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| 40 year old woman image from Shutterstock |
{This is a collaborative post}
We’ve all heard that 40 is the new 30 and I think it is true that as a nation we are staying younger for longer. People are working for more years, having babies later in life and today's woman is expected to have it all but truly, we can only function well if we are looking after ourselves.
As a woman who really enjoyed her twenties and thirties but didn’t
make enough time to look after herself, now is the last-ditch attempt to ensure
that I go into middle-aged feeling well. I want to share with you five things
that every 40-year-old woman should be doing (me included!).
1. Get enough sleep
This one
seems so simple and of course, we all know that we function and look our best
when we have had enough sleep but did you know that getting enough sleep will also
boost your memory, reduce inflammation and avoid accidents?
Amazing isn’t
it? Sleep can make such a difference, it can even increase our performance, as
shown by a 2011 study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study discovered that elite athletes were able to improve their best times
when they had more sleep each night over a lengthened period.
Not only is
it important to get enough sleep though, more recent studies show that you should
adopt a regular pattern of sleep. Your bed and wake times need to be pretty consistent
to ensure that your circadian rhythm operates at its peak. The circadian clock ensures
that hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released about an hour before
you need to wake up and your body will have moved into the less deep REM sleep
so that when you make you feel good and ready to go.