It's Time to Catch Some Z's

Welcome to Good Form Fridays, a repeating blog sequence that will bring good form and wholeness into your life. Here at buonaforma we are dedicated to living out good form and finding new ways to improve our health, well-being, and presence in our lifestyle. Every Friday we are going to publish great tips and tricks practiced by our team, the local community, and the experts.

When the world is going a hundred miles an hour, sleep can seem like the least of your priorities. Surprisingly, upping your sleep game can actually benefit and promote good form in many other facets of your life. It might be time to reconsider staying up late to finish that proposal.

Sleep is where your mind and body are allowed time to heal. Memory and sleep go hand in hand. Sleep is when your mind is able to consolidate new information into memories which are then stored in your brain. Insufficient sleep makes cracks in your foundation and makes it almost impossible to go through your day with good form. Lack of sleep can cause attention lapses, mood shifts, delayed reactions, and reduced cognition. Your health is at risk as well. Sleep is important when preventing early death, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

All of this is fine and good, but getting enough sleep can be harder than it sounds. Outlined below are some tips that you can easily implement tonight.

Everyone’s sleep is operated on the basis of a 24-hour biological clock. One of the biggest factors of your biological clock is its sensitivity to light. When the day comes to a close and darkness conquers the light, your body releases melatonin to make you drowsy and prepare you for sleep. However, blue light is not something your clock is trained to deal with.

Tip 1: Limit screen time two to three hours before bedtime. If you read on your electronics you can set a bedtime routine in your settings, which will change the light emitted from your screen. This is a great way to support your biological clock while still enjoying your electronics.

Probably the most important aspect of getting good sleep is staying on a consistent sleep schedule. An inconsistent routine makes it difficult for your body to release the correct amount of sleep-inducing hormones at the right time. Staying up till 9:00 pm, then 12:00 pm, and then 3:00 am on different days can disrupt your good form. Not only does staying up late impact your good form, but waking up at different times during the week can also be a detriment to the quality of your day.

Tip 2: Flow with your rhythms of sleep and not against it. Your biological clock operates on a strict rhythmic basis, releasing important chemicals into your body based on tiny, but paramount factors. Making a schedule and sticking to it promotes your natural rhythm and makes sleeping easier, more enjoyable, restful, and energizing when you wake up. The good news is, everyone’s clock is different. If you are a night owl and like to go to bed at 2:00 am, you can still maintain that bedtime. Early risers can still wake up at the crack of dawn. Just keep it consistent.

Caffeine and alcohol can negatively affect your good form when consumed at the wrong time of the day. Both shorten a full night's rest. Although caffeine is a more obvious deterrent than alcohol, alcohol actually shortens the first half of your sleep cycle. 24% of people who consumed alcohol before bed had a decrease in restorative sleep.

Tip 3: Limit drinking caffeine before three o’clock in the afternoon. Coffee is not the only thing you should apply the ‘‘before three’’ rule to. Look for hidden caffeine in sports drinks, medications, sodas, and teas. As for alcohol, if you want to pursue good form, you should limit drinking four hours before bedtime. This gives your body enough time to get the alcohol out of your system to ensure a restful night of sleep.

As buonaforma is founded by university students, it is critical that we implement good forms of sleep and consistent sleeping habits in our daily lives to ensure that you receive quality pieces that are timeless, elegant, and modern.

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