Do you always have to deal with drawbacks in your daily activities due to a poor sleep pattern? Then what you need is a rock-solid routine to help you sleep better. Based on several studies, not having enough rest at night can impair your productivity during the day. Insomnia can negatively affect your brain and hormonal functions, thereby decreasing your output during the day.
However, when you can enjoy regular deep sleep, you increase your health meter rating, and your activities during the day will also experience fruitfulness and vigor. So here are 21 sure ways to get rid of insomnia and also enjoy every second of your bedtime:
Make Sure Your Health Can Let You Enjoy Better Sleep
Sometimes, a dormant health condition can deprive you of the joy of a good night’s rest. You must cancel out any situation that could keep you from enjoying regular deep sleep.
Of the conditions that can deprive you of a good night’s rest, insomnia happens to be the chief culprit. It is the inability to fall asleep or even sleep for prolonged durations quickly. It is caused by hormonal imbalance, jet lag, digestive problems, and stress.
Sleep apnea is another sleep disorder, and it is symptomized by disrupted breathing and reduced oxygen intake. This condition is three times more common in men than in women and can cause its victims to wake at night frequently.
Always consult a doctor whenever you begin to struggle to fall or stay asleep.
1. Set the Right Sleep Clock
Your sleep pattern is greatly influenced by your body’s circadian rhythm, also known as your natural alarm clock. You set this alarm according to the sleeping and waking intervals you observe. And your body adjusts to whatever sleep cycle you subject it to.
The best way to properly set your natural alarm clock is to develop a habit of sleeping regularly. This means that you get used to sleeping and waking up at similar times every day. If your sleep patterns are irregular, you only confuse your brain and distort your circadian rhythm.
2. Cut Down on the Forty Winks
At that point, when you’re drained on an exacting long day, a short nap can come to your rescue. However, when you take too many naps during the day, you make it difficult for your body to sleep for long at night.
This happens because your circadian rhythm gets distorted, and consequently, the quality of sleep you get at night gets reduced.
3. More Lights During the Day helps better sleep at night
The body has its way of figuring out the different times of the day and discern when it is okay to sleep. To rightly set your natural sleeping clock, increase your exposure to bright light in the daytime. Consequently, once it is night time and the lights are dimmed, your body knows it is time to sleep.
Exposing yourself to light during the day goes a long way to improve the quality of sleep you get at night, as well as how fast you fall asleep. If sunlight exposure may not be practicable for you, artificial lights and bulbs can still do the job
4. Block the Lights at Night
Undoubtedly, your brain needs bright light in the daytime to improve the quality of your sleep. But exposing yourself to the same light intensity at night will only have every ounce of sleep run away from you. This is because, at night, blue lights shift your circadian rhythm and make your brain think it is still daytime – during which you are supposed to be active, not sleeping.
So, as soon as bedtime approaches, stay away from light-emitting gadgets and devices. Turn off the TV, keep your smartphones and computers away, and possibly cover your eyes with any light-blocking accessory.
5. Burn off Insomnia
Everyone knows how beneficial exercises are for the body. They’re among the most efficient natural routes to a healthy lifestyle. Exercising regularly helps to enhance the quality of your sleep and also eliminates sleep disorders like insomnia.
A particular study has it that regular exercise significantly halves the time you need to fall asleep. Exercising also extends your sleep duration by 18%. So, next time you’re experiencing any hitch with sleeping at night, take a look into your physical fitness routines.
6. Avoid Working Out Before Bedtime for Better Sleep
Exercises can bail you out of insomnia – no doubt. But doing them before bedtime will only invite the sleep disorder you’re trying to avoid. When you exercise, your body becomes alert and hyperactive because adrenaline and epinephrine are usually secreted during workouts.
So, you’ll do your body a lot of good if you save all the reps for the morning or later on in the day.
7. De-clutter Your Mind Before Bedtime
Studies have found that a large percentage of people who find it difficult to fall asleep often have their minds cluttered and in disarray. Instead of falling asleep, they end up pondering upon different thoughts. Try Meditation for Sleep like Body scan, Deep breathing, Day tracing, Gratitude, Visualization, Affirmation, etc. Meditation is a very effective and trusted way to put the mind at rest before you sleep.
If you enjoy every night’s rest, see to it that you hit your bed with your mind as clear as a bell. Try to let go of those things that might cling to your thoughts, or schedule a time to attend to them the next day. Journaling can also help you de-clutter your mind as you get to shift your thinking from your mind to your journal.
8. Cozy Up Your Bed
As soon as it is nightfall, make your bed and get it ready for bedtime. You must know how to relax. This is because even when you stay engaged until bedtime, every glance towards your bedroom would remind your body of the sweet coziness you’ll be embracing at rest. And by the time you drop on your bed, the satisfaction you get from this feeling relaxes your brain and sends you to sleep immediately.
Not only the bed , ensure that there are no disturbing images in the bed room, anything which can make evoke strong memories. Use soft colours for walls and curtains and keep lights low for a much better sleep.
9. Stay Away from Heavy Meals Before Bedtime
While you shouldn’t skip dinner, always resist the temptation to pounce on a heavy meal at night – especially if your bedtime isn’t too far away. Fatty food keeps your digestive system active. And once your system is actively working, your brain may not be able to help you relax.
