Here, we recount the greatest lessons we’ve learned and how to implement these strategies into day-to-day life. You’ll find that often the most effective approach is also the simplest—and that true wellness is a seamless process that works synergistically with the rest of your life. Pick up these pearls for 2019 to start the year off fresher, healthier, happier, fitter, and more relaxed than ever before.

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1. Eat Whole, One-Ingredient Foods

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be confusing. Clean eating is fairly simple, says best-selling cookbook author, culinary nutritionist, and wellness expert Amie Valpone. It’s all about focusing your diet around one-ingredient whole foods—a full apple, an avocado. Eating foods in their original state helps your body naturally detoxify, manage blood sugar levels, and fill up without overdoing it. Simplicity is key. Focus on recipes such as salads, soups, and bowls that call for whole foods that promote both health, well-being, and longevity.

2. Focus on Your Hips

“Your hips are required in every moment you make,” says postural alignment specialist Brian Bradley, vice president of Egoscue. Your hips are the epicenter of the body, your anchor when you’re walking, sitting, throwing a ball, or swinging a golf club. Yet, too often, the hips are ignored.

Incorporate daily movements to activate and align the psoas, (the strongest muscle of the hip flexor group). Doing so creates a cascade of functionality throughout the body to the spine, the shoulders, the knees and ankles. When your body is connected and functional, your workouts and everyday movements are more efficient and effective. To light up your hip flexors, try these power moves.

3. Adopt a Bedtime Meditation Practice for Deep Sleep

Have you ever slept a full eight hours only to wake up feeling tired? It’s likely because you didn’t spend adequate time in a deep sleep state—the sleep phase that’s crucial for rejuvenation, recovery, says Sanjeev Verma, Sonima’s Vedic astrologer and meditation advisor. Reaching deep sleep states involves entering a complete state of relaxation. Fortunately, it’s something that can be fine-tuned in your waking hours.

This 10-minute meditation from Verma works you through a checklist to ensure you’re relaxed for sleep. You’ll check in on the tension throughout your body, learn to let go of stressful thoughts, and bring positive memories front and center. In time, deep sleep comes easier and you wake up refreshed and energized.

4. Embrace the Power of Repetition

There are times (in life and in yoga) when we’re unsure about how to move forward; when we feel disconnected from our true selves. These times of ambiguity or challenge can be accompanied by a tendency to drift from our regular practices or to switch back and forth between teachers. But receiving conflicting advice can inhibit you from progressing, says Andrew Hillam, Sonima’s yoga advisor. Maintaining a consistent practice with one teacher, however, builds progress over time.

“By staying with a single teacher, practicing a single kind of yoga, and concentrating the mind in only one direction—those kinds of difficulties (sic) are less likely to arise and can be more easily overcome if they do,” he says. Instead of fearing challenges? Face them head-on with consistency.

5. Work Smarter, Not Harder

In our fast-past society, fast-paced workouts, such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT), have gained traction. But Bradley says most people exercise with incorrect form, creating harmful compromises. “Usually, people go through a HIIT movement so fast that they become shoulder and arm dominant, and they’re no longer using their hips to drive the exercise,” he says. It’s something that can further stress the body and have counterproductive results in the long-run.

But when you slow down and focus on form and alignment through low-intensity deliberate movements, you do the opposite. This favors functionality over speed and activates deep, stabilizer muscles that contribute to balance and mobility.

Low-intensity training requires just the minimum effective dose of movement so that you yield results without diminishing returns. “The low-intensity moves teach your body’s parts to work better together. It will clear up imbalances and help re-establish functional movement patterns stemming from your hips and pelvis,” says Bradley.

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6. Commit to Your Community

Seeing others practice will motivate you to also practice. When you build relationships with other students and teachers, and work together with a group of people, you more fully integrate your practice into all aspects of your life. This builds momentum and positive energy in a way that a solitary practice might not be able to.

“It is very important to have a connection to a local yoga shala,” says Sharath Jois, the lineage holder of Ashtanga yoga. “In many respects, a yoga shala is not unlike a temple, or a place of worship where we go to get connected, detach from material things, and dedicate our efforts to a practice.”

