“What Foods Boost Energy and Improve Sleep?”

-

 A sleep expert answers your questions.

A 31-year-old gardener wonders what she should be eating in the day to improve her sleep at night.

A little about me:

Age: 31

Occupation: gardener

Number of hours sleep you get each night: 6 hours

Number of hours sleep you wish you got each night: 8-9 hours

Any officially diagnosed sleep-related problems: no

How much water you drink on average per day: 1 litre (not enough)

How much exercise I do on average per week: 1 cardio workout a week, plus the manual labour of my day-to-day job

Day 1

I went to bed late last night (around 11.30pm) and I get up late today as a result; my alarm goes off at 5am but I sleep through until 5.40am, and barely have time for a few mouthfuls of coffee before I’m out the door. Thankfully, I manage to stop at Costa on the way for a flat white and a pastry.

I get to work around 7am, have a cup of tea, and then get to work. I forgot to pack lunch, so I make do with some biscuits, then carry on until 4pm, drinking tea all the way.

I’m home by 5.30pm, snack and chill out watching TV for a bit, and then go for a run. I eat a little dinner of eggs on toast afterwards, and then I hop in the shower before bed at 10.30pm and fall asleep immediately. 

Day 2

I wake up to my alarm at 5.30am, and go downstairs for coffee and toast. I make a peanut butter sandwich for work, grab a few snacks (including an apple and some chocolate biscuits), and head in.

It’s another busy day and I am on my feet for almost all of it, so when I get home at 5ish I just want to crash.

I have a shower, change into my PJs, and have dinner (veggie chilli with rice), before settling down to do some painting. I head up to bed around 10.30pm again and crash out as soon as my audiobook starts playing.

Day 3

It’s my last super early start, so I try and make sure I’m up with my alarm at 5.30am. I feel exhausted. Again, I grab some tea and toast, before heading out the door to work (with some biscuits and leftover dinner in a microwaveable dish, which I heat up for lunch). 

 It’s a blazing hot day and when I come home I feel sick because of it, so I try to drink lots of water and tea, and have a cold shower before dinner: it’s just some cheese and tomato pasta today.

Again, I do some painting until bed at 10.30pm, where I crash out as before.

Day 4

I wake up at 7am today, which counts as a lie-in (but I’m still so tired), and head downstairs to sit in the garden for a bit with my breakfast.

After I’ve eaten, I drink some tea, make another peanut butter sandwich (there’s no microwave at work today), and head out to work. 

 It’s another hot day, so I try to remember to drink water when I can. I get home around 5pm, have a cold shower, and eat a quick dinner of Quorn chicken nuggets, beans, and fries.

Then, I meet some friends for a catchup, and end up heading to bed later than normal – around 11.30pm? As always, I fall asleep as soon as the light is off and stay that way until morning.

Day 5

It should be my last working day, but I know I’ve got to go in tomorrow, so I don’t feel that usual Friday release when my alarm goes off at 7am. I get up, head to the bathroom to wash up, then go downstairs for a few pancakes with syrup. I wash it down with tea, make myself another tea for the road (and a flask of water), then head out for the day – it’s one of my longest of the week, as I don’t finish until after 6pm.

When I get home, I have a shower, then sit down to a takeaway (Friday treat!) and watch TV for a bit. I’m in bed by 11.30pm again, even though I’m tired, as I wanted to make the most of the evening. I fall asleep before the light is even off this time, and sleep through until my alarm at 7am. Ugh. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Steps to Take to Become a Morning Person

-
Every morning at 7 a.m., Jane Walsh rolls out of bed and onto her yoga mat. For the next half an hour — before coffee or breakfast or feeding the cats — she bends and stretches her body. “It sets the tone for the rest of the day,” says Walsh, 58, who works in public relations in New York City. She’s kept this schedule for as long as she can remember, even in her 20s after late nights out. Without her morning routine, “my mood isn’t as stable, and I don’t feel as good overall,” she says — and when she does sleep in, she feels like she’s missed out on something. Walsh is what researchers describe as a lark: a person who rises early and is more active in the morning, compared to a night owl who thrives after dark. Everyone has a chronotype, or circadian tendency — a natural inclination to sleep and wake at a certain time. Our internal clock is about 30% to 40% dependent on genetic factors, says Philip Gehrman, a clinical psychologist who directs the Sleep, Neurobiology, and Psychopatholog...
Read more

How the 1% Runs an Ironman

-
 Inside the world of Ironman XC, which makes the endurance contest a little more endurable — for executives who can afford to pay. Jerome Le Jamtel likes to watch movies while he swims. He says it just like that, too — “I like to watch movies while I swim” — as if it makes sense. In the basement of his house in suburban Mamaroneck, N.Y., from which he commutes to his job in the city as chief risk officer for Natixis Americas, part of a multinational investment firm with $1.25 trillion in assets under management, he has created a miniature Ironman training facility, complete with a Vasa Swim Ergometer, a dry-land simulator that retails for $1,900 and resembles an inverted rowing machine. He puts an iPad on the floor beneath him, and voilà, he’s watching “John Wick” while he works on his freestyle. Le Jamtel does all his training indoors now. His fellow regulars with Ironman XC, which stands for “executive challenge,” a small subcategory of Ironman that caters to high-achieving, time...
Read more