It seems that there are some more tips that could help us sleep better. I've actually read about this before, but they kind of slipped off my mind when I was writing the 13 Tips to Better Sleep post.

TAKE A MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENT

A couple of days ago, I read an article about magnesium which reminded me about the anti-stress effect this mineral has on the body. The author mentioned that taking a magnesium supplement to bed helps some people fall asleep easier. Magnesium relaxes the muscles, calms the nervous system and induces sleep. This research showed that taking a magnesium supplement improves sleep time and sleep efficiency, and reduces early morning awakening. Just be careful with the dosage, as too much magnesium can cause diarrhea. For adult women, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for magnesium is 310-320 mg, and for adult men - 400-420 mg. For more information about RDAs click here.

I will definitely include this tip in the challenge, as I think I will benefit from it in more ways than one.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TO BED? SOCKS!

There are 2 kinds of people - those who wear socks to bed and those who don’t. Ok, that was not the greatest attempt at a joke, I admit. But still, you must have noticed that, on the one hand, many people think of this habit as a bit strange and rather unattractive. On the other hand, there are people who can’t fall asleep without socks… So, who’s right?

Believe it or not, warming your feet can help you drift off to sleep faster, as it causes dilation of blood vessels in your feet, which subsequently makes your brain think “hey, it’s warm and cosy, and it’s late… time to shut down all processes…”.
I used to wear socks to bed before. However, when I changed my mattress, I don’t have any problems with cold feet. For some reason, I find the new latex mattress (not so new anymore, I got it about 13 months ago) a bit too hot. This is maybe a topic for another blogpost, but yeah, I googled my “latex mattress too hot” problem and it seems that there are quite a lot people that have the some issue. I was worried that some other foam mattresses might be problematic in this sense, so I decided to buy one made from latex, as the previous latex mattress was quite pleasant when it comes to temperature regulation. Anyway, I found that putting two bed sheets over the new one, more or less takes care of the problem.

Ok, so, I will not be trying out the socks tip, but I plan to start taking a magnesium supplement before sleep.

What about you? Do you have a habit of taking Mg supplements? Do they help you deal with stress and sleep problems? Oh, and what do you think about wearing socks to bed?