7. Teach Your Children to Meditate

“Meditation is a lifelong practice,” says Verma. That means that children are no exception. “By laying the foundation of mindfulness for your kids—or any child in your life—you’re providing them with an invaluable tool that will see them through life’s inevitable ups and downs,” he says.

Instilling mindfulness into children’s routines can help them gather self-knowledge, become aware of their breathing, and relax—all skills that stay with them and help them build healthy lives, Verma explains.

Age is an important consideration in properly introducing your child to meditation. This guide explains how to introduce kids of all ages the fundamental practice.

8. Never Drink Cold Water

“Water has a deep and rich history in Vedic tradition, the basis of both Ayurveda and yoga,” says professor of Ayurvedic medicine Jayagopal Parla. But Ayurveda follows certain rituals for hydration. For one, Ayurveda suggests that you never sip cold water. “Warmer water is thought to have metabolism-boosting benefits in Ayurveda, as well as health-promotive effects on the gut and digestive systems, and may help to prevent gas and bloating,” he says. To maintain good health, keep your water warm or room temperature when you’re feeling thirsty.

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9. Expand Time with Meditation

In a culture of busy-ness, meditation offers a great benefit: more time. “When the mind is more present and focused, you have an enhanced understanding and comprehension of a given topic or task,” says Verma. “When that becomes a regular part of your working style, it profoundly impacts your ability to learn and work at a high level.”

Greater focus helps you to be more efficient with your everyday tasks and responsibilities. What’s more, this higher level of concentration improves the quality of your work and being. With a strong meditation practice, Verma says you might, for example, be able to complete a 30-minute task in just 20 minutes. “Through meditation, you can relax, and you can transfer that aura of calm to your efforts,” he explains. With leftover time, you might find more moments for relaxation or dive into your tasks in a deeper, more focused way.

10. Practice Yoga to Keep Distractions from Derailing Your Spiritual Path

No matter how well-intentioned, even the most disciplined people can’t control life’s everyday unpredictabilities. “Too often, we let distractions and other situations outside of our control affect us as if we could have done something to create a different outcome,” Jois says. “We think too much about our desires for something better, or become anxious about tragedy or loss.”

Focus your attention on your inward journey with yoga. It’s one way to remove outside stressors and craft a stronger inner peace. “Regardless of the method, when yoga is approached without the chatter, in a silent and humble manner, the more effective yoga will happen within you,” says Jois.

11. Wake Up on the Right Side

In Ayurveda and yoga, a commonly practiced tradition is to fall asleep on the left side and wake up on the right. Why? “Falling asleep on the left side encourages secretions of the liver. It also positions the stomach at the bottom of your body as well as leaves the right nostril open and the left nostril closed,” says Parla. In yoga, the left side of the body is the thinking or creative side, and the right side is the accomplishing or completion side, he says.

Optimize your positioning by turn toward the right when you wake up. This will increase the movement of your bowels, creating an urge to go to the bathroom. “If you do this for 10 to 15 minutes when falling asleep and waking up, that’s enough to reap the benefits,” says Parla.

12. Learn to Tune into Emotions, Needs, and Body Language

To cultivate positive and healthy relationships it is essential to be a conscientious and active listener. Make a daily commitment to pick up on how receptive people are to what you’re saying and how you are behaving. Learn to take in sensory data in your interactions with others, including facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and choice of words. Be present and consider your own choice of words and demeanor.

This level of attention locks you in the present moment, helping you collect clues for how to respond next in conversation and move gracefully forward through your relationships.

13. Master the Art of Theta Through Meditation

In an increasingly hectic world, it’s all-too-easy for our internal peace can be drowned out. However, tapping into a strong, grounded base helps you meet life’s demands when they come knocking. This 20-minute meditation from holistic health expert Lisa Hedley guides you back—toward a state of mind that helps you free up tensions, stressors, and anxieties. Throughout your time spent in the meditation, brain waves to drop into what’s known as a “theta state,” where deep levels of healing can take place. The result: a stronger, more resilient you.

