Healthy Sleep Habits: Pre Bed Shower To Help Sleep

Sleep can solve so many of life's problems. In fact, a good sleep can not only improve how your body recovers from exercise, but it can positively impact your mental health, immune function, mood and energy levels. 

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As a result, sleep is a billion dollar industry meaning you very likely get bombarded with ads and misinformation trying to sell you something to help your sleep. The reality is the best things to help you sleep are free. A “blackout” dark room is one such thing (yes that includes your phone), routine is also of huge importance and other practices such as “brain dumps” (writing down your thoughts before bed), mindfulness and deep breathing are also great sleep aids. The sequence in which you build your own routine can be very individual but identifying a good trigger event to kick start the process can be useful. What is more useful is if that process also helps your sleep too! 

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Let me explain. Our bodies sleep, rest and recover best when they are cool. By starting your pre bed routine with a warm shower you are actually helping it get cool and preparing it to get to sleep quicker. You may be asking how is a warm shower going to cool me down? Well, your body responds to the warm water hitting your skin and heating you by trying to dissipate heat and cool you back down. So when you finish your shower your body is naturally cooling itself and as a result putting it in a great place to be ready for a good sleep!

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Give it a try yourself and see if this is something you’d like to include in your pre bed routine or have in your locker for the next time you feel hot, restless or are struggling to sleep.

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