Sleep Guidelines and Exercise Tips During Lockdown

Things are a lot of different than they were one year ago, primarily because of COVID-19. Many countries are in lockdown, and the world as we know it is changing every day. Now, most of us are working from home, doing exercise at home and we’ve had to adapt to several new habits.

Apart from worrying about our health and adhering to social distancing, we’ve also had to make changes to our daily routines. This, in turn, has impacted on necessities like sleep and exercise.

Some of us are struggling to sleep properly, while the rest are grappling to keep up with our exercise routines. Whatever battle you’re currently fighting, these tips can help you begin moving back in the right direction.

Create a Daily Schedule for Exercise

If you’ve started working from home, you’ll know that it can be challenging to set boundaries between your personal and professional time. For instance, it can be tempting to stay up late to finish a project while rewarding yourself with a few extra hours of sleep in the morning.

Although this sounds perfectly fine, continuous changes to your daily habits can seriously damage your routine. Additionally, it can impede your sleep quality, which results in a lack of energy for the following day.

It can be tough to figure out the ideal balance between work and home life. However, it’s crucial to your overall wellbeing, so make sure you create a realistic daily routine and stick to it.

De-Stress and Make Time for Relaxation

In today’s trying times, our stress and anxiety levels are higher than ever. The future is sometimes uncertain, and we’re constantly worrying about our families, friends, and jobs. While this is entirely normal, it’s crucial to find time to unwind and relax.

 

Before you go to bed, make sure you take a mental break. Reflect on your day, acknowledge your accomplishments, and remember to find gratitude for the things you have in your life. Many times, we choose to beat ourselves up over our losses, rather than our wins.

 

A relaxing activity before bed can help you fall asleep faster and reminds your body that it’s time to sleep. Some good ideas include meditation, listening to music, and reading. If you want to improve your sleep quality more, you can invest in a comfortable and supportive mattress. There are many options out there, and you could start by searching for a memory foam mattress.

Get Enough Sunshine

If you stay inside for long periods, it can be severely detrimental to your overall well being. A lack of melatonin, a hormone created by the pineal gland, can wreck with your sleep-wake cycle.

If you don’t get enough sunshine, it can impede melatonin production, which can cause problems with falling and staying asleep. Thus, if your country is in lockdown, you might struggle with getting outside enough.

To combat this, it’s vital that you spend some time outdoors every day. A walk around the block for 30 minutes is enough, but you can also purchase supplements to regulate your melatonin levels.

Find Time to Exercise

If you want to be healthy, you need to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Physical activity benefits are massive; it aids muscle and bone health, relieves pain, boosts mental health, and improves your mood, among others.

On top of this, regular exercise can boost your immune system, helping your body fight infections, including COVID-19. It also improves your sleep, which is essential to a healthy lifestyle.

The gym might be closed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work out at home. These days, you can find a plethora of exercise routines online, or you can download an app to help you find encouragement and motivation.

Some popular at-home exercise ideas include kickboxing, yoga, dancing, and pilates. You can also incorporate your family into your workouts by going for bike rides, walks, or just having a backyard game of soccer.

Take Away

Your health and wellness should always be your number one priority, especially in today’s uncertain times. However, this is easier said than done, and you can face multiple obstacles in your search for an active and healthy lifestyle.

If you create a daily schedule, you can balance your work and personal life while incorporating beneficial components like exercise, sunshine, and sleep into your routine.