This is a sponsored conversation brought to you by Leesa Mattress. I was gifted a mattress in exchange for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
As a fitness professional, I strive to tackle health and wellness in a whole way. Nutrition, hydration, fitness and sleep are the four main essentials that place my overall health and well being in balance, and if one of those is out of whack, I feel it. If you had to stop for a moment and think, which of these areas you could focus on, which one would that be? I like to rank them and then set mini goals to help me prioritize before taking a realistic, attainable approach to making real change! I like to place the responsibility in my own hands because it makes me realize how much control I actually have and the connection that all of these elements have with each other. This is something I also encourage you to do on a weekly or monthly basis!
Here is an example of a weekly check-in and prioritization:
Sleep: Get 8 hours of sleep per night. No screen time after 9 PM.
Hydration: Drink half my weight of water in ounces daily.
Fitness: Get 30 minutes of exercise daily or 45 minutes to 1-hour 3-5 days per week.
Nutrition: Eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day before 7 P.M. and aim to consume whole foods: lean protein, fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
Lately, acquiring 8 hours of sleep has been my biggest struggle, for many reasons. Pregnancy comes with its own issues and with a growing belly, raging hormones, kicks to the bladder, and lower back pain, sleep has become a hot commodity. As you can see from the example above, this month, my focus was all about COMFORT in my new body and prioritizing sleep. After about a month of work with a chiropractor, acupuncture, and a new mattress, I have minimized my lower back pain and have a solid evening ritual that lull’s me to get almost 8 hours of sleep per night. Pre-pregnancy, I also had sleep issues. I found myself in different hotel beds every week and had “to-do” lists a mile long, which, needless to say, would keep me up at night, and six hours of sleep was about the average length of time spent in dreamland. AKA…not enough for this girl.
Sleep is essential for every, single one of us! The health benefits of a good night’s sleep are seemingly endless. A good night’s sleep can help to improve your memory, spur creativity, lower stress, keep your heart healthy, prevent weight gain, strengthen your immune system and more! I can go on and on about the importance of a good nights sleep so here are my tips for getting a better night’s sleep today!
Try not to eat after 7 P.M.: Give your body an adequate amount of time to digest your dinner. I like to go on after dinner walks to promote digestion and limit heartburn and uncomfortable digestive issues throughout the night.
Create an evening ritual: Rituals are healthy actions you can take every night to help you relax and wind down from a stressful day. A ritual can be a hot shower or bath with essential oils, followed by a 5-minute stretch and a little bit of light reading. You should be able to follow your ritual from wherever you are and they should trigger a relaxation and sleep response.
Seek Natural Injury or Pain Relief: I am obviously not a doctor but have dealt with my fair share of aches and pains here and there. Throughout my pregnancy, I have turned to a prenatal chiropractor, Pilates and acupuncturist to help with my sciatica and pregnancy related pain. It is amazing what the combination can do for pain relief without the use of over the counter or prescribed medication that may alter your sleep cycle.
Focus on deep breathing or meditation: Cory and I took a hynobirthing class and learned many breathing and relaxation techniques. We work on them together before we fall asleep and usually barely make it to five minutes before we are both happily snoozing away. Deep breathing can decrease stress and help you relax. Try it throughout the day for at least a few minutes at a time.
Check your mattress: If you are waking up to aches and pains and not feeling rested, your mattress may be to blame. For the last 6 months, I have been waking up tired and with tingling legs. For a little while, I chalked it up to pregnancy until I slept at my moms and in my guest room and found myself waking up with little to no pain. It was my AHA, moment! For the past four years, I have been sleeping on a pillow top mattress that is now saggy in the spots where Cory and I slept with a lump in the middle with little to no support. When we first got the mattress, we LOVED it; however, in recent months it was the cause of my constant sciatic flair-ups. I had a good feeling it was, so after hearing amazing things about Leesa Mattress, from a few blogger friends and after trying one out in my local West Elm store, I was determined to order one ASAP.
I chose the Sapira mattress, which is a bit firmer than the traditional Leesa mattress. The hybrid Sapira mattress features the comfort and recovery layers that the Leesa mattress has and an active pocket spring support layer that adjusts to your pressure points, as support was exactly what the doctor ordered. We set the new mattress up last weekend, and I could not wait to give it a try! I have been really skeptical of mattress’s that show up at your house in a box, but I loved the fact that Leesa Mattresses’ are American-made, shipped directly to your door and gives you the opportunity to try the mattress in your home for 100 nights (risk-free!) with free shipping always. I did take a few days to adjust to the new mattress. At first, we LOVED lounging on it, but our first couple of nights were definitely an “adjustment period”. We were now spending 8 hours on a new surface, with much more support. After a few days, our bodies felt adjusted and we both looking forward to hopping into bed and are falling asleep quicker and staying asleep longer! I am glad I chose the firmer model, but I am obsessed with the Leesa pillow it came with. Another added feature that we love is the cooling layer. Cory gets overheated very easily and the 2-inch Avena TM foam top layer adds a cooling and breathability to the mattress that we were definitely missing! It has been a win-win for the both of us!
Another thing I love about Leesa is that they also are also a socially conscious, company that gives back! Leesa is driven by the mission to provide “A Better Place To Sleep for Everybody”, Leesa donates one mattress to a shelter for every ten they sell through their one-ten program (over 26,000 mattresses donated so far!) Leesa also plants one tree for every mattress sold and donates 1% of each employee time to volunteer for local causes. How amazing is that?
So, now that I have shared the health benefits of sleep and how to help you get more of it tonight, I want to help you even further by offering you $130 off Leesa Mattress and $205 off Sapira Mattress by using the code: TAYLORWALKER upon check out. You can also test a Leesa at any West Elm location or for my New Yorkers, at the Leesa Dream Gallery in SoHo NY and Virginia Beach!
