How to get a better night sleep
Have you ever wondered how healthy your sleep is? There are already many opinions about it. However, most experts agree that healthy sleep can only be balanced.
Each person’s sleep disturbance can manifest itself differently. For example, lack of sleep leads to impaired concentration, memory and immune system and even shortens life expectancy.
In turn, long sleep is no less dangerous, as it reduces your physical activity, which can lead to various diseases, not to mention the fact that you simply do not have time to do all your things in a day and in the aggregate your active life becomes shorter.
That’s why let’s look at how to get a better and more balanced night sleep.
Go to bed and wake up at the same hours
Many of us cut ourselves some slack on the weekends and sleep until almost noon. However, scientists believe that this inconsistency disrupts our circadian rhythms. Every day getting up and going to bed at the same hours can help improve your sleep.
Circadian rhythms are internal biological body rhythms with a period of about 24 hours. They prepare the body in advance by adjusting all physiological processes in accordance with daily changes in the surrounding environment.
Circadian rhythms are present in almost all organisms on the planet, including bacteria. In humans, the main circadian rhythm is the sleep and wakefulness cycle.
Take breaks for sleep if you feel tired
After a nap, you’ll be awake again. However, keep in mind that an afternoon nap should last no longer than 45 minutes.
Experts also advise against drinking alcohol and smoking at least four hours before bedtime. Although it is best to give up these habits once and for all.
Yes, alcohol has a sedative effect, but it doesn’t promote healthy sleep. On the contrary, it makes it worse. Alcohol can often cause people to wake up at night without even remembering it in the morning. Therefore, they may not even realize how badly they slept.
Drink less coffee
Everyone knows that taking caffeine prevents a person from falling asleep. Some people claim that they can drink a cup of coffee before going to bed and sleep well. However, this is a very dangerous practice: under the effect of caffeine, sleep won’t be as deep.
After drinking coffee before going to bed, a person will wake up broken. Then they will reach for a cup of the drink again, not realizing that the reason for this condition is last night’s portion of caffeine.
According to the recommendations of the World Sleep Society, you should stop consuming caffeine at least six hours before going to bed. Keep in mind that it’s not only in coffee, but also in tea, sparkling drinks, and even chocolate.
Don’t eat and work out before sleep
You can have a light snack. But four hours before bedtime you shouldn’t load up on heavy, spicy and sweet food.
In addition, it is also not recommended to work out before going to bed. Physical activity just before bedtime can be harmful to the sleep quality.
Comfort and fresh air
Choose comfortable bedding. If in the middle of the night you wake up feeling hot under your usual wool blanket, it’s time to replace it. For your own health.
Ventilate your bedroom before sleep. A recent study found that the quality of sleep improves when the window is open. And if you have air conditioning, choose a temperature that is best suited for sleeping. It should be a few degrees lower than usual.
At the same time, if your air conditioner is right above your bed, it is better to turn it off right before you go to bed. If you leave it on overnight, you might catch a cold.
Don’t do unnecessary things in bed
The electronics in your room can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep. For example, a blinking Smart Watch, a humming PC, and, of course, a turned-on TV.
With a smartphone or laptop, we can easily answer emails while lying in bed. However, this can cause you to associate that place with work. Stop doing that. The bed is meant for sleeping.
What to do if you can’t fall asleep?
You shouldn’t stay in bed too long if you’re not going to sleep. Our brain is an associative memory device. If you lie in bed for a long time, it will perceive it as a place to be awake, not to sleep.
Go to another room and read a book. Don’t use gadgets. Go to bed only when you want to sleep. That way your brain will learn to associate the bedroom with sleep again.
If you don’t want to go to another room, try the meditation practice. I didn’t believe before that meditation could help with insomnia. So I decided to try this method on myself. It turned out that it’s actually a very effective technique.
Meditation calms the mind, promotes physical relaxation and reduces the nervous system’s natural reaction to stress, which is the hallmark of insomnia.
By following these suggestions, you will improve your sleep quality and prevent its fragmentation and deficit. The latter can lead to serious health problems, including mental distress and cardiovascular disease.