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14. Get Outside

“Going outside moves you to another level of consciousness—it gets you to think differently,” says Bradley. “Nature gets you out of your head and into your heart. And your heart is your instinct.” Yet, today, children and adults spend less time outside than ever—approximately 13 percent of their time. The result, argues Richard Louy, author of Last Child in the Woods, is something called Nature-Deficit Disorder, a lack of outdoor time that takes a toll on quality of life.

Time in nature has been shown to positively affect symptoms of ADHD, reduce stress, and improve cognition. Getting outside—in a park, forest, or a swim in the ocean—should be an everyday priority.

15. Remember, Progress Requires Patience

Rewarding progress comes only when the body and mind are ready, and no sooner. Even with complete dedication, it can sometimes take years to master new poses or move onto more advanced sequences. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, embarrassed, or discouraged by that. Unfortunately, your desire might outweigh your abilities.

But there’s nothing wrong with the plateaus. Be patient while you master the basics—this is the foundation of more complicated work. Turning your attention to your body, breathing, and mind will help build the strength and mental capacity that progression calls for.

16. Acupuncture Can Aid Fertility

The 3,000-year-old practice of acupuncture—in which thin needles are inserted into acupoints on the body—has powers when it comes to pregnancy. “Women come in not only because they’re frustrated with Western medicine, but because of the success we’ve seen over the past 20 years in helping women get pregnant and deliver babies,” says licensed acupuncturist and board-certified herbalist Liz Carlson, LAc, co-founder of Common Point, a modern acupuncture clinic in Tribeca, New York.

It’s thought that the practice allows women to decompress, something that can play a role in fertility. “Inserting the needles prompts a release of endorphins and feel-good chemicals, like norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine, which help move the brain out of stress mode. It essentially stimulates the body to heal itself,” she says. It’s often far more affordable than IVF, too.

17. Chronic Pain Can Be Emotional

It seems all too logical to blame pain on physical injury, a repeated strain or harmful event. Yet, sometimes, pain is coming from a deeper, emotional place—a psychosomatic manifestation of stress or negative feelings. After all, when we experience stress, the body absorbs it. And some researchers believe that the mind can repress emotions, funneling pain to the body, which might show up as back pain.

A dedicated and trusting yoga practice can provide the confidence and calmness needed to hear and heal your body and eliminate stress. When stress is seen for what it truly is, physical symptoms serve no purpose and might very well go away.

18. Add Moringa to Your Plate

“A tree native to India, but also grown in tropical environments around the world, moringa has been used medicinally for centuries, which is why it’s often called the ‘miracle tree,’” says Janet Zand, Sonima’s naturopathic medical advisor. The leaves of the moringa are nutrient-dense and preliminary research suggests that the tree might have anti-diabetes properties and may help protect the brain.

Moringa is most commonly seen as a powder. Incorporate into your daily tea or smoothie for a boost of calcium, potassium, iron, vitamin A, protein, and amino acids!

The post 18 Wellness Tips that We Loved in 2018 appeared first on Sonima.

In the last couple years, I have been waking up in the middle of the night gripped by some unnamed fear. Things that don’t seem like a big deal in the daytime loom larger than life as a lay awake in bed with my heart pounding. This never used to be a problem, but as life gets increasingly hectic, I’ve lost touch with the feeling that all is fundamentally well. How can I reconnect?

Sincerely,

No Sleep in Brooklyn

Dear No Sleep in Brooklyn,

Thank you for writing in about your experience. I think we all can remember a time where we were caught in this kind of tremendous fear and anxiety that wakes us at night. Our natural knee-jerk reaction to this kind of worry is to want to get rid of it, or turn away from it, and this reaction makes total sense because the fear hurts tremendously.

