Kids Corner : Sleep 101

A new study has recently been released that details just how sleep-deprived parents can be. It’s estimated that parents can expect to go without a good night’s sleep for about 6 years after their child is born. You heard that right – 6 years! Long after the middle-of-the-night feedings have ended, parents’ still face teething, separation anxiety, illness, nightmares, regressions, developmental leaps, and a damaged circadian rhythm that takes years to recover. It’s a wonder that parents can function at all!

With all that said, it’s important to maximize every opportunity to rest that you can get. A relaxing bedtime routine can help lull babies and children into a drowsy dream state, and earn you a few extra hours of sleep. Here are a few ideas that will hopefully help your entire family grab some much-needed zzz’s.

1. Minimize distractions: turn off the television, screens, and any loud, buzzing toys. Instead, play calming music (here is my favourite bedtime playlist!), and move to more quiet activities like puzzles, art, or reading books. Plenty of research has shown that bright lights and loud noises stimulate the brain, which is the opposite of what you want to do before bedtime.

2. Have a routine: this doesn’t have to include the same items as other families (not all kids love a daily bath!), but what’s important is that the same things happen in the same order each night. This could be: dinner, bath, books, singing songs, and bedtime for one family; or books, dinner, pjs, puzzle, prayers, and bedtime for another. Being consistent with the routine will signal to children that bedtime is coming, and help their bodies get ready to fall asleep.

3. Hello darkness: make your child’s room as dark as possible. Experiencing plenty of daylight during the day and darkness at night helps improve our natural melatonin production – even in adults! Melatonin is a big player in regulating sleep-wake cycles, and can help everybody naturally fall into a healthy sleep pattern.

4. Cool it: keep the temperature of bedrooms relatively cool, if possible. 65-70 degrees is recommended as a comfortable sleeping temperature for babies and toddlers. Even though this temperature might feel chilly to adults during waking hours, young children require a cooler sleeping environment for a good night’s sleep.

5. It takes two: winding down with your child can be a wonderful bonding experience AND helps you both get ready for a restful sleep. Following these same types of rules – limiting screen time, keeping your bedroom cool and dark, following a routine, playing gentle music, some pre-bedtime snuggles with your kiddo – can be just as useful in helping you to score a few extra zzz’s during the early years of parental sleep deprivation. 

February Events @ PowerplaySF

feb 12 - be mine. self-care sweat + soiree

5:45pm -7pm Pilates yoga flow 
7pm-8:30pm Vino + nibbles + massage + mini-facials
location: PowerplaySF studio RSVP

feb 23- sweat for champagne (and live dj)

Lift + Shred led by bikini bodybuilding competitor Sheila Delmendo is a nutrition supported weightlifting program designed to sculpt lean muscle and fight the flab. Torch calories, build muscle, and improve your cardiovascular system with this no nonsense workout! Followed by Shopping, Nibbling, Q& A with trainers and yes that champagne you earned!
location: PowerplaySF studio RSVP

Open Your Heart

February has always been synonymous with Love and Romance. Thanks to the likes of big Hallmark holidays like Valentine’s Day, we are often pressured to focus on love and relationships in the context of something we have with other people. In the spirit of a reflection on love, Kimm and Cianne (in-house yogis) were wondering how you take care of yourself in the midst of a busy life: what are your self love rituals, mantras, or non-negotiables, and how has this changed from past years? During the month of February, our Yoga classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights will be focusing on self love, self care and how we can continue foster a loving relationship with ourselves. How do we open our hearts both physically and emotionally?

With the arrival of bone-chilling winds and low temperatures, it’s natural to want to hunch forward and curl into ourselves to keep warm. This rounding of the shoulders and curving of the upper spine creates a stretching of the back rotator cuffs, and a shortening of the front rotator cuffs. This makes it incredibly difficult to open the chest. Opening the chest means shoulders melting down on the back away from the ears, hips stacked above knees, and the tailbone tucked. This alignment forces us to engage the core, and strengthen the back. Heart opening poses lift the chest, offering a gentle release of whatever is tucked away hiding in the back of your heart.

A few heart-openers to try:

1. Sitting: while sitting at your desk or on the couch, sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor. Lift your arms to shoulder height and bend your elbows so that you are in a cactus position. Gently push your elbows back until you feel a stretch through your chest. Hold for 3-10 seconds, and don’t forget to breathe.

2. Standing: stand with hips stacked over knees, hands at your side. Bring your arms overhead and clasp your hands. You can leave your forefingers extended if you wish. Gently lift your chin and look towards the ceiling – your middle and upper back should follow along naturally into a slight back bend. Don’t feel like you need to over-extend – small movements make a big difference with heart-opening poses!

3. Laying down: place a bolster or stack of short pillows on the floor, and lay on top of them with the pillows under your tailbone to shoulder blades. Your head and hips should be making contact with the floor, while the pillows help lift your heart towards the ceiling. Place your arms beside you, palms up, or rest one hand on the belly and one on the heart. Relax in this restorative pose for up to 5 minutes. Be sure to get up slowly, as some blood may have rushed to your head!

Caring is Sharing

From the moment we become pregnant, we are sharing just about everything with our children: our bodies, our food, our space, and our emotions. You’d think that after all of this sharing, our children would be experts! But we know that is often not the case. If your toddler hasn’t mastered an ability to share, fear not – they have simply entered a common and healthy stage where they are developing a sense of self, separate from others around them. This lack of identity, paired with the inability to experience empathy (which doesn’t develop until 4-5 years of age), often leads to plenty of “me” and “mine” language being used at home, school, and on the playground. We never truly lose our interest in what is ours, but we learn to express it less forcefully as we get mature. Here are a few tips to help your little one manage these strong emotions, while they work towards establishing their independence. 

