If Coronavirus Worries Are Keeping You Awake, This Will Help

sleep

Wicker and Wilde know how important it is to get a good night's sleep. 

And even though the human body needs sleep to fight off viruses, it has this lovely feature where it also fills itself with panic, which of course, stops us from sleeping while a virus is looming. If you’re caught in this counterproductive cycle, here’s how experts say you can break out and get some rest.

For Starters, they say to Enjoy Natural Light during the day. If you can find a way to take in some sunshine without potentially infecting yourself, do it. A normal dose of natural light helps our bodies stick to a consistent sleep schedule. 

Take a hot shower or bath before bed. Sleep coach Lauri Leadley says our bodies need melatonin to kick off the sleep process and the best way to get a rise in it is to decrease your body temperature. A hot shower or bath will drop your body temp, simultaneously causing a spike in the sleepytime chemical. 

Rebecca Wilde loves this one - Start a “worry” book. Think you’ve got enough worries to fill a book? Well then do it. The former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Ilene Rosen recommends writing all your negative thoughts down “more than three hours before bed” and using your journal to “plan out the list of things you want to get done the next day.” It’s a great way to brain detox without spending any money on weird holistic medicines.

Here's to happy sleep! 

sleep

(HuffPost)