Latest news with #selfcarecommunity
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
How to sleep better: four ways to turn your shower into a snooze-enhancing ritual
From investing in quality earplugs to swerving screens past 9pm, you're probably aware of the numerous healthy habits drifting around when it comes to clocking a good night's sleep. However, if you're still searching for a way to nod off in no time, then the answer may just be found in your bathroom. Between flossing your teeth and doing your multi-step skincare regime, treating yourself to a 'destress before rest' evening shower might be the new self-care ritual you need. Because, while a long soak in the bath may be the traditional way to relax your body and mind pre-slumber, it's possible to create a similarly soothing sensory experience in the shower prior to heading to bed – and you don't have to twiddle your thumbs waiting for the tub to fill up. With easy tweaks to everything from the temperature to the ambience, you'll soon realise that there's far more to your evening shower than freshening up before you slip on your pyjamas. Here are four ways to elevate your bedtime shower to help enhance your wind-down experience and boost your chances of falling asleep pronto. The best showers for catching zzz come nightfall are hot stuff. According to the Sleep Foundation, turning up the heat works to aid the natural body temperature regulation process required to induce feelings of sleepiness. It is thought that such steamy temperatures direct blood flow to the hands and feet, which allows body heat to escape more quickly, and encourages the body to cool down – which is what we're aiming for when it comes to snooze time. It's also thought that a hot shower can raise your levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin, which has been shown to help ease stress – making it a handy tool if your day hasn't gone quite to plan and you'd rather not be up in the small hours counting sheep. To maximise your time in the warmth, the Mira Showers app for digital and smart showers come with voice control so you can get things up and running before entering the bathroom – so the temperature will be just right by the time you've got undressed. Don't underestimate the power of the products on your shelf or in your shower caddy to add a dollop of Zen to your bathroom. Stock up on shower gels and shampoos infused with key ingredients that do more for you than simply smell nice. That includes lavender, the scent that has been revealed to be especially relaxing, according to a study. Research has also found that aromatherapy essential oils – when used nightly – can enhance memory. Participants in a study, conducted by the University of California, saw improvements with consistent daily evening use over six months. You really do lose when you snooze on the bathroom details. A few easy tweaks can transform your space into your very own personal spa – from stylish metallic hardware and aesthetically pleasing tiles to the mood lighting of candles and a selection of lush greenery. Indeed, research has linked indoor houseplants to reduced levels of stress, with peace lilies, snake plants and aloe vera particularly good options in humid spaces. A carefully chosen showerhead can also elevate your wind-down experience. The Mira Beat 25cm Deluge – attached on the ceiling overhead – is luxuriously wide and powerful enough to create a tropical rainfall effect that you'll be keen to linger beneath. If you want to personalise the flow based on your mood, then the Mira Switch showerhead allows you to choose between four spray settings – saturate, soak, stimulate and soothe. Let your worries flow down the drain. This isn't a shower where you want to be 'in and out' too quickly – with a generous soak likely on your agenda. Use the leisurely pace of the evening to incorporate some slow breathing as you scrub away. The simple practice of inhaling and exhaling at a reduced pace has been shown by research to increase feelings of relaxation and, therefore, help improve sleep quality once your head hits the pillow. However, it's understandable if the environment and bills are on your mind as the water flows. The Mira Activate digital shower with ColdBoost technology features a display showing live temperature and flow rates, so you can step in and get scrubbing straight away without wasting any time. Additionally, the Mira Sport Max electric shower comes with patented Airboost technology that amplifies the strength of water flow by up to 30%, without using any extra water. Powerful stuff. Head to Mira Showers to discover the full range of showers available and how to get one installed by Mira-approved experts for complete peace of mind
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
People Sharing ‘Cozymaxxing' Tips Is A TikTokTrend
People seem to be cozying up to this latest TikTok trend. It's called 'cozymaxxing.' It's short for either cozy maximalism or cozy maximization, because who has the time so say 'imalism' or 'mization.' This may sound like 'looksmaxxing' but instead of trying to maximize your physical appearance cozymaxxing is about trying to maximize your comfort at least for the moment. People have been using the hashtag #cozymaxxing to share their ways getting all cozy such as snuggling up in a warm blanket. But, of course, there isn't a single blanket way, so to speak, that works for everyone. So, let's look at what's behind this trend and how it could work for you. Unlike some other TikTok trends such as people dropping heavy things on their feet or telling you to eat dirt, cozymaxxing isn't exactly a super-controversial social media trend. It's not as if someone might say, 'Oh, don't be cozy. How dare you do that?' After all, making sure that you are comfortable is an acknowledged important part of self-care. It's self-care because you, your mind and your body are not designed be like Captain America every day when he says, 'I can do this all day.' Sure, temporary threats can motivate you to do things like overcome problems by triggering alarm systems in your body. But like an alarm system in a building, you don't want the one in your body to keep firing all the time. It should only be a periodic alarm interspersed with enough