Author Tom Rath who wrote, “Eat Move Sleep,” firmly states that “one of the biggest impediments to sleep is what you do in the hour before you go to bed.”
I agree. Checking emails, racing around trying to get everything finished, watching violent or disturbing television shows is not the relaxing, decompressing message you want to send to your nervous system. At the very least, practicing slow diaphragmatic breathing will switch you from sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ into parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ nervous system. You will then signal your body that you are slowing down preparing for your sleep journey.