Mark Johan
Is falling asleep at night getting harder day by day? Feeling tired even after you slept for 8 hours last night? Then maybe it’s time to reconsider your sleeping schedule and form some new habits.
We all know the saying “early to bed and early to rise“. But not that all of us can make it a reality. Even if sleep contributes to our mental health and work performance.
Don’t worry even if you are one of the night birds. Forming some new habits and getting rid of some bad ones can really ensure a better sleep and a better day. And of course a good health.
How to Get a Good Night Sleep
Maintain sleeping schedule strictly
A poor sleeping schedule can be one of the main reason for not getting better sleep at night.
For this, first, decide how much you need to sleep in a day according to your working pattern. As per various researchers, an adult needs 8 hours of sleep in a day.
Now, it’s time for deciding the schedule. Pick a time that suits you best for going to bed and waking up. Work on the schedule to adjust with it properly. Don’t jump directly to a new time. Slowly try to adjust to the new time by working with 15 minutes at each time.
Let’s say you sleep at 12 am on a regular basis. But you decide to sleep at 11 pm from now on. So each day try to go to sleep 15 minutes earlier than the previous day. Continue this for 1 week. This way your biological clock will automatically adjust to your new routine.
If you keep losing track of time while working at night, then try to set an alarm for the time to go to bed. This will remind you of your schedule. Sleeping early will provide you some extra minutes to cuddle in the bed and help to wake up early.
Wake up just at the time you decide to wake up. Set the alarm and wake up with the first alarm. Don’t stop or snooze your alarm and go to sleep for some extra minutes. If need, put your phone somewhere fur from your bed. So you have to walk to put the alarm off. This will definitely make you leave the bed.
Don’t elongate your sleeping hours during the weekend more than 1 hours. Otherwise, this will affect your regular sleep routine on the workday as well.
So just decide the most beneficial schedule and stick to the schedule strictly no matter what. This will definitely help you to get a better sleep.
Avoid alcohol and caffeine before bed
Do you know, foods you are consuming throughout the day can affect your sleep cycle? Some foods can really lower the time and quality of your sleep. Caffeine and alcohol are on top of the chart.
Caffeine
We all know caffeine works as a stimulating agent to stimulate our brain and increase our awake time. It takes an hour to show the effects on your body. The effects last more than 4 hours. So consuming foods containing caffeine can really reduce your sleep time and keep you awake past your bedtime. Even if you fall asleep after putting on a huge fight, caffeine still works in your body.
This will lead to light sleep during the night. Consuming foods containing caffeine can wake you up several times throughout the night to use the bathroom as well.
So it is recommended to avoid having caffeine 6 hours before the bedtime. If you still really need it, then go for a small cup. Limit your caffeine consumption throughout the day. You can also substitute coffee with a cup of green tea if needed.
Alcohol
There is hardly anyone alive who doesn’t know the bad effects of alcohol on our body. It is really hard to cut off totally in one try. But you should drop off alcohol or limit its consumption to sleep better at night.
Alcohol will make you feel really sleepy and sluggish. You can fall asleep right after drinking alcohol, but it will degrade your sleep quality. Because consumption of alcohol before bed will increase the reawake time and amount of light sleep during the cycle.
So you will feel tired even after 8 hours of sleep. It can also cause headaches and sweats during the whole night. These will eventually affect your good night sleep on a larger scale. source
So try to limit your alcohol throughout the day. Stop having alcohol at least 4 hours before the bedtime.
Keep your room sleep friendly
The environment of your bedroom can really make difference in your sleep. Furniture arrangement, light exposure, noise, and temperature- all these can affect your quality of sleep. Keeping your room nice and tidy can help you to get better sleep at night.
Temperature matters
Researchers have shown that people can sleep well in the slightly cooler environment than the normal. The ideal temperature for a better night sleep is 65º to 70º. But obviously, you can adjust room temperature according to your preference.
At night our body tends to release internal heat to cool off. Keeping the room temperature down can accelerate the process. It also the release of “melatonin hormone” which regulates sleep and aging process. This also helps to reduce the chances of metabolic diseases.
Ensure enough ventilation in your room. You can also invest in a good air conditioner or thermostat to provide the exact temperature you want. And if you get naturally hot, use a cooling pillow to get extra comfort.
Take room light advantage
Lights have a great effect on our body as well as on the sleep. Lights stimulate the release of melatonin which is also known as ‘sleeping hormone‘. So as long as our brain can detect the presence of light it won’t release melatonin. On the contrary, darkness promotes a signal in our brain which tells our brain to shut down the working process. In short, darkness can promote better sleep.
So invest in dark curtains and a comfortable sleeping mask to limit the light exposure during the sleeping time.
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The blue light emitting from the electronic devices can also have a bad impact on our sleep. So put away all the electric devices 1 hour before your bedtime or use an e-reader. This will help you get a better sleep at night.
Do some exercises – But don’t before bed
Exercise can improve mental health and lower the stress and anxiety. 30 min of everyday exercise can contribute to a better sleep at night. Studies have proven that exercise is one of the best ways to cure insomnia. But don’t exercise within 2 to 3 hour before going to bed.
Modern lifestyle can be really stressful in some ways. And what can be a better option than showering off the tiredness with a warm bath?
Take a warm bath at night
Taking a nice warm shower one and a half hour before the bed really takes away the stress .it also calm our brain. The shower helps us to cool our body faster at night which is essential for a better sleep. So make time to take a bath with your favorite music and candle at night.
Use comfortable beding
Supportive mattress and comfortable pillow would be your best sleeping partner. A commonly formulated proverb goes about that, “Bed that more soft, ensures better sleep”. But it is cruel true that experts suggest you have a bed which is neither hard neither soft. On the other side, your pillow as soft as possible ensures a better sleep.
A soft and comfortable pillow maintains the natural curve of head and neck combination and helps you get rid of stifle. I would like to suggest you have a orthopedic pillow for better sleep.
Special care for medical discomfort
Different types of medical discomfort can cause irregularity in sleeping cycle. Depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia are some common discomfort people face a lot nowadays. Poor Sleeping quality is more common in people suffering from these issues. These can be cured or at least maintained to a certain level through proper medication.
These issues impact the chemical balance in our brain and cause several physical problems. These can lead to permanent sleeping disorder. So you need to consult a doctor and follow his advice for good result.
Our sleep tends to get lighter with our aging. The more stress we are exposed to our increasing age is one of the reasons behind it. You can take a sleeping pill or other medication as a temporary solution. For a better solution you may check this.
Final Thoughts
A good night sleep is a key to brush off the tiredness and stress we build up all day. But getting a better sleep at night seems so difficult now because of our modern lifestyle.
So make your own sleeping schedule and maintain it properly. Monitor your sleep. Try to keep a sleep journal to keep a record. You can also invest in a good fitness tracker which will track your sleep cycle throughout the night. You can analyze your sleep pattern from the data.
Don’t work or eat or do any other work on your bed. Use a different space for these purposes. Use the bed only for relaxing and sleeping. This can help your brain to detect the sleep time if you maintain it.
Following these steps will help you to a better sleep at night faster. These will keep your body and brain energetic. You can stay productive throughout the day just by getting a good night sleep.
