Rethink Your Approach to Sleep

Sleep is an essential component of every person’s overall health. While people often neglect sleep, it plays a vital role in enabling your body to repair and get you ready for another day. Without sleep, your brain cannot function properly. Sleep is also proven to improve the effects of aging and prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

Getting enough rest can prevent you from gaining excess weight, developing heart disease, and increasing illness duration. You need 7-9 hours of sleep per night. However, most people don’t even come close to hitting this target. Here are ways to rethink how you approach sleep. 

Create a Schedule

Sticking to a regular sleep schedule even over the weekend can help maintain your body’s internal clock and make it easy for you to fall asleep and wake up. Achieving a perfect sleep routine doesn’t have to be daunting. Even making a few adjustments can dramatically improve your sleep. 

When your internal body’s clock is disrupted, it can prevent you from enjoying a good night’s sleep. Try going to bed and waking up about the same time every day. Make sure that you also get the sun to help manage your circadian rhythm. 

Get Comfortable

Sleep quality and duration are tied to other aspects of human health, bedroom environment, and bed comfort. A comfortable sleeping environment can make a big difference to your sleep quality. Items such as a good pillow, a pressure relief mattress, and duvets can affect your comfort levels and make you sleep, feel, and look better. 

Comfortable bedding is an investment in better sleep. A bedroom that is optimized for light, noise levels, and temperature can improve the quality of your sleep and your overall health. The ideal sleep environment should be dark, cool, and quiet. 

Eat Right

What you eat determines the quality of sleep you’ll get at the end of the day. A general rule dictates that you need to have a balanced diet to stay healthy and get quality sleep. Certain foods and drinks can make it easy or hard for you to fall asleep. Foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat can disrupt your sleep.

Taking high-carbohydrate foods before bed can make you feel drowsy and impair sleep quality. It has been established that high carbohydrate intake increases the number of awakenings. Therefore, you need to adopt a healthy diet to help you fall asleep faster, enhance your sleep quality and duration, and help you get consistent with high-quality sleep. 

Try to stick to lean proteins, leafy greens, and a lot of fiber for a good night’s sleep. Drink plenty of water, avoid caffeine and limit alcohol use because creating a healthy eating-sleeping cycle can create a big impact on your health and wellbeing.

Turn Off Screens

The increasing use of electronic devices for school, entertainment, and social media has several benefits. However, there is a growing concern about the blue light produced by those devices on sleeping and waking up cycles. 

Screens can make your brain act like it’s not yet time, resulting in you getting less sleep than expected. If you use a computer for the better part of your day, use blue light filtering glasses and turn off phones, computers, and TV screens a few hours before bedtime to allow your body to adjust to sleep hours. 

Get Exercise

Moderate to vigorous exercise can improve the quality of sleep by reducing the time you take to fall asleep and the time you lie awake in bed during the night. Physical activities can also alleviate daytime sleepiness and reduce the need to use sleep medications. 

Physical activities can also improve sleep quality indirectly. Moderate to vigorous exercises can decrease the risk of gaining excessive weight and the likelihood of experiencing symptoms of sleep apnea. 

Exercise helps with body circulations and ensures that all your physiology functions properly. When your body is inactive, your body struggles with natural habits such as digestion and sleep. When you exercise, you get tired making it easy to fall asleep.

Physical activities that improve sleep may not include jobs involving manual labor. Such jobs often lead to muscular aches and can negatively impact sleep. In cases where physical activities negatively affect your sleep, consider getting the best mattress for your sleep preferences. 

Why Do You Need a Good Night’s Sleep?

Good sleep habits can help you get a good rest and improve your overall health. Throughout the night, your blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rates rise and fall to manage your cardiovascular health. Your body also releases vital hormones responsible for repairing cells and control of your body energy. A good night’s sleep allows your body to do all these and so much more.

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