Since proper rest implies that every system in your body gets to relax, see to it that you get done with dinner at least 90 minutes before bedtime. This is so that digestion does not affect the quality of your sleep.
10. De-Caffeinate Before bedtime for sleeping better
Almost every American consumes coffee every day. This tropical plant is also beneficial to the body in increasing the body’s energy and performance levels.
However, caffeine can remain in the blood for up to 8 hours and will deny you quality sleep if you take it before bedtime. It is safer to cleave to decaffeinated coffee when your bedtime is around the corner.
11. Resist the Temptation to Drink Alcohol
While sharing glasses of alcoholic drinks with friends at night can be soothing, keep it in mind that you’d be doing so at the expense of your night rest.
Alcohol can aggravate sleep disorders and affect your body’s production of the sleep hormone (melatonin). Alcohol also alters the hormone’s nightly secretions in charge of your body’s circadian rhythm – the human growth hormone (HGH).
By the time you combine these effects of Alcohol on your body at night, you’ll realize it would be better to put down your glass and let your body have some rest.
12. Enjoy a Warm Relaxing Bath
Another everyday activity that can help you sleep better is a refreshing bath. Studies have shown that bathing at least one hour prior to your bedtime can help induce deep sleep at night.
Make the water lukewarm as cold water is known to stimulate our senses and drive away the much needed sleep.
13. Ensure Your Bed is Comfortable Enough
When you sleep on an uncomfortable bed, you are more likely to experience low sleep quality. Body pains often cause this reduced quality of sleep.
A study carried out on the effect of a new, soft mattress on sleep quality revealed that it effectively alleviated stiffness, back and shoulder pain by 59%, 57%, and 60%, respectively. Hence, the next time a pain in the back won’t let you sleep well, consider getting a more comfortable set of beddings.
14. Avoid Bugs and Allergies
You definitely cannot get adequate sleep when your room is packed with bugs and allergens. Always clean up and seal up your beddings and sleeping space to prevent any infestation and allergen accumulation.
These things are mostly invisible to the eye and should be treated properly once or twice every month.
15. Avoid Bathroom Trips to Sleep Better
Having to get up now and then go to the bathroom can significantly affect the quality of sleep you get at night.
To avoid these trips, stay away from any form of fluid at least one hour to bedtime. Also, try to have a dim light in the bathroom to get awoken by bright lights on your bathroom trips. Sudden exposure to strong light during sleep will disturb your sleep cycle.
16. Minimize the Noise
If you are a light sleeper, it most likely won’t take anything for noises to jerk you up from your sleep.
To sleep better, try to keep the noise around you to the barest minimum. If your house is too close to the road that you get to hear every car’s horn, if you cannot afford to shut off the noise totally by use of soundproof shutters, invest a few dollars into a compact, nighttime earmuffs or plug.
17. Dim the Lights
Because you do not want your brain to interpret the night as day, dim your bedroom lights when it is bedtime.
When you dim the lights at least an hour before bedtime, you induce melatonin production, which helps you sleep much better. You should also take care to avoid bright lights in the night time. Bright lights as mentioned before breaks the sleep cycle.
18. Combat Back Pain
Nothing steals a good night’s rest like back pain. Even when you sleep for long, back pain keeps you uncomfortable and unrested when you wake up.
To deal with this insomnia-inducing agent, try using a pillow to align your pelvic bone to reduce the pressure on your lower back. Please do this by placing the pillow between your knees as they lap over or beside each other.
19. Sleep Under the Right Temperature
Temperature is another factor that affects the quality of sleep you get at night. Setting the temperature in your bedroom to an appropriate degree can go a long way to help you sleep better.
You may want to consider cooling down the temperatures with a noiseless fan or air conditioning during the summer months. And in colder months, a room heater or cozy blankets will surely see that your sleep is not affected by temperatures.
20. Do Away With the Clock
If you are in the habit of waking up at night to check the time, your body will most likely be lacking good sleep. This is because breaking your sleep distorts your body’s rest cycle as you’d be unconsciously waiting for daybreak and depriving yourself of the relaxation you need.
If you must wake with an alarm, try to set it at the exact time, you’d want to wake up. Setting your alarm hours before you intend to be awake, will subject your body to an abrupt awakening, which is terrible for your health.
In the long run, maintaining a regular sleep interval will help you get rid of alarms in a short time. This is because your body automatically adjusts to similar and repeated sleep patterns.
21. Put on some soft music
Music is more than something that can be the greatest aid for a deep sleep. It has a direct effect on our mind and nervous system and helps us prepare easily for sleep.
Study shows that adults listening to music before sleep fall asleep faster and wake up less during the night. Sleep is also deep and more restful. For the younger generation, music has a profound effect on sleep quality. Try any piece of music or a jazz or folk song at a rhythm of about 60 to 80 beats per minute (BPM) to enjoy your sleep.
Listen to a beautiful piece of Sleep Music
Conclusion
The state of your health is primarily affected by the quality of sleep you get regularly. If you are in the habit of forfeiting good sleep for other activities, you may want to consider how much your body needs it routine rest and start to sleep better.
Also, getting adequate sleep requires that you first make sleep a priority. And by considering the methods explained above, you’ll be well on your way to achieving better sleep and a better lifestyle.
