1. Maintain A Steady Sleep Schedule
Perhaps the first thing you need to do is to optimize your sleep schedule. You need consistency with your schedule. Your body craves consistency. You may have heard about your body’s internal clock. This is known as circadian rhythm. The rhythm refers to the various bodily processes that occur in each human over 24 hours. Your internal clock is synced up to the light outside. You’re supposed to sleep when it’s dark and wake up when it’s light.
Thus, your body is going to function best when it’s properly synced up to a good schedule. However, modern and digital life can get in the way of this. When it’s dark outside, you might have all of the lights in your house on. Likewise, you’re likely going to have electronics with screens shining blue light at you. These things can disrupt our natural internal clock and trick your mind and body into thinking it’s daytime.
This is why it’s so important to stick to a schedule because your body doesn’t get the external stimuli helping it know the time. Your body needs to adhere to a schedule to keep its internal clock properly synced up. The majority of adults will need approximately 8 hours of sleep to get a full night of rest. Thus, you can work backward from when you need to wake up to figure out your optimal sleep time. For instance, if you need to be out of bed by 7 in the morning, you’ll want to go to sleep at 11 at night.
Assuming it takes you anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to get to sleep, you will want to set your bedtime alarm for around 10:30 at night. You can adjust depending on how easy it is for you to fall asleep at that time.
2. Avoid Napping
The last thing you want to do is to nap throughout the day. This can cause a lot of difficulties with your sleep schedule. Napping is one of those things that may sound like a good idea, but it’s generally not. It can be tempting to take a nap when you feel tired during the day, but it’s only going to result in more trouble sleeping at night. It’s counterproductive to your efforts. If you do need to nap, you’ll want to keep it under 20 to 30 minutes. Try not to nap for longer than 30 minutes because you’ll end up negatively impacting your sleep at night and you might wake up feeling more groggy than you did before napping.
3. Come Up With a Routine
Humans crave routine. This is true from the moment you are born. You likely had a routine as a baby. You want to build a nighttime routine that you can stick to. You don’t want to go directly from work to bed. You need something to bridge the gap. Try to create a routine that you can consistently follow every night. You want a routine that helps relax you and get your mind and body ready for sleep. The routine serves as a way to tell your mind and body it’s almost time to sleep. This could be something as simple as reading for 20 minutes, taking a warm bath, journaling for 20 minutes, or even listening to soft music. Ensure that your bed is comfortable with Levin’s mattress selection.
4. Improve Your Diet
One of the best things you can do for improved sleep is to correct your diet. What you eat can directly impact how you feel. Your nutrition and your mental health are very closely related. In general, the healthier you eat, the better you will sleep. What you eat late at night is especially important. You don’t want to eat a dinner that is going to disrupt your sleep. It’s best to avoid anything that has a lot of sugar and don’t eat anything that is going to cause you indigestion. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol is always a must. While alcohol is a depressant and you might fall asleep easily with it in your system, it can disrupt your sleep cycles and result in poor quality sleep.
5. Avoid Large Meals Before Bed
This goes along with fixing your diet. You want to watch what you eat late at night. It’s best to avoid eating too large meals at night. For a lot of families, dinner time is the only time you get to spend together. Therefore, it’s usually the largest meal of the day. This can cause problems with your sleep for several reasons. For one, it’s going to deliver too much energy to your body too late at night. It’s also going to be difficult for your body to process. It’s going to process your food before it helps you fall asleep.
A good way to compromise is by eating a heavier lunch and making your dinner much lighter. Try to avoid eating carbohydrate-heavy foods at night because they are going to supply too much quick energy and can result in insulin spikes.
Another good tip that you can use to improve your eating habits is to practice mindful eating. This is a good way to slow down your eating and to be mindful of what you are putting in your body. This can keep you from overeating which can cause issues with your digestion and sleep.
