Hi everyone. It’s been a pretty solid week over here. After last week’s sleep issues, I decided to make some changes to my evening routine. Here are a few:
- Eat dinner earlier.
- Drink some sort of relaxing tea blend before heading upstairs for bed.
- I have moved my meditation to bedtime instead of morning. I’m currently doing a 40-day meditation that I was assigned in my yoga training last weekend and I really look forward to doing it when I get in bed. It’s like a signal for my body that I can power down and transition into rest.
- After meditation, phone goes off and I do not check it again until morning. I would do this before meditation but I’m using a guided track on my phone for the meditation. I do not open email, texts or social media after my meditation is over.
- Take a melatonin and use an essential oil roller. (The products in this post.) I don’t use melatonin regularly but right now I am.
- Read. I just finished When We Believed in Mermaids and just started Everything I Never Told You.
I’ve been heading to bed around 10:30-11p and I’m not asleep until 11-11:30p but that’s okay because I usually sleep until 7-7:30a. I’ve tried to shift these times earlier (bed and wake) but this is just my natural rhythm so I’m not going to fight it.
I’m only a few days in but so far these shifts have really been helping. Honestly, I think the meditation in bed and NOT getting on my phone after has been the biggest help in calming my mind.
Just sharing my experiences in hopes that they might help some of you. <3
You know what else can help with sleep? Getting regular exercise. 🙂 There are all sorts of studies about why exercise benefits sleep but one of the common themes is that it helps to combat stress and anxiety…which are the leading culprits for insomnia.
20-MINUTE BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT: LEG HIIT + PLANK CORE
Today I have a bodyweight workout to share with you that packs a punch into just 20 minutes of work. Get ready for shaking, burning legs along with tons of cardio and core work in the form of plank variations.
WORK INTERVALS:
45 seconds work, 15 seconds rest each of the following 6 exercises. Repeat 3 rounds. Rest 1 minute after each round.
MOVEMENTS:
- Jump Lunge Burpee (alternate lead leg on lunge)
- Alternating Side Planks
- 180 Jump Squats
- Plank Up and Downs (alternate lead arm)
- Speed Skaters
- Reverse Table Lift and Lowers
VIDEO DEMO:
Please let me know if you have any questions about the workout and report back after if you try it! 🙂
I’ve also uploaded a few new full guided classes/workouts that you can stream on-demand. If you like sweaty, HIIT bodyweight workouts, you’ll love the 29-minute tabata workout that I just posted!
QUESTIONS
Have you made any changes (positive or negative) to your evening routine during all that is life right now?
Any requests for workouts that you’d like to see soon? What length? What equipment? What kind of focus?
I used to have major problems sleeping. Exercise has really helped with that, and I find it I don’t work out for awhile, my sleep quality really suffers. That being said I take melatonin every night. I have a very similar natural rhythm, 10:30ish to 7:30ish! I’m neither a night owl or an early bird.
I know they are time consuming to write but would love to see a daily eats or day in the life post sometimes soon. Always fun to read and give new ideas!☺️
I love your 38 minute superset workout – the longer ones are a little hard for me to fit into my day between long work days, the amount of cooking and cleanup going on lately, and my husband’s work from home schedule (his current workspace is also our workout area!) I will give the tabata one a try! Strength is more my jam, but I concede burpees have their place ?
Lifting heavy is my number one go to for better sleep – there’s nothing like that dead weight feeling of tired muscles to ease me into solid sleep. Lidl has an awesome bedtime mint and chamomile tea that I love as well, and I’ve found that making sure I’m getting enough magnesium helps too. I hope your sleep improvement continues!
Great post! I have had a really hard time sleeping and adjusting my schedule when being at home all the time. These are some good tips that I will try to get to bed earlier.
Loved this workout.. nice quick little sweat! Thank you for sharing!
Great workout – thanks for sharing! What’s the song in the video?
Thanks Kendra – the song is just a stock/royalty free song from the YouTube free audio library.