calm. That's because your body's natural alarm system can really rev up different parts of your body. A perceived threat like a tiger, can trigger the hypothalamus at the base of your brain to send signals via nerves and hormones to the adrenal glands located on the top of your kidneys. Your adrenals in response will release hormones, such as adrenaline, which can stimulate your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure to increase, and cortisol, which can increase the amount of sugar in your bloodstream and your brain's utilization of that glucose. At the same time, cortisol can divert your body away from 'nonessential" functions such as digestion, reproduction and growth. After all, 'let's have sex' is probably not something you want to say to your partner when both of you are being chased by a tiger. Again such hormones being released can be helpful in the short term to get through a tough situation but can become harmful if they don't abate. Too much exposure to cortisol and other such stress hormones can lead to bad stuff like anxiety, depression, memory difficulties, headaches, muscle tension, digestive issues, sleep problems, high blood pressure and heart disease. That's why you to calm everything the bleep down now and then. In fact, calming and resting your mind and body can even allow you to better overcome challenges as well. For example, many elite athletes will tell you that they play their sports better when they feel relaxed rather than tight. A calm mind may come up with more creative ideas, put conflicts in better perspective or have more appreciation for the good things and people in your life. A calm body can repair and strengthen itself. This cozymaxxing trend could be a sign that many people are feeling quite shall we say stressed these days. This shouldn't be super surprising since true rest and relaxation may be harder to come by these days. Think about how many things around you are constantly saying, 'look at me', 'buy me' or 'pay attention me.' There's your smartphone constantly sending you notifications. There's social media constantly clamoring for your attention. There's the loud music and other stuff being blasted into football games, bars, restaurants and all sorts of other places. There are the talking heads on TV yelling at you. Then there are the advertisements. Oh, the advertisements. Everywhere. You may not even realize when you are being constantly stimulated. That your sympathetic fight or flight nervous system is constantly being activated. Therefore, if you want calm and rest, you may have to be deliberate about it. You may have to seek and enforce it. So, cozymaxxing can be about doing that. So, how do you cozymaxx the heck out of yourself? Well, if you scroll through the TikTok posts you'll find a bunch of different suggestions. Most of them seem to fall into the following half dozen categories: One group of suggestions falls under the turn bleep off category. This is turning off all the 'noisy' stuff around. So, shut off your phone. Turn off the TV. Remove everything that may be consciously or subconsciously telling you to do stuff. It's all about disconnecting from other stuff so that you can only really hear yourself and what you need to hear. Now, this can be disconcerting if you may not want to hear what your mind and body have to say. Perhaps you are using the constant array of external stimuli to distract yourself from things that you don't want to confront. If avoidance, suppression or repression can be a bit like trying to hide a ferret in your pants. It's going to come out at some point. Another category of cozymaxxing suggestions on TikTok is changing the lighting around you in some way to bring more comfort. This could consist of dimming the lighting because keeping your apartment or house lit like the stage on America's Got Talent may not exactly be the most conducive to relaxation. Another possibility is changing the color of your ambient lighting, especially if your room's lighting currently looks like the main deck of a Klingon battlecruiser. The harshness and location of the lighting can matter too. Layering on the blankets. Wearing softer fabrics. Changing to looser clothing—in a fit and not a moral sense. Or wearing nothing at all. Another way of achieving more comfort is to change what you have on and around your body. Of course, what makes you feel better is individualized. While many may prefer the more casual or even the nude look, if you are Barney Stinson from the TV show How I Met Your Mother your comfort zone may be something more formal. Another sense that can affect your comfort levels is your sense of smell. That should make sense for anyone who has smelled a fart at some point. So, it shouldn't be surprising that a number of the cozymaxxing suggestions include aromas from things like diffuser or scented candles. Then there's taste. Some cozymaxxing suggestions focus on what you put into your mouth. Maybe it's a warm beverage or food item like tea, hot water, hot cocoa or soup. Perhaps you have some favorite type of comfort food. It could be something sweet or sour or even spicy. The key is that it puts in a calmer space. The fifth sense to pay attention to is hearing. There are cozymaxxing suggestion that entail putting on some kind of soundtrack around you. This should be something soothing and comforting to you. So maybe not 'We're Not Going To Take It' by Quiet Riot. But maybe that works for you. Finally, as they say in real estate, location, location, location. Some of the cozymaxxing suggestions involving moving from your usual location to somewhere else like a bathtub, next to a fireplace or closer to nature. Of course, you can mix this with other cozymaxxingf suggestions like taking a warm bubble bath with fresh smelling flowers around you while sipping on some tea and listening to Enya. So, there you have it, six general ways to do the cozymaxxing thing. Of course, life is about balance. You don't want to cozymax all the time. If you are in some kind of work meeting, you probably don't want to go, 'Let me just wrap myself in this warm blanky.' But take the appropriate amount of time to give you and your senses and break and calm your mind. You don't want your senses to work to their max all the time.
