8 Natural Sleep Remedies: Jet Lag, Time Change- RunToTheFinish

Can we talk about sleep today?

Next to nut butter and chocolate {ok and running} it’s one of my favorite things.

I adore that moment when you crawl in between the cool sheets, pull the covers up all the way past your head so you can then have enough to bunch under your chin and feel all snuggled in…then relaxing with a few pages from a book as my eyelids get heavier and heavier.

AHHH then waking up feeling alert. Really everything about sleep is my jam. And as a runner, it needs to be your jam too if you want to perform!

Sooooo I was not a fan of the night sweats and sleep issues that came with early menopause. And lately, I’m not a fan of how stinking tired I feel after a full night of sleep thanks to the time change {can we get rid of it already?!}.

NATURAL SLEEP AIDS

Can the time change cause fatigue? Impacting your runs, your lovely morning attitude and therefore your whole day?? ABSOLUTELY, which is why we want to find things to implement that can help us adjust to Daylight savings time a little easier.

This tips are also really helpful if you’re traveling for a race and need to get that great sleep before the big day.

Why not take a sleeping pill?
Well if it’s prior to a race, the potential that I could oversleep is terrifying. But beyond that, I prefer to keep those types of drugs to a minimum. I don’t have insomnia and these tips aren’t for treating it. Instead, we’re focused on those sometimes restless nights and how to help you sleep better when stressed, hard training or traveling.

Excellent, with that out of the way, let’s move on!

Over the years I have found a few things that really seem to work wonders in helping me adjust to the time change seasonally and when I travel, which is a lot. In case you too have an aversion to sleeping pills {heaven only knows what weird things I’d do sleep walking}.

CALM Magnesium
Magnesium is a vitamin that many of us are deficient in and don’t even realize the impact. Drinking a warm glass of CALM at night, helps to promote better sleep by improving those levels It not only helps with relaxation, but it eh hem ensures things get flowing quickly in the morning, which means no bathroom breaks needed during early morning running.
Want to know more about magnesium and body fat? What?! Read this >>

Peace and Calm Oil
A few of my friends are HUGE in to oils, so I have definitely been incorporating them in different ways. While I will never be an oil cures all kind of girl, I am open to trying things to see what works for me. In fact you can read all about oils for athletes here>> This is one of the few oils I have ordered on repeat because I believe it’s helped.

I will say I’ve tried other versions of this from different brands or different mixtures and did not have the same results. Something about this specific blend from Young Living (which I do not sell) hit the nail on the head for me.

Nightly Rituals
Far and away this is the biggest winner of all. I stop checking my phone by 8PM, which drives a lot of people a little crazy, but we know that our brains need to disconnect from the ToDo lists and the blue light of our devices.

I always spend a few minutes praying/deep breathing and then reading when I get in bed. This consistent process is a clear signal to my brain that it’s time to go to sleep. Numerous studies have shown having a ritual is highly beneficial to falling asleep quickly.
Melatonin
As a last resort at home I will take this when I’m wide awake, but usually I save it for the second night of traveling. For some reason I always find it difficult to sleep then and a small dose of Melatonin, which is what your body naturally produces to help you sleep, always works.

**Update: Since originally posting this I have found a solution that I FREAKING LOVE. Estrella PM was handed out at a race expo,where of course I took my free sample! But I was then surprised that it would become my perfect solution.

Helps me fall asleep and stay asleep
I wake up feeling alert, not groggy
It’s not something you’ll suddenly need to take all the time, as it’s very low dose
Contains 1mg melatonin, 100mg theanine (in mushrooms and green tea), 5 HTTP, 4-amino-3-phenlybutyric acid (calming amino acid)

I’m beating the time change sleeplessness with natural sleep aid tips Click To Tweet

Keep Your Room and Bed Cool
When we lived in the MidWest I always felt so thrifty keeping the thermostat low at night, but it turns out that was also making it easier to sleep well. They say the ideal temperature is 68, but in Florida our place was almost always warmer than that because again…cheap.

Which lead to discovering two other things:

Our new Tempurpedic bed as a cooling layer and we legit noticed it the first night! David stopped sweating that night. Without buying a new bed, you can put this cooling mattress cover on and you’ll get the same effect!
I then added cooling sheets to the bed. There are a lot of options from cheap to expensive, but mostly you want it to say moisture wicking.

White Noise Machine or Fan
A ceiling fan won’t do. A stand fan won’t do. I need the beautiful hum of a box fan. I’ve slept with a fan for years and only recently found I could sleep away from home sans fan by using the above methods.

It turns out the fan is actually helpful to a lot of people as it’s very similar to white noise and soothing…here it also blocks out the neighbors and street noise! If you have a white noise app on your phone, that’s another great option for falling asleep.

Hot Tea
Again I have no idea if it actually works, but there is definitely something about a hot cup of tea at night that helps me to slow down and begin to shut down. Aim for chamomile or a sleepy time blend, which usually contains valerian root.

Meditation
What is the best natural sleep aid? Potentially meditation. I say this jokingly, but I know a lot of you fall asleep trying to meditate.It’s great for getting your heart rate to slow down and to shut off the running to do list that often keeps us awake.

Anyone else feel like the time change should go by the wayside?! Even the people who know who still farm {yes we’re from Missouri and Iowa} note that everything has lights now and for the most part it isn’t changing their lives.

How can I resolve my sleep problem naturally? Hopefully these 8 ideas are giving you some hope that you can begin implementing them now and start to see some changes in your patterns.

Are you a good sleeper?

What helps you nod off?

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