How To Sleep Better

Products I’m Trying For Better Sleep

I know sleep is really important to overall health. I know I’m not my best at work or on the running trail if I don’t get enough sleep. I’ve learned that being sleep-deprived even can make me feel sad. Still, when it comes to fitting it all in and getting it all done, I don’t make sleep a priority. I am trying to turn that around and figure out how to sleep better.

Here are just a few of the sleeping don’ts that I am guilty of at least a few nights a week:

• working on my laptop until it’s almost bed time
• drinking beer or wine close to bed time
• having dark chocolate as a bed time snack (I swear it keeps me up more than coffee!) 
• going to bed less than eight six hours before my alarm goes off (I try to go to bed by 11, but even that is too late when my alarm goes off at 5)
• checking email, Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram in bed on my iPhone

Even when I go to bed, I sometimes have trouble falling asleep or–worse–staying asleep. I understand occasional insomnia during a particularly stressful time at work or when I know one of my kids is struggling with their own issues, but sometimes I wake up at stupid o’clock and my mind is not racing. I’m just wide effing awake for no discernible reason!

In the days leading up to Fitbloggin’ I was really short on sleep. The week before, I had a business trip to Colorado, where jet lag had me up early and “networking” events had me up late. The week of Fitbloggin’ I had a work “retreat” which was held at a local site, but I had to leave the house earlier and got home later, which meant even less sleep than usual. The day I headed to Fitbloggin’ I woke up before my alarm (4:15?), did my workout, finished packing, went to the last sessions of my work retreat, headed to the airport–and endured a four hour flight delay. By the time I landed in Portland at midnight Pacific time, I had been up for almost 23 hours, although I did manage to doze a bit on the plane.

Needless to say, when I visited the Nature Made table at the Fitbloggin’ expo , I was intrigued to see their melatonin VitaMelts™ product. Despite all my sleep issues, I am wary of pharmaceutical sleep aids, but I have less concerns about melatonin.

The Nature Made melatonin VitaMelts™ have a pleasant chocolate mint flavor, and each tablet contains 3 mg of melatonin. (The suggested use is one tablet at bed time.)

As with all of the Nature Made VitaMelts™ products, you just let the tablet dissolve in your mouth–no need to swallow whole or chase down with gulps of water.

On the nights that I’ve used it, I’ve slept through the night and felt like I’ve slept soundly–my husband was astounded that I slept through a torrential rain storm last week! While I’ve been asleep when my alarm went off, I haven’t found it difficult to wake up. Overall, I definitely think the melatonin is helping me sleep better. I don’t plan to take it every night, but I will keep using it once in a while.

Another thing that is helping me to sleep better is my new Technogel® pillow. Technogel® sponsored a Fitfluential Twitter chat a few weeks ago, and I was one of the lucky winners of the random drawing to win a Technogel® pillow. It was a great chat, with a theme of how to sleep better to perform better (#SleepToPerform), so I guess I had lots to ask and confess!

As you can tell from the name, there is a lot of technology behind Technogel® pillows. Here’s what they say on their website.

The Technogel® Sleeping pillows, made in Italy with particular care and attention to details, use high technical and innovative materials that allow a higher comfort performance.

Technogel® is the unsurpassed 3-dimensional material for sleeping. The Technogel® layer, joined with the memory foam, adjusts in a gradual way adapting to each individual’s shape. Furthermore, all the Technogel Sleeping pillows offer an Enjoyable Cool Feeling, thanks to the Technogel’s good thermal conductivity that favors heat dispersion, helping to lower skin temperature.

A pressure distribution test was performed in Japan, evaluating the “anatomic” pillow in comparison with few others (female, 5’3″ – 121 lbs). Test results show a sensible decrease in pressure concentration and a wider contact surface (neck support) when using the Technogel Sleeping pillow.

I decided to try one of their shaped pillows (the Contour model), and really like the extra support of the contoured shape. I often wake up with a stiff back, but have not experienced that as much with my Technogel® pillow–maybe the contoured shape is helping me maintain better alignment in my sleep. Now that it’s summer, I also notice–and appreciate –the cool feel.

I know these products won’t help me get more sleep if I don’t go to be earlier, but at least they are helping me sleep better during the hours that I am in bed!

Do you get enough sleep?

Have you taken Carla’s sleep deprivation test?