The quality of your sleep is as important as your diet and exercise plan combined.

You probably hear people preaching about nutrition, exercise and diets on every corner. And having proper nutrition and exercise is of crucial importance.

But there is one thing as much, or maybe even more important than nutrition and exercise combined. And that’s the quality of your sleep.

Most of us trade our sleeping hours for entertainment, some trade them for work and few simply can’t fall asleep. But only a tiny fragment of people have a quality sleep.

Sleep quality is so crucially important because it is when you sleep that your body produces a mix of hormones and chemicals that nurture, repair, and maintain your health.

So if you are serious about your health, if you look at nutritional diets and plan to create a healthy exercise program, before any of it make sure you increase your sleep quality.

Increase the quality of your sleep!

The quality of sleep is determined by how much of the sleep cycles you go through, the melatonin production, and the amount of restfulness you get as a reward.

Sleeping is a phenomenon that scientists still can’t quite figure out. However, what they do know is that when we sleep we go through various sleep cycles.

These sleep cycles are constituted of 4 levels and couple of different brainwaves we tune into as we drift off to the sleep land.

The first level is when you are lightly asleep, the stage that most people would talk nonsense if they are asked something.

The second level is when your brain activity starts to slow down and your body stops moving at all.

The third level is called ‘Deep Sleep’ and it’s when your brain starts producing Delta waves almost excessively.

The fourth level is called ‘REM Sleep’ and it’s when your body slips into short term paralysis while your eyes move rapidly. This level is from where people remember their dreams.

After the 4 levels a cycle is repeated. The first cycle to go through all these levels of sleep usually takes 70 to 90 minutes.

As the sleeping progresses the first few cycles spend most time on level 3, and the last few cycles spend most time on level 1, 2 and 4.

To have a quality sleep you should go through 5 cycles per night and this is estimated to be from 7 to 9 hours of sleep.

Another really important element for having a quality sleep is your melatonin production during the night.

When we sleep with lights on, when we look at blue light screens before we fall asleep the start of our melatonin production is delayed.

It’s best to sleep in a really dark room and avoid looking at any screens at least 45 minutes before you go to bed.

If you follow these 2 simple rules, sleep 7 to 9 hours during the night and sleep in a room without light, your sleep quality will drastically improve.

You would wake up fresh and full with energy. Another little trick is to exercise 5 minutes in the mornings. This does incredible things to the quality of your sleep

Your diet and exercise plan is important, but without a healthy sleep habit they would not have much result for you.