If you lay your head to rest every night and cannot fall asleep, you are not alone and it isn’t the end of the world. Many people toss and turn every night, or have to resort to alcohol, sleeping meds, or other drugs to fall asleep. It’s crazy to think that this is a reality, given that we live in the most comfortable age of sleep. There are memory foam mattresses and adjustable beds that meet your every need when lying down, but they can’t make you fall asleep.
When you have a great night’s sleep, you notice how amazing you feel the next day. Quite frankly, there’s nothing like feeling well-rested. When you fall short of your recommended seven to eight hours of sleep per night, you can experience lower energy levels, mood swings, stress, and reduced productivity. Sleeping improves your health, but not if you resort to over-the-counter medications to get restful slumber. In fact, the British Medical Journal published a study that confirmed that dry mouth, headaches, dizziness, appetite changes, and abdominal discomfort were common side effects of sleep medications.
If you want to get a better night’s sleep, there are natural daytime habits that can positively affect your sleep. Learn to control habits that encourage better sleep and you’ll feel so much better. Continue reading if you want to sleep soundly from now on.
Control You Exposure To Light
If you want the body to to produce melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleep, it’s best to avoid bright lights at night. The brain secretes melatonin when it’s dark, and that’s why you feel sleepy at night. During the day, expose yourself to natural light as much as possible. Take a lunch outside, go for a jog, and keep curtains and blinds open. At night, do your best to avoid blue light 1-2 hours before bed. This means that you should avoid screens, otherwise your brain will start waking up. Additionally, don’t read with backlit tablets or devices because they can also affect your sleep.
Keep The Bedroom Cold
According to sleep studies, people get the best sleep if they can sleep in an environment that is between 60-66 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that exceed or go below this range can cause irritability and restlessness. Being too hot or too cold makes it harder to get comfortable and fall asleep. Now, if you’re the type of person who despises covers and likes to sleep uncovered in the nude, optimum room temperature ranges from 86-90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Clear Your Head To Wind Down
It’s very common for residual stress, anxiety, or anger to negatively impact your sleep efforts. Going to bed with too many things on your mind can lead to a long night of tossing and turning. It may not seem possible to completely clear your head, but there are tactics that can help you unwind and relax. A great bedtime ritual is to engage in deep breathing exercises to naturally relax the mind and body. You can dim the lights, lay on your bed, and listen to ambient sounds, an audiobook, or guided meditation. Problems often stem from daytime habits, for example, so many people can’t complete a task without checking their phones. The brain is overstimulated, so it becomes harder to slow down at night. We actually interrupt our own sleep without knowing it!
Be Mindful Of What You Eat Or Drink
Health experts say that you should not go to bed on either a full or empty stomach. That means that you shouldn’t wolf down a burrito 20 minutes before you hit the hay. Stomach discomfort, be it grumbling hunger or stuffed bloating, can easily keep you awake. Limit your nicotine or caffeine consumption because they are both stimulants that can disrupt sleep. Additionally, drinking alcohol before bed may make you fall asleep, but it interferes with sleep quality. Lastly, limit your intake of refined carbs and sugars during the day because they can make you feel wide awake at night, ruining the possibility of deep sleep.
Create A Bedtime Routine
Routines are deeply engrained in our lives, and many of us don’t realize it. As children, parents tucked us in and read us bedtime stories to help induce sleep. We are not too good for those same bedtime routines as adults. It’s best to develop some sort of routine that indicates that it’s time for bed. It can be as simple as taking a warm bath, listening to music to unwind, or drinking a cup of tea an hour before bed. You can even start reading a book at a certain time every night. Establish your own routine to best fit your sleepy time schedule.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