In this article, I will offer you a mindfulness practice that you can eventually apply to this fear. I say eventually because, as I will advise you below, it will be beneficial for you to start with a less challenging emotion. The teaching I will share with you is a version of the RAIN of self-compassion practice taught by the meditation teacher and psychologist, Tara Brach, PhD. RAIN is acronym that will be fleshed out below. I find it best to clear out space in your day to complete this meditation. Perhaps 15 to 30 minutes will be a good amount of time to dedicate. This will leave you time to get settled into a meditation posture (sitting or lying down, so long as you don’t fall asleep if horizontal) and time to journal about your discoveries afterword.

The first step in this process is coming to a true recognition that there is this enormous fear that is coming up and it feels so big that even the body is reacting to it. The heart is pounding. This recognition is taking the first step in shifting your relationship with the fear. There is a catchphrase coined by the author and psychiatrist, Daniel Siegel, MD, that applies here: “Name
it to tame it.” You said that the fear is “unnamed,” so part of the process of recognition will be to put a word or perhaps a few words to the fear. The subsequent steps of RAIN may help with that.

Another description of meditation that I once read somewhere, some years back, was that the process of meditation involves a getting familiar with what is. Therefore, by recognizing and eventually giving a more descriptive name to your fear is to approach it, accept that it is a part of your present-moment experience, and eventually to dispel or dissipate its power. This is a very different way of being than desiring to suppress it or resist it. It may sound counter intuitive, but the path of mindfulness encourages us to move toward what is frightening. The intention is to eventually come to a place where the fear can be, as Brach teaches, attended to and befriended.

Our next move is to open a compassionate and loving inquiry into this fear. This is where you will gain more familiarity with it. However, because this fear feels big, I would advise you to first practice on an emotion that feels less overwhelming. When working with the energy of self-compassion, mindfulness teachers (such as Brach and Sharon Salzberg) suggest it is often best to start with what is the easiest, and then move toward more challenging emotions.

Furthermore, it sounds like you have a sense that this experience of the unnamed fear seems to amplify when life gets increasingly hectic. Therefore, by working on smaller emotions or thoughts, you may start to chip away at this larger fear. When you have identified an easy emotion, thought, or situation, you can apply the full RAIN of self-compassion to it. Once you feel you have achieved mastery over the lesser emotions, then move onto the next steps of RAIN to the most challenging level of your fear.

The third step is to move closer inward to inquire into this fear. The goal is to do your best to uncover as many dimensions of this fear as you can. This is a process of insight. There are many ways in which you can work this inquiry. What comes to mind for me would be to start with describing how the fear feels—its texture, where it lives in the body, as you sit with it, what else comes up. Pay attention to related thoughts, images, emotions, physical sensations, and what is evoked on a more intuitive level.

The best time to practice working with the fear may not be in the middle of the night. It may be advantageous to try to evoke the fear when you are feeling emotionally balanced and rested, during the day. As you get more skilled with practice, you may be able to work the RAIN steps at night more quickly and come to a peaceful resolution of the fear for that night. Please also be patient with yourself, as this will likely be a practice that you have to come back to more than once. It is a process and practice, not a one-time deal.

Sit with the fear an amount of time that feels wholesome and healthy for you. If the practice becomes too difficult, then step out of it and practice some other form of relaxation that works well for you. I recommend identifying go to coping strategies before stepping in to work on the big fears. These may be abdominal breathing, having a sacred space in your mind that you can visualize for calming, or having some other soothing objects or activities that you can engage in to help you self-regulate if your emotional state is challenged. This brings me to the last step in the RAIN: self-nourishment.

You can practice self-nourishment while holding the fear in your heart and offering to yourself comforting words or actions. Come up with a list of self-soothing statements that you can say to yourself. A few traditional phrases that I have learned over the years from various teachers of Lovingkindness meditation are:

May I be safe.
May I be healthy.
May I be healed.
May I be happy.
May I be at peace.
May I be free from worry.
May I be free from fear.
May I be free from suffering.

The idea is for you to use these words or change them to phrases that have more meaning and resonance for you. I find it particularly powerful to put my hands over my heart while I repeat these phrases to myself in times of challenge. I find it helpful to repeat the full cycle of these phrases for at least three or more repetitions.

