Good sleep boosts your overall body health and allows you to start the next day rejuvenated. If you struggle to sleep at night, you need to find out why you are having this problem. Some simple changes in your lifestyle can help improve your sleep hygiene. Here are healthy habits that can help improve your sleep.
1. Maintain a Consistent Sleep Schedule
You should create a consistent schedule by sleeping and waking at the exact times daily. Consistent sleeping and waking times enhance your body’s sleep cycle. This makes it easy for you to sleep and wake up every day. Choose a bedtime that allows you to sleep for seven to eight hours each night.
2. Perform Regular Exercises
Performing thirty minutes of aerobic exercises daily enhances your sleep quality and health. Exercising outside is more helpful because natural light exposure regulates your sleep cycle. However, don’t exercise one or two hours before bedtime. This increases your body temperature and energy levels, making it difficult to fall asleep quickly as required.
3. Reduce Caffeine Intake
Caffeine has strong effects that can last up to seven hours in your body after consumption. So, taking your coffee a few hours before bedtime can keep you alert longer, thus affecting your sleep. For better sleep, you should avoid taking coffee five hours before bedtime. Understand your caffeine tolerance, so you understand how much you should consume and at what time before sleeping.
4. Manage your Stress before Bedtime
If you go to bed with many issues in your mind, you won’t sleep well. Thus, you need to get them off your head before you get to bed. Try to calm your mind through meditation or deep pressure therapy. This relaxes your body and eliminates the anxiety that might interfere with sleep.
If you have a busy schedule the next day you don’t know how to handle, create a to-do list starting with the most urgent task in that order. This helps you avoid anxiety about your responsibilities that might affect your sleep.
5. Avoid Electronic Devices before Sleeping
Electronic gadgets such as mobile phones produce blue light that reduces your body’s melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical responsible for controlling your sleep and wake cycle. When the chemical goes down, you have difficulties sleeping. The blue light also keeps your brain alert, thus affecting your sleep. Besides, keep the devices away from your bed to avoid disruptions by notifications or light.
6. Have a Relaxing Bedtime Routine
Creating a consistent, relaxing bedtime routine is essential to allow you to unwind before bedtime. When you start the routine, your body recognizes it’s time to sleep, allowing you to sleep fast. Start the routine about thirty to sixty minutes before bedtime. The routine should include whatever makes you relax. It can include taking a warm bath, gentle stretching, meditation, listening to soothing music, or reading a book. Avoid anything that is overly stimulating or stressful such as emotional conversations.
7. Avoid Late Afternoon Naps
One thing you have to note is that sleep cycles are natural cycles. If you don’t sleep well at night, squeezing a thirty minutes nap during the day can help. However, taking a nap late in the afternoon can affect your sleep pattern and make you have insomnia. For quality sleep, you should avoid napping after 3 p.m.
Why is Good Sleep Beneficial?
Having a good night’s sleep can help you recover fast from chronic illnesses. With quality sleep, your body produces hormones that repair body tissues and cells. This is more important if you suffer from chronic conditions since it helps repair the damages caused by chronic conditions and allows your body to recover quickly. Healthy sleep enhances your mental health issues like depression caused by chronic diseases. Adequate sleep is also crucial if you are recovering from a stroke. During stroke recovery, you need to sleep well to allow your brain to recover and recharge more effectively.
Closing Thoughts
Enough sleep makes you feel more energetic and productive in your daily core. It also makes your body more immune to illnesses. By adapting to the above healthy habits, you will be able to sleep faster and better for hours. The most important thing is to understand the cause of your sleeping problem to apply the right habit to deal with the issue.
SleepWellness and Fitness
TDPel Media
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