Sleep plays a very important role in our life. Good sleep basically helps us in our mental, emotional and physical life. Lack of sleep and unhealthy sleep patterns can affect our learning, reaction, work, thinking, and communication. Sleep also helps in our growth and development. It is therefore critical to get a peaceful night’s sleep. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to fall asleep. Below are a few tips to help you get a restful night’s sleep.
- Set and stick to a sleep schedule
To actually set a sleep schedule, is to sleep at the same time every day. Set an alarm to alert you every day to go to sleep at the exact time. You want it to become a habit, so ensure you stick to it and make sure you actually go to bed and close your eyes. Soon afterward, you will naturally feel sleepy around this time daily, this indicates that your biological alarm is set. Once you establish this, make an initiative to never skip your bedtime.
- Exercise
When you exercise, you release melatonin approximately four hours after your workout routine. Melatonin is a sleep-inducing hormone released from the brain. It is a signal of the body wanting to rest, due to tiredness after a vigorous exercise. Try to schedule your workout routine at least four hours before your sleeping time. It is very difficult to sleep after an exercise workout; your body temperature is so elevated it actually inhibits sleep.
- Don’t take caffeine in the afternoon
Per getbestmattress.com, Any Caffeine containing drink is a strong stimulant. It actually takes almost eight hours before it gets out of our system. This stimulant will prevent you from either sleeping or entering deep sleep. You may, therefore, drink them in the morning, it is not advisable to drink them after lunch. These caffeine drinks include cola. coffee and tea. Make a point to avoid these drinks totally once it is past noon.
- Turn on white noise
They are so many different varieties of white noise sounds to choose from. Pick one that is soothing and more appealing to you. You could purchase a sound machine to play the white noise sounds or download an application on your smartphone that does it for you. This sounds can help you tune out all other noises that may interfere with your sleep. They are referred to as white noise because they cancel out all other noises in your surroundings. That barking dog, midnight train, or even TV downstairs will never interfere with your sleep again.
- Track your sleeping habits
You can use your smartphone or a simple pen and paper to do this. Write down everything about sleep. When you sleep, the duration of the sleep, how you felt after waking up, when you doze off, for how long you did doze off, and so much more. Just put down everything concerning your sleep. This will help you identify and learn a lot about your sleeping pattern. You could use this data to identify the best time for you to sleep and how many hours of sleep best satisfy you.
- Eliminate light sources
Your brain controls your sleeping by releasing melatonin. However, when there is light, it may lead to slowing down your brain’s release of that particular hormone. It will, therefore, take you longer to sleep, and light reaching your eyelids will result in not so deep sleep. Try to make your room as dark as possible for deeper more soundly sleep.
- Reduce long daytime naps
Short daytime naps can be beneficial in giving you that much-needed boost to finish your day. Long daytime naps are not so beneficial. It will confuse your biological clock, and lead to a struggle sleeping at night. If you have to sleep during the day, minimize it to thirty minutes or less.
- Consider a melatonin supplement
This is basically the key sleep hormone. Taking melatonin supplements are a guaranteed way to improve quality of sleep and increase the speed of falling asleep. It is used in many cases to treat insomnia. The good thing about melatonin supplements is that they do not have any withdrawal effect. If you decide to use it, start with a small dose and increase it slowly if you need to. Take it thirty minutes to one hour before going to sleep.
- Do not consume alcohol before heading to sleep
Alcohol drinking before bedtime actually affects your sleep negatively. It alters production of melatonin, and will lead to an irregular disrupted pattern of sleep and will cause snoring. It will take you a lot of time before you actually fall asleep when you are under the influence of alcohol.
- Relax
Stress is a major cause of disrupted sleep and sleepless nights. You need to relax your brain and leave everything for when you wake up, if you can’t sleep well, I suggest you take a sleep mask, this will help your body heals while you sleep . You are already stressed as it is, you do not need to add any more problems by sleeping. Thinking of the day’s events and troubles will not really help in any way. Relax in your bed and just let yourself go to sleep
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