You may not know that the activities you indulge in during the day can massively impact the quality of sleep the following night. If you are struggling to get a good night of sleep, surely, you must be doing something wrong during the day. This post is intended to help you discern your daytime unconscious habits, so you get a deeper, more restful sleep at night.
Yawning, clumsiness, and being tired all the time are three major symptoms of sleep deprivation. Let's say you had to change your sleep schedule due to work or some reason. Maybe you have a newborn child in your home. And as we all know, a young child wakes up crying 3-4 times a night. In such a circumstance, you might not notice the difference in your energy level in the initial stages, but you will if you continue to compromise on sleep.
Here Are the 10 Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night
1) Rewire Your Mind
Although rewiring or reconditioning the mind seems like an easy or trendy thing to do, I can assure you that it takes a lot of effort and time to do so successfully. Instead of feeling frustrated after a few attempts to fall asleep, it is advised to stop trying and indulge in a relaxing or calming activity like reading fiction, knitting a sweater, listening to calm music, and many more. By doing this, you will rewire your mind to remain calm and composed amid a dilemma.
2) Learn to Associate Your Bedroom Either With Sleeping or Sex
A bedroom is not a place to get your work done, read books, or learn a new skill. Ideally, it should only be associated with sleeping or sex. Having this belief or following this rule will help you turn off your mind from your day to day worries and focus solely on going to sleep. Try this trick for a few weeks and see how well it works.
3) Take a Hot Shower Before Bed
There is no shortage of scientific-evidence that taking a hot shower before bed helps you fall (and stay) asleep. Depending on which part of the world you stay, you can choose between hot or cold showers. A studydone by Horne JA and Reid AJ confirms that bathing in warm water increases sleepiness at bedtime, slow-wave sleep, and stage 4 sleep.
4) Sleep in a relatively cold room
Have you ever tried to sleep in a warm and soggy room? How was the experience like? Unless you are one of the rare people who like to keep warm all the time, it is advised to sleep in a room maintained somewhere between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. It always feels more comfortable when you sleep in a cold room but put on blankets to nullify the cold.
5) Watch the caffeine consumption
This is another one of those tips to sleep better at night that I had to mention in this post. Ideally, it would help if you did not have a caffeinated beverage like coffee or energy drink 12 hours before bedtime. This might seem unreasonable for a lot of people, particularly the workaholics. But caffeine can stay in your system for more than 10 hours.
6) Try supplements for better sleep
Are you one of those people who, no matter how many solutions you try to sleep better at night, never sees any positive results? Well, maybe your body is not able to produce enough melatonin to help you fall asleep at night.
Melatonin deficiency is quite common, and a lot of people benefit by taking natural or synthetic melatonin. However, sleep-inducing drugs affect everyone differently. So, try out once and see how it works for you.
7) Listen to white noise before or during sleep
White noise can be either be generated artificially with a device or by turning on the fan instead of an air conditioner. This is how this tip can help you sleep better at night: White noise cancels out any external sudden or sharp noise that can potentially wake you up from sleep.
8) Read fiction before going to bed
Unlike self-help or educational reading material, fiction has the ability to not only distract you from your sleep trobles but also turn off the logical/rational side of your mind. It is a lot better to engage in silly and light-hearted activities before bed than to indulge in something serious.
9) Do not overeat before going to bed
It's true that a low-calorie nighttime snack like a fruit or a handful of whole-wheat crackers helps you feel full and takes your mind off of food, however, overeating food or having dinner just before bedtime can be detrimental to a night of good sleep.
10) Add an exercise routine to your daily schedule
It is perfectly fine if you cannot find enough time to workout during the day. Not everyone can work out immediately after waking up in the morning, as most of us have to rush to work or school. In such a scenario, it is advised to perform some stretches, go for a quick walk or practice bedtime yoga one hour before going to sleep.
Conclusion
I know some of the tips to sleep better at night mentioned above won't work right away for you. But when you try and test each one of them out, eventually something will click. You no more will have to spend your nights, sleepless, tossing and turning, hoping for some good sleep.