For many people, getting a good night’s rest can be a challenge. This may be due to stress at work, unhealthy relationships, poor mental health or something else. Without receiving adequate rest at night, the truth is you won’t be as successful as you’d like during the day. These five tips can help you improve your sleep quality.
Have Healthy Eating Habits
Although drinking some alcohol before bedtime can help you relax, this can interfere in your body’s ability to obtain proper sleep. Therefore, it’s best to avoid this. Additionally, eating rich, heavy meals too close to bedtime can cause heartburn and stomach trouble. Eating dinner sooner can alleviate this problem. Other ways to have healthy eating habits include cutting back on refined carbs and sugar and consuming less nicotine and caffeine. Drinking an excessive amount of fluids can cause you to take more trips to the bathroom than necessary. Foods that may aid in better sleep include chamomile tea, almonds, tart cherry juice, white rice, walnuts, bananas, kiwi and others.
Get Enough Exercise
When you don’t get enough exercise on a particular day, you might notice you have too much energy. Since this energy needs to be burned off, you may want to try exercising on a regular basis. Doing so will aid in higher quality sleep and better health. While light exercise, such as walking a few minutes each day, can enhance your sleep, getting vigorous exercise has more benefits. Committing to an exercise plan that fits you can be beneficial in reaping the fullest rewards of proper sleep. Consider keeping a journal to organize your thoughts, and commit to a plan.
Control Your Light Exposure
Light exposure can mean exposure to the sun or the light emitting from technological devices. You can control how much light you receive by spending time in sunshine in the morning, allowing light into your workspace or home often or doing activities outdoors during the day. If you need to, you can use a light therapy box to simulate sunshine. In addition to this, your television, cell phone and other devices emit blue light that can disrupt your sleep patterns. Within one to two hours before you go to sleep, stop using bright screens, so you can calm your body and mind.
Keep Your Bedroom Peaceful
A sleep environment that’s noisy, overly bright or the wrong temperature can have a poor effect on you. You can lower any noise that may bother you by using a fan, earplugs or sound machine. Further, keeping the room adequately ventilated and cool enough can make it easier to rest. Another way to enhance your slumber is to choose a mattress that provides proper support. One of the best you can get is a memory foam mattress with the right firmness for your body type. And if your bedcovers tend to become tangled, it’s probably best to try different ones. You can calm down before sleeping by reading a book that isn’t too exciting, listening to calming music or nature sounds, or doing light household chores like washing dishes or folding laundry. Your aim should be to calm down more, so you can ease into sleeping.
Read More: 5 Important Reasons Why You Should Pay Attention To Your Sleeping Patterns
Stay in Sync with Your Circadian Rhythm
Circadian rhythm is the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. You can sync with your circadian rhythm by avoiding sleeping in every day (including weekends), limiting early afternoon nap time to 15-20 minutes, and getting up and going to sleep at the same time daily. Maintaining your sleep-wake cycle can increase your energy better than changing your sleep schedule. Another way to sleep more deeply at night is to maintain a calm mindset. This may be achieved by doing basic yoga or meditation in the morning or before bedtime on a regular basis. The only way to improve your health, relationships and overall life is to make sure you sleep well each night. In fact, you’ll feel more positive, be able to focus better at work and school, and be capable maintaining healthier relationships.
