Sleep Challenge | Day 3 - Movement for Modern Life Blog

Welcome back to another day of self-care and a commitment to starting a lifetime habit of sleeping better and looking after yourself. We really hope you’re starting to feel the benefits of deeper relaxation before bedtime and movement in the morning!

Day 3: What to do

Read through these notes and commit to reducing your computer usage in the evenings.
When you do your evening yoga class, see if you can reduce the brightness of your computer and challenge yourself to mostly listen to the audio to make your evening practice as relaxing as possible.
Commit to leaving all electronic devices out of the bedroom!
Stick to your bedtime routine of hot baths, self massage and any of the tips you’ve enjoyed in our messages so far.
Continue twice a day practice of Yoga and Journaling.
Set your alarm in time for morning journaling and yoga.
Remember, you decide whether to use the new classes in this email or to repeat favourites from earlier in the challenge.
Tell us your favourite class so far on the FaceBook Movers Group.

There are so many reasons to turn off your computers, your tablets, your social media and all electronic devices a few hours before you sleep. In your healthy sleep routine, if you’re in bed at, say, 10pm, make sure that the last run-in you have with your computer is at 8pm.

It’s been proven that electronic devices emit a blue light and this light is throwing the body’s biological clock – the circadian rhythm – out of whack.

Many studies have shown that exposure to night time lights are bad for us on many levels– they suppress the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms. Whilst light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light does this more powerfully. So when you’re doing your MFML video before bed, turn the light down on your computer as low as possible, and try to mostly listen to the video, rather than watching it.

Don’t even think about looking at your emails or social media for two hours before bed. If you think this is tough – you’re being challenged here to challenge yourself and see the difference. Just give it a try and see how you feel. Not only from the light perspective, but for reducing anxiety-inducing brain function late at night because we know that email and social media are particularly bad late at night.

So make sure that your bedroom is as dark as possible and ban all electronics from the bedroom. Make sure that your love affair with your devices stops two hours before bed.