Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? Wake up not feeling refreshed? Or perhaps you’re just craving a solid 8 hours without your brain kicking into overdrive. Whatever your sleep issue may be, sleep specialist Olivia Arezzolo might be able to help. Through her practice as a wellness coach, Olivia realized that she was having the greatest and fastest success rates with her sleep optimization clients —improving their sleep from 3 – 4 hours per night to up to 7 hours per night within one week. Identifying the interaction between sleep and depression, anxiety, stress, weight management, cardiovascular disease, mental concentration, chronic illness and ultimately quality of life; has led her to specialize in this area—which is why we’ve reached out to her to share her wisdom, because seriously, who doesn’t want to have the best sleep ever?
Prior to looking into what you do, find out why you want to do it. Therefore, we ask: what exactly are you trying to attain from improving your sleep? Addressing this first helps develop the internal motivation for change required for execution. Becoming excited about the benefits—such as improved mood, reduced fatigue, heightened productivity; and having a conscious awareness of this daily through journalling, affirmations or dialogue — helps you innately want to change. It’s crucial you realize that there is so much you can do to improve your sleep – and the most important thing you do is take action to ensure it! Keep reading for some more of Olivia’s sleeping tips.
A Sleep Expert Reveals Her Top Tips For Having The Best Sleep Ever
Try the following to start with:
- Create a sleep goal and ensure you are measuring your sleep using an app or wearable tech, like a Whoop wearable watch or maybe even a fit bit.
- Ensure results by using scientifically proven methods to optimize your sleep, such as employing a progressive relaxation routine for evenings.
- Minimize stimulants such as nicotine, caffeine and alcohol, particularly after 2 pm. This will help your body start to get itself into sleep mode.
- Improve your intake of sleep optimizing nutrients such as tryptophan, magnesium and calcium; as well as precursor sleep neurotransmitters such as serotonin, melatonin and GABA. Love this tip!
- Reduce intake of toxin loading foods like gluten, dairy, sugar and alcohol. These can greatly inhibit how you sleep.
- Create space, daily, within your routine to effectively manage your stress so it doesn’t overwhelm or consume you.
- Finding an accountability partner in this process is key – studies show we are more likely to commit and sustain behavior change if we have another individual or group holding us to it.
These are some of the strategies she uses with her clients, they all have scientific backing so I am certain they are effective. For anyone reading this with a sleep problem, this should be exciting – there IS help available and there are so many things you can do to remedy it.
Here’s Olivia’s Own Night-Time Routine:
I ensure I am practice what I preach, both for authenticity and also because I recognize how important it is for my own mental, emotional and physical wellbeing to sleep properly! Keep reading for Olivia’s actual sleep time routine at night.
- 120 minutes before bed: finish my last meal; including any alcohol, pack up any demanding activities
- 90 minutes before bed: disconnect from social media, sometimes go for a gentle walk, and have a warm (not hot as this can shock your body) shower
- 1 hour before bed – chat to friends and/or family or listen to a TED X Talk
- 30 minutes before bed or do a 20-minute meditation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, journalling
Meet Our Expert:
Olivia is Australia’s leading Sleep Expert, speaker, author, coach and advisor. After 9 years of study, her qualifications include a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology), Certificate of Sleep Psychology, Diploma of Health Science (Nutritional Medicine), and a Certificate 3+4 in Fitness. Olivia’s expertise has been solicited for global brands such as Google, Ikea, Sealy Posturepedic and Fitbit, who have shared her science based sleep strategies to the media, consumers and employees alike. On the media landscape, Olivia has been featured in Forbes, has a popular column in the Australia’s leading health media platform, Body and Soul, and is a regular speaker on live TV shows including Sunrise, The Today Show and Studio 10. Lastly, but definitely not least, her bestselling book, Bear, Lion or Wolf, is now published in 10 countries in 8 languages, seeing her mission to help individuals feel their best, inside and out, via sleep, go global.