What is also important is that if you find that it is too difficult to work through these phrases on your own, you can call in a council of friends and helpers to support you. You can do this by visualizing powerful people, such as trusted family members or friends, animals, or power places, real or imagined, that help you feel strong, balanced and centered. While holding these images in your mind, feel the beauty and power they offer you and stand firm in that as you offer these words to yourself. Give yourself enough time to complete all the above steps and come back to them as often as needed to work toward a full befriending and embracing of your fears.

Related: Transform Your Fears into Meaningful Growth

You cannot skip to this integration stage, it takes effort, dedication, and an immensely open heart and courage to get there. I believe in you and that you can do it! Please also consider working with a qualified teacher or licensed therapist to give you additional support along the way. This will be especially crucial if you feel like this practice dysregulates you further. It may be that you need the expertise of an in-person guide. I can only offer you education and suggestions here, not a formal assessment or finely attuned approach.

One more thing: I believe that you are very right in realizing that you (and so many of us) must make a return to remembering our own basic goodness in life. This remembrance of our innate beauty, worthiness, and self-love is always a practice. It does not feel that it is a developmental task that we can check off our list of life accomplishments. In our busy, modern lives, we are all constantly operating under time pressure, deadlines, and the challenges of balancing work and life. It is so easy to forget that we are here together on this earth to be joyous beings of love. We are here to be caretakers of each other and of this beautiful earth. So, I invite you, and all of us, to put down in writing on our daily agenda and calendar some dedicated time to simply love and appreciate this amazing, confusing, and most precious life.

Thank you so much for writing in. I am sending you my best heartfelt wishes as you work to bring this practice into your life.

Many blessings,

John

The post Intense Anxiety Won’t Let Me Sleep appeared first on Sonima.

By now, you’ve hopefully gotten accustomed to preparing your body and mind for sleep by using breathing and counting exercises to clear your head. If you haven’t, check out the first 10-minute meditation in our spring Better Sleep Series here. Next up, we’re focusing on improving the quality of your shuteye to help you feel more rested.

Have you ever gotten seven to eight hours a night and woken up feeling like you haven’t slept a wink? Most likely it’s because you didn’t spend much time in a deep sleep state—the third phase of sleep. The first two phases, preceding deep sleep, are waking and dreaming. Reaching deep sleep is optimal for feeling recharged. This meditation’s mission is to maximize your duration in this state.

To go into deep sleep, a few things need to happen. First, your body needs to be at total rest. Second, your mind also needs to be free of thoughts, which naturally happens when you’re asleep. Third, your mind needs to be relaxed. That means when you’re falling asleep, and in the hours before bedtime, you’re not having any stressful, worrying, or negative thoughts. These types of thoughts encourage your mind to stay at a surface level during sleep because they’re keeping you in a stimulated, agitated state rather than a calm one.

In this meditation, we’ll achieve these three requirements together. You’ll learn to run through a mental checklist to assess whether you’re really truly relaxed and ready to go to bed. You’ll start by checking your body: Where are you holding tension? Where can that tension be released? Then, you’ll check your mind: What is your state of mind? Are you carrying any mental burdens at this given moment? Next, you’ll check your breath: Is it in your throat, chest, or belly?

Lastly, it’s important to always have some happy thoughts or memories before you doze off to help counterbalance anything stressful that happened during the day. Since people normally wake up in the morning with the same thoughts they had when they fell sleep, this is even more crucial. Positive thoughts not only impact your ability to reach deep sleep, but also the entire following day. Though I won’t prompt you to think positive thoughts during the actual meditation, I will encourage you to turn your attention to something you’re grateful for or happy about should you find your mind wandering in the moments before you fall asleep.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related: This Is Where Positive Thinking Begins

The post A 10-Minute Meditation for Deep Sleep appeared first on Sonima.

According to the CDC’s latest statistics, more than a third of the U.S. population is sleeping less than seven hours per night. That means that a good amount of Americans are sleep-deprived. Why is this such a big deal? When you’re sleeping, your brain is recalibrating itself, which means it’s working even more than when you’re awake. In order to start each day feeling fresh, focused, and ready for what lies ahead, good sleep is crucial.

