00:00:00:01 - 00:00:26:04 Kate Hi. I'm Kate from Psych for Life before bedtime even rolls around. There are a few things we can do during the day that will help make sure we get a good night's rest. First. Getting enough sunlight exposure during the day helps regulate our natural sleep wake cycles. You should try to get at least 30 minutes of natural sunlight every day, particularly in the morning when natural sunlight isn't available. 00:00:26:14 - 00:00:47:21 Kate It's good to use a bright light to signal to your body that it's daytime. Getting enough exercise also works wonders if you're having trouble sleeping at night. Increase the amount of exercise you do during the day. Consider high intensity workouts such as lifting weights, especially if that insomnia is related to stress or depression. 00:00:50:06 - 00:01:11:23 Kate Exercise whenever it fits into your schedule. But if possible, you'll want to exercise at least 90 minutes before it's time to go to sleep, which should provide enough time for your body to return to a state of rest. Keep in mind, if you're not getting 30 minutes of exercise, every day, that's okay. You can always work your way up to it. 00:01:12:05 - 00:01:38:23 Kate You might want to just start with 5 minutes a day, and once you're used to that, you can step it up to ten Avoid long naps and late naps. Naps can be very rejuvenating if they're kept relatively short and in their early to mid afternoon when there's a natural decline in energy levels. Shorter naps between ten and 30 minutes have also been shown to be the most effective at boosting energy without disrupting nighttime sleep. 00:01:39:22 - 00:02:03:12 Kate You'll want to avoid naps after 2 p.m. as they can disrupt your nighttime sleep by reducing sleep pressure or that tired feeling If you're regularly taking naps longer than 30 minutes, it may be a sign that you're not getting enough sleep at night. If that's the case, you may want to consider how to rearrange your schedules so you're getting more sleep during nighttime hours and can stay awake all day long. 00:02:04:14 - 00:02:28:02 Kate Another thing you do during the day that affects your sleep is eating and drinking. The thing we consume that has perhaps the biggest impact on us is caffeine. That includes soda, tea, And my favorite is coffee. And caffeine can be hidden in other places as well. Some medications like Midol have caffeine. So if possible, you want to take those in the morning. 00:02:28:07 - 00:02:50:22 Kate And of course, talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have specific questions. Caffeine not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but it can also considerably reduce the quality of the sleep we get throughout the night. Take a minute and think back. How much caffeine have you had today? Now take a minute to think about when you had the caffeine. 00:02:51:03 - 00:03:13:07 Kate Was it in the morning, in the afternoon or throughout the day? The science suggests that the best possible route is to avoid caffeine altogether, but the effects tend to increase the closer we get to bedtime. So if you find that you're not willing to give up your morning cup of coffee, you'll want to avoid consuming caffeine within 6 hours of your bedtime. 00:03:13:22 - 00:03:33:18 Kate For years, I've had three cups of coffee a day, one in the morning, one mid-morning, and then my beloved 3 p.m. coffee. It's that 3 p.m. coffee that I needed to eliminate because I could see that I wasn't getting enough sleep and I wasn't satisfied with how I was waking up feeling. So my first cup of coffee is full caffeine. 00:03:34:02 - 00:03:59:03 Kate Second cup I'm actually trying to make half caf that when I'm cutting the amount of caffeine in half, that has reaped tremendous benefits for my sleep. I've really just been waking up feeling more refreshed and overall just feeling better. Has it worked? 100% of the time. Absolutely not. That 3 p.m. slump is very real for me, and on occasion I just feel like I need just a little bit of something to get me through the day. 00:03:59:08 - 00:04:18:21 Kate In those cases, I try to make it a green tea. Green tea has less caffeine than coffee. So again, the goal is to overall reduce my caffeine intake. Giving up caffeine is tough. And if you do decide to give up coffee altogether, it's best not to do it all at once because this can cause headaches and other withdrawal symptoms. 00:04:19:02 - 00:04:44:05 Kate So if you're used to having three cups a day, you might want to go to two cups and then one cup over a few different weeks. Alcohol is another drink that can disrupt our sleep. While some people think that alcohol helps them sleep, the research shows that what it does is actually closer to knocking us out. The resulting sleep is irregular and shallow, which is why we often wake up feeling groggy and untrusted after we've had alcohol. 00:04:45:01 - 00:05:09:22 Kate While alcohol can actually help you fall asleep, it also causes you to have your worst sleep. The second half of the night's sleep, researchers recommend not having any alcohol within one hour of bedtime. Drinking too many liquids can also cause fragmented sleep. However, meals or small snacks of about 150 calories, particularly high in protein, can actually help improve sleep. 00:05:10:13 - 00:05:44:11 Kate Foods that contain melatonin such as milk, oatmeal, nuts and tart cherries, especially in the juice form, can provide a natural source of the sleep producing hormone. Other foods, which have been shown to improve sleep for a variety of reasons include Kiwis, fatty fish, turkey and assorted nuts. Research on the effect of carbs is less definitive, but generally less processed carbs, like whole grains, appear to support our sleep, whereas more processed sugars impair our sleep overall. 00:05:44:14 - 00:06:15:21 Kate Having a healthy, balanced diet full of fruits and vegetables will give us all the nutrients we need to promote good sleep So here are our key takeaways for what you can do during the day to get better sleep. One. Get sunlight to get exercise. Ideally. 30 minutes or more. Three. Avoid long naps and late naps. Four. Avoid caffeine, especially afternoon. 00:06:16:18 - 00:06:46:12 Kate Five. Avoid alcohol right before bed and sex. Eat foods that are high in protein and melatonin and not too high in processed sugar. Before we move on. Take a moment to ask yourself if you only made one small change to one of these things, what would it be? Maybe I'm going to eat my lunch outside to get some sunlight or I'm going to have one less cup of coffee or soda in the afternoon. 00:06:47:08 - 00:07:09:22 Kate Or I'm going to avoid that weekend nap to get better sleep at night. What's the one thing that you will choose? Consider writing this down or saying it out loud. Now, we have some ideas for what to do during the day to get better sleep. Join us in the next video where we'll talk about your bedtime routine. See you there.