Auto news on Youtube Feb 1 2018

Is this you? Are you having trouble getting a good night's sleep? Well I

feel ya and I'm here to help! If you're new to my channel my name is Jen

James of JenJamesTV.com where we inspire people to lead a holistic

lifestyle. In this video I'm gonna give you six tips that have helped me and

will hopefully help you get a good night's sleep. Also stay tuned until the

end of the video because I have a challenge for the stressed-out people

out there to help you feel a little less frazzled. So let's get into the video!

#1 Get the appropriate number of sleep cycles. When we hit the pillow at

night and fall asleep we pass through about five sleep cycles with each cycle

lasting around 90 minutes on average. During each cycle we move through five

stages of sleep. The first four stages make up our non-REM sleep and the fifth

cycle is where REM sleep occurs. REM stands for rapid eye movement and it's

where our eyes will dart back and forth behind our eyelids. This is where the

majority of our dreaming happens. It is super important that we get enough REM

sleep each night because it's the restorative part of our sleep cycle that

stimulates the areas of our brain that are essential in making and retaining

memories. It's important we get at least 4 to 5 sleep cycles per night for

optimal health but the key to feeling refreshed

each day is to wake up in the beginning stage of your sleep cycle because our

bodies aren't completely shut down yet, so just after REM. If you wake up during

REM it's bad for your cardiovascular health and can increase blood pressure

and heart rates. There's a great app called Sleepytime that can help you

figure out what time you need to go to bed. You basically put in the time you

need to get up by and it will calculate the exact time you need to hit the

pillow and allows you around 14 minutes to fall asleep. If you can get on a

regular schedule going to bed at the same time and waking up naturally after

your REM cycle this will be so beneficial in restoring your energy and

get rid of mental fatigue. #2 Modify your sleep position. We all have

our preferred sleep position but if you're someone who experiences pain in

certain areas of your body when you get out of bed in the morning then you

should probably think about modifying how you sleep. After years of sitting at

a computer and a couple car accidents under my belt my back is definitely not

what it used to be. I can experience some not so pleasant lower back pain when I

get out of bed in the morning which totally sucks.

Pain can really affect the quality of your sleep and lead to a lighter sleep

state and a lot more waking up during the night. Little things have helped me

like sleeping with a pillow between my legs when I'm in the fetal position or

putting a pillow under my abdomen when I'm sleeping on my stomach. It has

greatly helped reduce the strain on my back making it a way better sleep for

me and less painful. I have a link to a great article down below that tells you

how to sleep if you have back, neck, hip, sinus, or PMS pain so be sure to check

that out. #3 Get physical!

Like Olivia says we gotta get physical! Exercise is so important to getting

more sound and restful sleep. It can increase the time spent in deep sleep or

REM which helps to boost the immune system and support cardiac health. The

quality of your sleep is increased and even the duration if you workout on a

consistent basis. There's no perfect exercise but there are three in

particular that can help you get a better sleep and that's cardio exercise,

strength training, and yoga. Also the time of day is super important as well.

Morning workouts are great if you want to experience deeper sleep cycles but

for people who aren't morning people like myself afternoon workouts are great

too because your body is a couple degrees warmer and less prone to injury.

But no late evening or before bed workouts. The boost in body temperature right

before bed can interfere with you falling asleep so don't do it. #4

Wear computer glasses. We can spend a majority of our time during the day

looking at a variety of screens whether it's your phone or your computer or the

TV. Wearing computer glasses when you're looking at those devices block blue

light and can make it easier to sleep. Blue light is the primary type of light

emitted from these LED based devices like your computer or your phone and it

suppresses melatonin production which can throw off your circadian rhythms and

your ability to fall asleep. So it's really important that you power down

your devices at least an hour before bedtime. I leave my phone out in the

kitchen. I got my glasses off Amazon for $40 and they're really great for small

smaces *small smaces?* Small faces like myself but they're great for

regular-sized faces too. The brand is called prospect and I put the link in

the description below so go check that out.

#5 Shower before bed. Taking a warm 15-20 minutes shower before

bedtime is wonderful in increasing your body temperature which

signals to your body that it's time to shut down and get ready for bed. It slows

down metabolic functions like breathing, digestion, and heart rate but make sure

you're done with your shower about an hour before you get into bed so it

allows time for your body to dry and cool before you go to sleep. #6

Don't drink alcohol before bed. "All right let's have a nightcap together." We've

heard those words uttered a dozen times in movies but studies show that having

alcohol right before bed is the worst thing you can do when you want to get a

proper night's sleep. Alcohol may seem like it's helping sleep because it helps

induce sleep but it's really disruptive the second half of the night. It can

interrupt your circadian rhythm and block REM sleep

which we have learned before is crucial to restoring your body. You can also

aggravate breathing problems and lead to more trips to the bathroom which also

affects your natural sleep cycle. Best thing to do is avoid alcohol three to

four hours before going to bed. So to recap my six tips to getting a

better sleep are to get the appropriate number of sleep cycles, so four to five,

modify your sleep position, let's get physical,

wear computer glasses, shower before bed, and don't drink alcohol before bed. I

didn't mention stress in this video but it is also a deterrent to sleep. If

stress is affecting your shut-eye then be sure to check out my video on how to

relieve stress and I'll link that somewhere here and in the description

below I have linked to my 21-day stress free challenge that you can start at any

time to get you on the right track to a more calm state. Be sure to track your

progress on Instagram using the hashtag #jenjamestvstressfree and I can cheer

you on! If you like this video hit the like button below, share it with your

friends, and be sure to subscribe. Also hit the little

notification bell to be updated anytime I post a new video. So thank you so much

for watching guys I really appreciate it and I will see you in the next video. Bye

guys!