6 Bedtime Habits to Help You Lose Weight

So many times we may be doing all the right things in order to lose weight -- eating right, portion-sized meals, drinking water throughout the day and exercising at least **150 minutes per week. But, are we sleeping enough? A few good tweaks to what you are already doing could make all the difference! So get your zzzz's in and if its too difficult, ask your doctor for recommendations.

**(By the way, the Department of Health & Human Services recommends aerobic activity at least 150 minutes a week. That encompasses moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity).

There are 6 Bedtime Habits that will help with weight loss...

(1) Have dairy before bed. Apparently, "dairy is chock-full of casein, a slow-to-digest form of protein that keeps exercisers' muscles fueled with amino acids, so they can build lean mass all night long".

(2) Great news on this front. According to Rebecca Scott, Ph.D., "We need our body temperature to drop in order to sleep through the night". 

(3) Try doing something relaxing -- like reading a book for 30 minutes -- that can assist with getting to sleep right away.

(4) Get the right sleep "lighting" to set the mood for sleep. In other words, no artificial lighting. Having a dark room facilitates sleep.

(5) A little yoga exercise before bed can help the body relax. Simply attempting to breath in through the nose and out through the mouth slowly helps a great deal!

(6) Nightcaps before bed are a no-no! This has actually back-fired on me as well. You may think you will sleep well, and initially you do; but the second stage of sleep can be affected negatively as the body attempts to metabolize the sugar from the alcohol which interferes with quality sleep.

To learn about the 6 bedtime habits in more detail, refer to the article.