1. Start young: your child’s eyes are on you from day one, so practice modeling turn-taking from an early age. This can be as simple as talking about sharing the sugar jar with your partner while you make your morning coffee. It might feel silly to narrate your life, but it’s effective. Monkey see, monkey do!

2. Use drama: child psychologists and researchers agree that children learn social skills best through experience and play. Re-enact situations about taking turns and sharing using puppets, dolls, and even yourselves! Create a game with your child where you must share to solve a problem or complete an activity. 

3. Praise: use positive praise for preferred behavior, such as: “I love how you shared your favorite car with your baby sister. Look at how happy it made her!” Children want to please, and respond well to positive re-enforcement. Remember to use simple, concrete language, as young children do not yet have a sophisticated vocabulary.

 4. Don’t give up: it’s hard to feel like you are constantly breaking up playground battles, but try to not get discouraged; find solace knowing that all parents will experience this stage at some point. Children need to experience situations repeatedly in order for real-life lessons to sink in. The more chances children have to fail and succeed, the more resilient they will become.

Here are some special ways to show your love on Valentine’s Day :

• Create a simple song that is special for your child. Take a familiar melody, insert your child’s name and a sweet message- Example- to the tune of Frere Jacque:

  Little (your child’s name), little (your child’s name), I love you, yes I do.Mommy always loves you, Mommy always loves you, because you’re YOU, because you’re YOU

• Write a special note and slip it into their lunch box to let them know you’re thinking about them even when you’re not together. Draw a quick picture as a bonus!

• Draw a heart and color it in together to show your hearts are always connected.

Your undivided attention is the best and most loving gift of all, so make it a point to clear your schedule and commit to some one-on-one play time with heart!

Keep your Heart Happy

While you spend time sweating at the studio, you’ve probably heard talk about Heart Rate Training and Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs). More than just a fitness fad, heart rate monitoring can be an important component of effective fitness training. You can do old school heart rate monitoring by pressing your two fingers to your pulse, but today’s HRMs combine convenience, tracking, and data storage to help you maximize your exercise efforts!

The three most important heart rate measurements are Resting Heart Rate, Working/Training Heart Rate, and Recovery Heart Rate, and HRMs help you track each of these. Measuring your Working Heart Rate is the most accurate way to determine how much benefit you are deriving from your workout. To get an effective aerobic workout, you need to stay within your ideal Working Heart Rate Zone for a minimum of 20-30 minutes. A HRM will help make sure you are staying within this zone by alerting you to work harder if your HR dips too low, or to back off if your ticker is beating too fast.

 As your HRM tracks your working and resting heart rate each day, you can see your fitness level improving over time. HRMs are built to be smart, and learn how your body works. It will let you know when you aren’t reaching certain goals, and give you kudos for your improvements. It’s like a digital pat on the back! Many HRMs also track sleep, which is a vital component for building muscle, avoiding injury, and proper recovery. Seeing statistics such as what time of night you sleep best, how often you wake, and how many hours you spend in deep sleep can help you fine tune your bedtime routines so that you are getting the rest you need to perform at your best.

 Clunky watches and awkward chest straps are a thing of the past! Thanks to new technology, HRMs now come in a variety of sleek and stylish models, so you can make a statement about your style, and reap the health benefits of heart rate monitoring!

Two of our favorites:

Fitbit (click to see on amazon)

Garmin (click to see on amazon)

Chocolate Lovers Rejoice!

Attention chocolate lovers - it's time to rethink this Valentine's Day staple! In the right form and amount, chocolate is a powerful super food with bountiful health benefits. Learn how to incorporate chocolate into your daily diet, so you can indulge in your favorite treat 100% guilt-free:

1. Keep it dark: Look for chocolate made with at least 70 percent cacao. Dark chocolate has been proven to lower cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, and raise serotonin levels, which is the brain chemical in charge of mood, sleep, and appetite. Dark chocolate also increases blood flow to the brain, helping with executive functioning, including attention, problem solving, and planning.

2. Keep it clean: Aim for chocolate made from a single-origin cacao. Try to avoid varieties that are mixed with oils that can trigger inflammation, like vegetable oils, partially hydrogenated oils or trans fat, and palm kernel oil. Instead, opt for organic, dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate. To cut out cane sugar altogether, look for chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar. 

3. Size matters: Although it’s unlikely that dark, pure chocolate will give you the sugar rush that typically accompanies sweetened milk chocolates, sticking to a 1-1.5oz serving size is recommended. Treat yourself by purchasing a truly decadent dark chocolate. You’ll feel much more satisfied with each bite, making it much easier to stick to smaller portion sizes.

4. Wake up to chocolate: Drink your chocolate? Genius! You can find a good organic chocolate herbal tea, or mix up a delicious smoothie with organic cacao powder. One of our favorites is to mix 2tbsp of unsweetened dark cacao powder with banana, spinach, frozen cherries, and oat or coconut milk. Chocolate before 10am in any form feels divine! Another great breakfast recipe is to whip up overnight oats with cacao powder: https://kirbiecravings.com/chocolate-overnight-oats/