health care provider.)

Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule:
Maintaining a regular sleep-wake cycle helps regulate your body’s internal clock, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up naturally. Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends, to synchronize your circadian rhythm.

Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine: Develop a calming pre-sleep ritual to signal to your body that it’s time to wind down. This could include activities like reading a book, practicing gentle yoga or meditation, taking a warm bath, or listening to soothing music. Avoid stimulating activities or screens, which can disrupt melatonin production and hinder sleep.

Optimize Your Sleep Environment:
Transform your bedroom into a sleep-friendly sanctuary by optimizing your sleep environment. Keep the room cool, dark, and quiet, and invest in comfortable bedding and a supportive mattress. Consider using blackout curtains, white noise machines, or earplugs to block out external disturbances and promote deep sleep.

Limit Exposure to Blue Light:
Exposure to blue light from screens (phones, tablets, computers) in the evening can suppress melatonin production and interfere with sleep. Minimize screen time at least an hour before bedtime, or use blue light-blocking glasses or apps to reduce the impact of artificial light on your sleep cycle.

Watch Your Caffeine Intake: While caffeine can provide a temporary energy boost, consuming it too close to bedtime can disrupt sleep. Limit your intake of caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea, and soda in the afternoon and evening, and opt for decaffeinated options or herbal teas instead.

Practice Relaxation Techniques:
Incorporate relaxation techniques into your bedtime routine to calm your mind and body before sleep. Deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxatio

A new study has highlighted how losing just 39 minutes of sleep in a night can impact children. So what can we do to help kids get the best night’s sleep possible?

As adults, we know just how much sleep affects our ability to go about our daily lives. Following on from those nights where we toss and turn, getting through the next day is a whole lot harder. And, it’s the same for kids. In fact, it might be even worse.

In a new study, published this week in Jama Network Open, researchers found that a difference of just 39 minutes in a child’s total sleep can have a big impact on them.

Monitoring 100 participants between the ages of eight and 12, the children were asked to alternate between a week of going to bed one hour earlier than normal, and then one hour later – with one week of going to bed at their normal time between those two changes.

Both the children and their parents then filled out questionnaires, rating their sleep disturbances and impairment during the day, as well as their quality of life as it relates to their health.

The assessment asked the children questions about whether they felt they were able to pay attention while in school, as well as how they felt physically.

Prior to the study, all the children who took part regularly slept between eight and 11 hours each night, and were also generally healthy. What the researchers saw after one week of the children receiving 39 minutes less of sleep each night, was the children reporting lower overall wellbeing, and they also found it more difficult to cope at school.

“Sleep is such a fundamental human requirement that, when it eludes us, it can have a negative impact on our day-to-day lives,” says hypnotherapist Angela Brown. “The impact of poor sleep can range from poor concentration to challenging behaviour, inability to learn new tasks, stress, anxiety, and depression.”

With so much at stake, how can you best support your child with their sleep? Angela has some suggestions:

1. Establish a routine

“Keep to a routine with a set amount of sleep. This helps to get our circadian rhythm back on track, so we feel more alert and able to function effectively.”

2. Set the scene

“If we can control the stimuli in the bedroom, it can have a positive effect on our sleep. Things to think about are the weight of the duvet – lighter for summer, heavier for winter. Thick curtains or black-out blinds, so our brains know it is time to sleep. No blue light, so no phones, TVs, or electrical devices in the bedroom.”

3. Encourage exercise

“With as little as 30 minutes of activity, such as walking, running, and playing, we increase our ability to concentrate, giving us a chemical reward by generating positive endorphins, which help us to cope with life’s ups and downs.”

4. Control the light

“Our sleep is affected by the amount of sunlight we get. If we’re sitting inside on a computer by a window for 30 minutes, we might get 300 lumens of light on a sunny day. Whereas if we went outside and had a drink in the sunshine we might get as many as 25,000 lumens of light. That means more vitamin D and melatonin, which are

Try the wellbeing trick that could transform the quality of your sleep

When the quality of our sleep plays such an important role in our overall wellbeing – as well as our ability to successfully navigate our jobs, relationships, and responsibilities – it makes sense that we want to get it right.

That said, finding what’s right for us may take some time, and is likely to require a bit of trial and error. For one person, it may be playing sleep sounds as they fall asleep, for another it could be about changing their diet, or perhaps beginning a journaling practice in order to let go of the worries that usually keep them up at night.