But even when someone makes a conscious decision to get more sleep, they still sometimes fail. What you may not realize is that how you prepare for sleep—not just when you’re getting ready for bed, but also throughout the day—makes a huge difference in getting the quality and quantity of rest you need.

As for how to lay the groundwork for good sleep throughout the day, all the things you’ve commonly heard before—no caffeine in the afternoon, avoiding stressful news programs right before bed, powering down electronics a couple of hours before you sleep—will help you achieve a better night’s rest. What and when you eat, how you stimulate or relax your mind, and how much stressful interaction you have can also make an impact. Ideally, the two hours before you hit the hay are spent doing things like reading, meditating, and enjoying quality time with your family. These are all activities that can help you drift off in a positive, relaxed mood, which will only improve the caliber of your sleep.

This introductory meditation, the first of three in our spring Sleep Better Series, will help you prepare your mind for rest through breathing and relaxation techniques. Each month, I’ll be introducing a new meditation to be practiced right before bedtime as often as possible over the next 30 days, all with the aim of helping you sleep better.

In this 10-minute meditation, and the ones that follow, there are going to be some common instructions: Get in a relaxed body position, lay down in bed with your feet about a foot apart and your palms facing up and away from your body. When you have crossed legs, for example, you’re not allowing your muscles to be fully at rest. Once you’ve gotten yourself into this position, turned off the lights, and take a couple of deep breaths. Now, press play.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related:  A 90-Second Solution to Sleep Better Tonight

The post A Meditation to Help You Prepare for Restful Sleep appeared first on Sonima.

Sleep is your best chance to naturally detoxify the nervous and digestive systems and restore balance. Yet many of us wind up staring at the ceiling wide awake when we crawl into bed.

There are a number of reasons why you may be losing sleep, including asthma, allergies, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and more. While you should seek medical assistance to get to the root of the problem of insomnia, you can also apply three simple approaches, based on Ayurvedic medicine, to help you transition into that very necessary state of body relaxation and rejuvenation. Try one or all of the below and see how they help you optimize your sleep.

1. Clean the Scene

Eat light, not spicy before bedtime. A glass of warm milk and honey with a pinch of nutmeg and turmeric could help ease your body into relaxation mode. One hour before turning in, start dimming the lights in your environment and turn off electronics. Use your bed for sleeping not watching TV or checking e-mails. Take a whiff of lavender oil or use a diffuser in your bedroom to signal your brain that it’s time to shut down.

2. Give Yourself a Foot Massage

Use your fingers to trace a line down from between your second and third toes, one foot at a time, until you are about a third of the way down the foot. Gently rub this point for a minute or two while breathing deeply. Do both soles. For an even richer massage, warm some sesame oil and rub it into the feet, then slip on cotton socks to prevent staining your sheets.

3. Practice “So Hum” breathing.

So hum is a simple relaxing breathing technique that you can do anywhere, anytime for any duration. Don’t think of it as a phrase, but rather a pleasing sound—an easy way to slip into a rhythmic, meditative state. You might say the words “So” on the inhale and “Hum” on the exhale out loud, or silently in your own head in conjunction with your breathing pattern. After some practice you will want to inhale for a long, deep count of six and exhale for a long, deep count of six pausing ever so slightly at the top and bottom of each inhale and exhale.

While this is a simple technique, what it’s doing internally is very complex. It is activating a sophisticated set of impulses, soothing your autonomic nervous system, which controls the fight or flight response. It also engages the parasympathetic nervous system to give you a relaxed sense of well-being, perfect for entry into slumberland.

Related: A Natural Guide to Overcoming Sleep Issues

The short guided meditation below will help you learn so hum breathing so you can relax and slip into dreamland.

The post 3 Ayurvedic Approaches to Curing Sleeplessness appeared first on Sonima.

When you can’t sleep at night it’s easy to blame the things affecting you in the moment—churning thoughts, a restless body, or uncomfortable surroundings. While these things certainly have an effect on your sleep schedule, it’s important to remember that the quality of your sleep is a reflection of the quality of your daytime. If your day is full of stress, anxiety, hostility or other negative emotions, then all of that will be reflected in the quality of your sleep.

