Many people struggle with their sleep, who hasn’t had the odd night where you’ve found it hard to fall asleep or wake up a few times too many during the night?
If these issues only happen occasionally, you probably don’t have anything to worry about. But, if these are problems that you experience on a regular basis, you may want to make some changes, to help improve your sleep.
Not getting enough sleep, is linked to a wide range of negative health conditions, from weight gain to an increased likelihood of having heart disease and diabetes, it is really important to ensure that your body is getting the sleep it needs.
We’ve gathered some expert advice, to help you make changes at home, which should help improve the quality and quantity of sleep you get at night!
Encourage Routine With A Set Schedule For Sleep
If you don’t have a sleep schedule, you probably find it hard to quickly and reliably fall asleep and wake up in the mornings. This is because our bodies crave routine and schedule, so by going to bed at 11pm one night, then 9pm the next sends our bodies into disarray.
But, if you were to go to sleep and wake up roughly the same time each day, you would notice that falling asleep and waking up are much easier to do. This isn’t to say you can never have a late night or lie in, but by trying to keep to a routine, your body will follow along and will prepare for sleep around the same time each day!
Avoid Blue Light By Giving Yourself An Electronics Curfew
If you’ve never heard of blue light, it’s a type of light that is very similar to the light we get from the Sun, over the years our bodies get used to this light meaning it’s daytime. So, exposure to blue light will make your brain think that it’s daytime and keep your body awake.
It’s not just the Sun that produces this light though, most electronic screens on phones, TVs and computers emit blue light. So, by watching your favourite sitcom on TV or checking social medias on your phone before bed will trick your brain into thinking it’s still daytime. So, to avoid this, set an electronics curfew and try to avoid using electronic devices for an hour or so before bed!
Keep Your Room Dark With Blackout Blinds
If you live near a busy road, or have a streetlight outside of your bedroom window, you have probably had your sleep disrupted by light pollution once or twice before, maybe the light pollution even makes it harder for you to fall asleep at night, which isn’t ideal if you need a good night’s sleep.
Luckily, according to DotcomBlinds.com there is an easy fix to block out light pollution from the outside world. By simply replacing your bedroom’s old curtains with a new set of blackout blinds you can stop that light pollution from keeping you up at night. You should notice the benefits almost immediately, with improved sleep straight away after cutting light pollution out from your home.
Kickstart The Sleep Process With A Warm Shower
If falling asleep at night is a struggle for you, which often leaves you tossing and turning for hours on end, then you need to find a solution to kickstart your body’s sleep processes, so that you can drift of to sleep, without spending an hour rolling in the sheets.
A good way to do this, is by having a warm bath or shower about half an hour before getting into bed. As part of the process of our bodies falling asleep is a drop in temperature, which helps kick off the process. So, by having a warm shower before bed, your body’s temperature will naturally start to drop after getting out the warm shower, you can use this to trick your body into starting the processes needed for sleep!
Use Exercise To Burn Off Excess Energy
If you find yourself awake in bed, your mind is ready for bed, but your body feels like it is still jam-packed with energy, you may be living a sedentary life and all the excess energy in your body is keeping you up at night. This is a relatively new problem, as the rise of office jobs means that many of us aren’t giving our bodies the physical activity they need to burn energy.
If you think that this is impacting your sleep, then you need to find a way to increase the amount physical activity your body gets on a day-to-day basis. Even something like going for a 10 minute run after work, doing some bike exercise(you may see your bike won’t turn on, so follow the attached link), or following along with an exercise tape can help burn that energy and set your body up for a good night of sleep.
Use Mindfulness To Overcome Stress Before Bed
Is stress keeping you up at night? It’s not uncommon for stress to be a big factor in sleep issues, in fact most people have suffered from stress related sleep issues at least once before. Unfortunately, stress creates a vicious cycle: the more stressed you are, the less sleep you get, and the less sleep you get, the more stressed you’ll be.
So, to break the cycle of increased stress and worsened sleep, you should try to remove the things that stress you from your life, if that’s not possible, then practicing mindfulness techniques is a great second option. By using techniques like reflection, deep breathing, self-love and meditation, you can reduce your stress levels and set yourself up for a better snooze!
Keep An Eye On Your Caffeine Consumption
We all love a cup of two of coffee during the day, it’s perks us up, sharpens our focus and get’s us ready to take on the day… But it could also be keeping you awake at night! Caffeine is the chemical in coffee, tea and fizzy drinks that sharpens our focus, as it is a stimulant.
If consumed too late in the day, this caffeine will still be in your system come bedtime and keep you awake. To avoid being kept up, it’s a good rule of thumb to cut off your caffeine intake a few hours before going to bed, or you can make the switch to decaff tea and coffee to avoid the effects of caffeine.
The best thing to consume instead of caffeine is milk. Milk helps you increase your metabolism and strengthen your bone, that again helps you to get better sleep at night.
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