Do you drink milk before going to sleep? Do you take your phone to bed, scrolling and swiping until your lids grow heavy? Or do you lull yourself to sleep with a book that ends up plastered flat on your face?
Reading before bedtime can help you sleep better, dream well, and wake up refreshed and reinvigorated.
While for many people watching TV or scrolling on their phones in bed helps them put themselves right to sleep, for others is not so.
In fact, several studies have shown that the light emitted from electronic devices plays havoc with our sleep, disturbing our natural sleep clock. The result is that we stay awake much more than our body can handle, sleep less than we need to, and wake up tired, drowsy and unable to concentrate. Does this ring any bells?
Ban Electronics – Embrace Your Old Friend, The Printed Book
Instead of using TV as a sedative or hopping onto Twitter and Instagram to lull yourself to sleep, try a different approach next time.
Ditch all the electronics for at least one hour before sleep and see what happens.
Even if you’re an ebook fanatic, try switching to print book reading before bedtime. It will help you ease into sleep more naturally, and provide you with the gentle mental stimulus that will make it possible for you to dream about fascinating worlds and extraordinary lives.
Sleeping and dreaming are two of the most reinvigorating activities the human body and brain can engage in. So consider this: instead of scrolling down meaningless tweet after meaningless tweet, lose yourself in a story.
Immerse yourself in a fictional world of incredible creatures and majestic queens and kingdoms. Or delve into the adrenaline-packed world of thrillers and horror stories. Whatever tickles your fancy.
Storytelling, Dreams, and Serenity
Storytelling is a mesmerizing art. It puts us front and center in a play happening in front of our mind’s eye. You cannot move, you cannot press pause. Everything unveils before you. Intoxicated by the thrill and wonder you experience you, want more. You devour more pages, more plot twists, more magnificent writing.
Reading gives your mind food for thought, not just to empathize with those around you but to empathize and understand yourself. Reading helps you to make sense of your existence, forgive your mistakes, give yourself a pat on the back, and finally embark on a journey of empowerment and utter joy.
A Minnesota University study found that reading relieves stress which makes it the ideal bedtime habit if you find it hard to get some shuteye.
Just imagine how much more peacefully you will sleep if your stress levels decrease after a frantic day.
In one way, reading keeps your mind off worries and other red-flag stress zones.
If you’re the typical bedtime worrier thinking “What am I doing with my life?” or “When will I pay off my student debt?” as you lie there in the dark, then reading will distract your mind from this worrying. Reading is a dream for your mind and a paradise for your soul.
So read on, read to feel better, read to de-stress, read to sleep like a baby and dream better!
Image by SelenaEde
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