In this video, Deepak Chopra, M.D., explains the ways we can adjust our day-to-day routine to encourage better rest at night. After 6 p.m. it’s important to minimize stimulating activities and focus on things that soothe the mind. According to Chopra, there’s also an optimal time to go to bed, after which the body naturally enters a state of stimulation. Find out what time you should go to bed, and learn about the other habits that affect sleep quality, when you watch the video above.

Related: How Does Sleep Affect Overall Health?

Join Sonima’s free 14-day jumpstart to better sleep for a downloadable guide and daily advice from top experts. Learn more here.

The post The Aspects of Daily Life That Affect Sleep Quality appeared first on Sonima.

Sleep is one of training’s most important tools and getting enough of it—a recommended seven to nine hours per night—is essential for repairing and strengthening overtaxed muscles. When an athlete gets enough shuteye, blood supply increases to muscles and the pituitary gland releases natural growth hormone to facilitate muscle and bone growth, healing, and adaptation. Waking up refreshed means you’re likely rolling out of bed feeling stronger, faster, and ready to tackle another workout. Without a restful night’s cycles of REM and deep sleep, performance and mood wanes.

Related: An Explanation of REM Sleep and Dreams

Few studies have looked into measuring the effect of the overtraining-sleepless connection and insight is sorely needed, says Sophie Killer, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher and performance nutritionist with British Athletics at the English Institute of Sport. “Part of the reason there’s such a paucity of data is because it’s not easy to get approval to overtrain someone,” she says. “We had to find people willing to sign up because we really needed to push their boundaries and have them take a battering.”

In the study, Killer and her colleagues at the School of Sport, Exercise, and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, recruited 13 cyclists to complete two nine-day, intensified training periods in which they were given a diet of either moderate or high carbohydrate before, during, and after workouts. Researchers more than doubled the athletes’ baseline training volume and intensity, measuring their VO2, heart rate and power output stats as they trained. They also asked cyclists to keep a mood and diet diary, as well as wear an actigraphy watch to measure movements as they slept.

“We weren’t surprised that the athletes spent more time in bed at night during training,” Killer says. “But we found that despite the increased time in bed, they couldn’t get more sleep and actually got less than before.” The cyclists woke and moved more throughout the night, and logged less total time asleep.

You don’t have to train like a maniac to experience exercise-induced insomnia. Taking on a new fitness goal, such as going from the couch to half marathon training, could over-stress your muscles to the point of acute fatigue. Dubbed “overreaching,” the muscles are broken down during these cycles for a purposeful short-term decrease in performance to make them stronger.

But when athletes find themselves in a cycle of back-to-back racing or upping their mileage too quickly without giving their bodies adequate time to recover, the continual breakdown of muscles can lead to the more serious overtraining syndrome. With overtraining syndrome comes chronic fatigue, lingering muscle soreness, and even depression that can take months or years to recover from.

If a training program is making you feel irritable and low energy plus disrupting your sleep, it’s time to reevaluate your plan. Those symptoms are a first sign that you may need to take a couple of days off or decrease the volume and intensity of your workouts. Doing so might give you a better shot of reaching your fitness goals without sacrificing your body in the process. Killer suggests to practice “rest and recovery, eat decent meals packed with protein and iron, and even cross-training to reduce the mental fatigue that goes along with the grind.”

The post Are Your Exercise Habits Sabotaging Your Sleep? appeared first on Sonima.

We now know that certain nutrients support dozing off, and often, going to bed hungry can make it hard to get comfortable and fall asleep. If you do forage for late-night nibbles, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your snacking doesn’t cut into sleep.

1. Mind Your Macronutrients

Carbohydrates consumed in the hours before bed reduce the time needed to fall asleep according to one study, especially with high glycemic foods like white rice. In the study, the most impactful result was with carbs eaten four hours before bed but it was also shown that if carbs were eaten one hour prior to bedtime, there was still a modest improvement in sleep quality.