But now, there’s a new option that could be the answer for you: sleep syncing. All about tuning into your body's natural circadian rhythm, sleep syncing requires you to think about, and adapt, your daily routine to line-up with what your body naturally wants to do.

“Your circadian rhythm, otherwise known as your sleep-wake cycle, is your internal body clock which follows a 24 hour cycle and is influenced by many internal and external factors as well as light and dark,” Martin Seeley, sleep expert and CEO of Mattress Next Day explains. “It works to control hormone release such as melatonin and helps keep your body in a good routine.

“Sleep syncing is when you create a routine that ensures your body is sleeping and waking when it should be, giving your internal clock a gentle nudge. Sleep syncing can help improve sleep quality, increase energy levels, and help to maintain a healthy body.”

How do I sleep sync?

Let’s be honest for a minute, most of us have a routine that we have to abide by to some extent – whether that means sleeping around work, caring responsibilities, or anything else. But that doesn’t mean that sleep syncing won’t work for us. Instead, it’s about gradually aligning our lifestyle with our biological rhythms in order to wake up feeling refreshed and energised. So, how do we do it?

1. Work out what your schedule should be

As Martin points out, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day (yes, even on weekends and days off work) is a great way to regulate your body’s internal clock – which will, in turn, make it easier for you to fall asleep and wake up. So, have a think about what times work for you. The average adult needs eight hours of sleep each night to feel refreshed and energised, but you may find that you need more or less. Experiment with different lengths, perhaps noting how you feel in a journal or sleep tracker. Once you’ve got a good idea of how long you need to be asleep, you can then plan for what time you should go to bed, and when you should set your alarm for in the morning.

You may also want to think about establishing a calming bedtime routine. Perhaps incorporating some self-care, journaling, reading, or light yoga.

2. Try to get natural sunlight in the morning

Don’t underestimate the power of the sun in regulating our bodies.

“Waking up to natural light can be a great way to wake up,” Martin explains. “This notifies our circadian rhythm that it's time to get up.”

When you wake up in the morni

With one in eight of us feeling tired all the time, could sleep tourism help us feel more rested and relaxed? Or is it just another wellness trend to get us to book a new kind of vacation?

As a nation, we are tired. According to YouGov, one in four of us feels tired most of the time, while one in eight feels tired all the time. In fact, we’re so tired that two in five of us would rather sleep more than spend time with our families. It’s no wonder that so many of us are willing to try anything to get a better night’s sleep.

What is sleep tourism?

Sleep tourism refers to any kind of holiday with programmes focused on getting a good night’s sleep. Thought to be a top trend for 2023, the travel industry has reported seeing more sleep-related services appearing on hotel and tourism-related websites and packages. Designed to promote restful sleep, relaxation, and overall wellbeing, you can even find specific ‘sleep retreats’ to help guide you towards improving the quality of your sleep.

Why are we focusing our holidays around sleep?

While the thought of building a vacation around rest and relaxation seems natural, the idea of going on holiday to sleep more can seem a little strange. But sleep expert and CEO at MatressNextDay Martin Seely thinks we could all benefit from trying a sleep retreat.

“Going on a sleep retreat could benefit anyone. This is because sleep is essential for many, many reasons. Sleep helps us learn new information and consolidate memories. There’s also evidence that lack of sleep can make you more prone to depression or anxiety by affecting your moods and emotions, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)”.

While the reasons why we may feel the need to seek help to get a better night’s sleep can vary, Martin explains that there are often common themes. “Many people have trouble falling asleep at night because their minds are racing with thoughts about work or life in general. Others have trouble staying asleep due to stress or anxiety about what tomorrow may bring.”

By taking a break from our normal routines, we may be able to help break the cycle of bad quality sleep (and our anxiety surrounding it), helping us to reset and gain a better night's rest.

Counselling Directory member and therapist, Nicole Grilo, (MBPsS, MBACP, FDAP) explains more about the benefits of sleep and how it can be seen as a superpower linked with better health outcomes.

“Sleep is so beneficial and essential, as it facilitates body restoration and repair. Sleeping heals our body and is what [we need] after a day of movement or exercise. Give yourself at least nine hours in bed. Stay away from coffee and sugar at the end of the day. Give yourself time to wind down [and] keep a consistent routine.”

What to expect from a sleep-focused retreat

If you’re considering building a holiday around improving your sleeping patterns and overall feelings of rest and relaxatio