3 Ways to Optimise Health & Happiness During the Summer

For many of us, the summer months can be tricky to navigate when it comes to eating well and getting plenty of sleep. We are often busier in the summer, which means sleep, exercise and optimum nutrition can take a back seat, and this over time impacts our health and happiness. Furthermore, more daylight and the heat means we can find it tricky to get to sleep and stay asleep, even if we aim to commit eight or more hours to sleep each night.

If you often feel burnt out or run down in the summer, try these three simple ways to optimise health and happiness during the warmer months…

Get your Vitamin D Fix

While you might feel like you spend plenty of time outdoors in the sunshine, even in the summer months, many of us are still not getting the daily vitamin D that we need. Studies show that the optimum time to spend outdoors each day is two hours, whereas many of us (particularly during the working week) get less than half of this.

Time spent outside allows you to reconnect with nature, take time away from devices, and of course get the vitamin D that you need to boost your immune system and have great energy levels. Daily exposure to plenty of daylight also helps keep your circadian rhythm in check, helping you to feel sleepy at night time, and full of energy in the day.

Optimise your Sleep Environment

The ideal environment for sleep is one with a cool temperature and completely dark, but of course that’s not always possible in the summer. If you find it hard to sleep during the warmer weather, there are a few things you can do to optimise your sleep.

To keep the room as cool as possible, and to make the room dark, install blackout blinds at the windows. During the day, keep the blinds down to keep the sun out of the room, and open windows at night. Using blackout blinds as you sleep will also stop you struggling to get to sleep until it’s dark, and waking up when the sun rises, as we are naturally wired to sleep at sunset and wake at sunrise.

Another great way to prepare for sleep is to set a bedtime routine, using certain steps such as getting changed, washing your face, reading and doing breathing exercises. This signals to the body that it’s time to sleep, and helps calm the mind allowing you to drift off easily. Make following your routine as easy as possible, so that you stick to it every night. Using tools like Melo is a great way to support your bedtime routine. Helping you to follow the same breathing exercises each night, this is the ideal way to prepare the mind and body for sleep.

Eat Seasonally

Believe it or not, our bodies can actually benefit from eating seasonally. Foods that are grown and eaten during the season that they would naturally grow are more nutritionally dense, whereas foods that are encouraged to grow out of season, offer less nutritional value, and often use ripening agents to make them edible. Greater nutrition means greater health, plus it’s generally better for the environment and cheaper to eat seasonally too.

With just a little conscious effort, it’s possible to keep up your busy social life during the summer, without compromising on overall health and happiness.