Want to sleep more? Here's how.

Have you ever felt the urge to just take a nap?

You’re not alone. Today is National Public Sleeping Day.

So what’s the deal with this holiday anyway?

National Public Sleeping Day celebrates the act of napping in places that are not your home. If you’re ever tempted to snooze at your office desk or at a park bench or while suntanning at the beach, today is the perfect excuse. You’re not just sleeping. You’re proudly observing this much loved (even if obscure) holiday.

It’s important to demonstrate to the world that, not only do you sleep, you do it with pride. In a culture that brags about sleep deprivation, many people feel shame about sleeping at all. As a result, sleep deprivation is affecting more North Americans, and it’s hurting our health.

That’s right, sleep is not something we can afford to lose.

Don’t Scrimp on Sleep

Study after study shows the problems with sleep deprivation. Harvard Medical School gives you six reasons not to scrimp on it. Stanford compared reaction times of sleep deprived people with subjects who are legally drunk and found them to be similar. The National Institute of Child Health and Human development lists the following risks with sleep deprivation:

• Irritability
• Depression
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes

Why is sleep so beneficial?

On a study of collegiate basketball players, sleep was found to maximize athletic performance, increasing speed, accuracy, reaction times and mental wellbeing. Another study shows that sleep improves the human body’s cellular immune function -- that’s to say that you’re less likely to catch a cold if you sleep. As well, sleep helps you recognize important social cues, improving your interactions with others.

Medical consensus is unanimous. Sleep is important, and it’s essential to healthy living.

Need help with sleep?

Of course, not all of us find it easy to get sleep. If you’re used to sleep deprivation, you may discover that old habits die hard.

Here's some tips on better sleep hygiene:

• Close down your screens 1-2 hours before bed. On the nights you have a lot of work to get done, you can add a screen warming app like f.lux to your laptop and turn on Night Shift on your iPhone to do the same.
• Try your best to go to bed in the same 30 minute time window every night.
• Turn the heat down in your room. Ideal temp is 16-18 C or 65-70 F. 
• Get your adaptogenic herbs every day through mushrooms like reishi. Adaptogens help your body cope with external stressors, toning your body and keeping it balanced (normalizing your adrenal response) when under stress. You can drink Matcha Bliss several mornings a week to get a good dose of reishi (1000mg per serving). Stress and anxiety are major culprits of bad sleep. 

The best thing we've found for getting better sleep is sipping our Sleep Tea 30 minutes to 1 hour before bed to promote relaxation and a deep restful sleep. Try sipping and reading a novel.

Formulated using principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Sleep Tea is an organic blend that contains passionflower, valerian root, lemon balm, chamomile, and lavender.

TCM is an ancient practice, used in Asia for over 2000 years. It uses a holistic approach, looking at the whole body, mind and spirit. In TCM, health is a harmonious relationship between your internal condition, those interconnected systems, and the external environment. Health is maintained through a balance of yin and yang and a natural flow of qi, which is the body’s vital energy.

Sleep was intentionally formulated to give you a deep and restful sleep through a layered effect with the herbs we chose. The volatile oils in chamomile and lavender are calming, they relax the mind and anxiety; the terpenes in lemon balm also help to calm an anxious mind, relieve insomnia and improve sleep. In TCM, lemon balm calms the heart and body and uplifts the spirit. Passionflower and valerian have natural sedative properties and work synergistically to help you fall asleep (they really do knock you out, without any morning grogginess).

Teas are a very beneficial way to utilize herbs - by steeping and extracting the properties of the plant into a warm liquid, the body responds well and absorbs the nutrients.

With more people (ahem) waking up to the benefits of sleep, it’s no wonder that Sleep Tea is Amoda’s best selling blend. Sleep Tea is delicious, calming, and soothing. Not only does it taste great, many of our customers are re-discovering the joys of restful sleep. One customer review states, that Sleep Tea is “very effective! I was out like a light”.

Another reviewer says, “This tea is amazing! I work long and unusual hours, and sometimes convincing my body that it is time to got to sleep can be tricky. This tea instantly soothed and relaxed me, the perfect cup of tea to unwind with at the end of a long day.”