Another study found that high fat diets may negatively impact rest, while other research has shown that special diets in general (low- or high-calorie, high-fat, low-carb, and others) may be associated with worse sleep.

For a good late night snack, aim for a small serving of carbohydrates, possibly with a little protein to keep you sated, but skip excess fat and greasy foods.

2. Keep It Light

Large meals take energy to digest, and some experts suggest that big meals too close to bedtime could contribute to or worsen acid reflux. Eating dinner four to five hours before bed (by 7 p.m. if you sleep at 12 a.m., for example) is generally seen as best, as is not overeating late at night.

If you are planning a before-bed snack, aim to eat about an hour before sleep and keep portion size small. If you’re watching your weight, factor the snack into your overall energy intake. As an example, one cup of cooked rice, one-half cup of cereal, a handful of crackers or one piece of toast represent a snack-size serving between 100 and 200 calories.

3. Make It Mild

Spicy foods are best left for breakfast and lunch, not late dinners or evening snacks. Anecdotally, you might recall a time when spicy foods or peppers led to a little heartburn or indigestion, and anything that affects comfort can affect rest.

One study tested the theory on young men, finding that mustard and Tabasco sauce eaten at dinner resulted in reduced slow wave sleep and longer time needed to fall asleep. One interesting thing they observed was an elevation in body temperature during the first stage of sleep. It’s been established that a drop in temperature precedes drowsiness and that cooler temperatures result in better sleep, leading the researchers to suggest that capsaicin affects sleep via increased body temperature.

Related: A 10-Minute Meditation for Deep Sleep

4. Choose Foods That Support Sleep

These eight snacks pair common ingredients that bring sleep-supporting nutrients without anything that might compromise your rest.

● Pretzels and Peanut Butter: Pretzels are a lower-calorie, high-glycemic carb that can satisfy hunger and most people find them easy on the stomach. Whole grain versions tend to pack a decent amount of fortified vitamins and minerals, but opt for unsalted when available. Pair with a satisfying partner like unsweetened peanut butter or even cottage cheese.

● Rice and Veggies: Microwave leftover (or frozen pre-cooked) jasmine rice with a handful of frozen mixed veggies, or pair it with a little lean protein. Skip the soy sauce (it contains tyramine, which increases alertness) and hot sauce (the spice might cause indigestion), opting for a squeeze of lime or little hummus instead if you need a flavor boost.

● Fresh Popcorn: Popcorn is a natural whole grain and a relatively healthy carbohydrate when homemade. Try an easy microwave method or use an inexpensive air popper. Avoid too much salt or butter close to bedtime, but feel free to drizzle on a little coconut oil for its sleep-supporting lauric acid.

● Small Sandwich: Use one piece of bread cut in half, or a small flat bread or wrap. Add in a serving of low-sodium turkey or tuna, baby spinach, tomato, a couple pickles, and cheese, if you like. Skip the onions and spicy condiments, though.

● Cereal and Milk: A glass of milk is an oft-suggested sleep-inducer, but there isn’t much research to back it up. A serving of low-sugar cereal provides carbs though, which are shown to help sleep. If you don’t do dairy, feel free to swap for an unsweetened nut milk of your choice.

● Banana Roll Up: This quick snack has carbs, protein, and healthy fats. Bananas are also rich in potassium, magnesium, folate, and vitamin B6. All you need is a tortilla, a banana, and some nut butter (almonds and sunflower seeds are both rich in sleep-friendly minerals and melatonin).

● Yogurt and Granola: Yogurt is typically high in protein and low in fat, providing a good snack close to bedtime. Just be mindful of the sugar count (some can exceed candy bar levels), and swap for coconut or soy-based if dairy upsets your stomach. Lighter granola or cereal sprinkled on top adds a dose of carbs to keep you sated.

● Oatmeal with Flax: Oatmeal is a pretty easy to prepare, and it brings healthy carbs and minerals. Flax seeds offer melatonin and healthy omega-3s, and fruits like blueberries or bananas can add a little sweetness without giving a strong sugar buzz. You can also try savory oatmeal as well, seasoned with a little salt and olive oil.

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