Choose the right equipment
In order to sleep well we need to have the right apparatus. Choice of bed frame, mattress, and pillows are paramount to enabling a restful night. Careful consideration should be given when purchasing these items. Don’t forget to refresh both pillows and mattresses every few years too, as they can warp and distort over time.
Avoid coffee after lunch
Coffee contains high levels of caffeine. This substance interrupts the release of melatonin, the hormone that causes us to feel tired. Studies have shown that caffeine remains in the system long after drinking it. In some cases as long as seven hours later. An easy way to ensure sleep comes is to cut out the coffee in the afternoon and evening.
Don’t be afraid of the dark
The environment in which you sleep is of vital importance, particularly with the amount of light pollution in the bedroom. A restful night hinges on the room being as dark as possible. Blackout blinds and curtains can help generate this setting, as can eye masks.
Consistency is key
The best way to maintain a healthy sleep pattern is to work to a set schedule. Maintaining a consistent bed-time and wake-up time is key to promoting good sleep. So whilst it might be tempting to stay up late on the weekend, remember that by messing up your routine, you are causing your body to fall out of sync.
Cut back on the alcohol
The idea of having a nightcap to help get to sleep is likely something your grandparents told you to do. Whilst technically alcohol can help you in getting to sleep, the high sugar levels within these beverages mean that you’ll either have a restless night overall, or will find yourself wide awake too early.
Silence is golden
City living and restful sleep don’t always go hand-in-hand. Noisy neighbors and traffic can make it almost impossible to both get to, and then stay, asleep. Quiet, preferably silence, is the ideal noise level conducive to restorative sleep. Earplugs are a great idea if you find peace hard to find.
Get to bed before midnight
Just as one should never feed a mogwai after midnight, people should be in bed before this time. The reason for this is that after 11pm the body starts to naturally release cortisol and being in bed before it reaches its peak is the best way to avoid being awake in the small hours.
Create the right ambience
The colour of the walls in the bedroom could be impacting on your quality of sleep. Avoid using bold, vibrant colours such as reds as they excite your eyes and over stimulate you. Instead, bedrooms should be decorated in Earth tones, muted greens, yellows, beige hues and white, for a more restful night.
Invest in a sunrise alarm clock
Sunrise alarm clocks can help those struggling with sleep fall into a natural rhythm. The lights on the device emulate the light levels of both the sun setting and rising. The science is that these light levels will help users naturally drift off and wake up.
Skip heavy meals
A healthy diet is said to be maintained by following the mantra of eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This suggests that shrinking the portion size of each meal is best for the body. It’s also good for sleep as eating too large a meal too close to bedtime can induce indigestion which delays drifting off.
Don’t go to bed angry
As a child, you might have been told to never let the sun set on an argument. This is sage advice, especially for helping sleep. When angry your adrenal gland floods the body with stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Both of these hormones over stimulate the brain and make it impossible to switch off.
Drink less fluids
While it is important to keep hydrated and to ensure our bodies are taking on six to eight cups of water a day, make sure none are too close to bedtime. Advice recommends cutting off fluids at least thirty minutes to an hour before bed, that way you’re less likely to be disturbed by needing a middle of the night toilet trip.
Try imagery
Imagery is a mental exercise that can be used to help calm the mind. The practice involves imagining a peaceful and happy image from your past and recreating it down to the most minute detail in your mind’s eye. The trick works as it focuses the brain, distracting you from the real task of getting to sleep.
Make the bedroom a sleep only zone
Many people populate their bedrooms with televisions, game consoles, and computers. This then means that the bedroom isn’t seen as a place to sleep, but is instead like most other rooms in the house. So when bedtime comes it does not feel any different to normal. Make the effort to make your bedroom a sleep only room and reap the benefits.
Try a white noise machine
Silence might be preferred for sleep, but in reality this isn’t for everyone. If you think that the lack of sound might be causing problems, or if there’s an outside noise too loud for earplugs to mask, then using a white noise machine might help. The waves of distorted sound have a surprising calming effect; let it wash over you and fall into a deep slumber.
Listen to sleepy music
If white noise is too intrusive or irritating, why not try music? Music can aid sleep by putting you into a relaxed state, which helps reduce levels of cortisol. The choice of music is important though, with advice suggesting to select music that is relaxing or slow, ideally around sixty to eighty beats per minute.
Know your sleep cycle
Sleep is broken into four stages. The first two are both termed light sleep, the third as deep sleep, and the fourth is REM sleep. Each full cycle lasts around ninety minutes and waking up at the end of one is ideal. It’s tricky to track, but once mastered you can set your alarm for the optimal wake-up call and forgo that morning grogginess.
Keep it cool
Although the idea of a warm, snuggly, and cozy bed sounds like a dream, in reality this can lead to your body temperature rising. If you’re too warm, you can’t sleep. According to science, the optimal bedroom temperature is between 60 – 68°F (15.6 – 20°C).
Ban the devices
In modern society, we spend too much time with our heads buried in a device – but when it comes to sleeping they should be kept away. The bright light on the devices and their usage over-stimulates the human mind and makes it far more difficult to sleep. Advice suggests putting them down long before bedtime. If you must have your phone in the room, put it on airplane mode.
Make time for breakfast
From childhood, we are repeatedly told to eat breakfast, and yet our modern busy lives means that more people are skipping the meal entirely. In addition to setting you up for the day, eating breakfast helps indicate to the body that the day has begun, putting into motion the internal countdown to the next sleep time.
Buy some lavender
Certain smells have been linked to sleeping better, and lavender is at the top of that list. The soothing scent helps calm the body and mind, placing you into the best mindset to fall to sleep. Buy a plant for the windowsill and enjoy a serene sleep or alternatively invest in a pillow mist and spray about thirty minutes before getting into bed.
Keep pets out of the bed
The idea of letting your pets snuggle into bed beside you might sound like a dream come true, the reality however is often less so. From settling down in inconvenient positions to nocturnal wanderings, pets can be an absolute nightmare to share a bed with. The best practice would be to sleep separately and have extra morning cuddles with them instead.
Get your full eight hours
It may sound easy, but the simplest way to get better sleep is to get eight hours of it. Adults are advised to have around eight hours of restful sleep a night, but this is not easily achieved in a 24/7 culture. Set a strict bedtime curfew that facilitates the space for eight hours to be achievable.
Maintain a healthy diet
Much like a car engine, it is vital for the body to be given the right fuel. When feeling tired, the urge to binge junk-food is overwhelming, but a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables is far better in the long run. Regular healthy eating increases energy levels and helps to better regulate that sleepy feeling.
Exercise regularly as part of your routine
In addition to eating well, another way to combat sleep is to get active. Exercise is recommended for a healthy lifestyle, but to maximise a robust sleeping regime it is best to exercise during the early half of the day. This prevents the endorphins it releases from causing havoc at bedtime.
Limit nap time
A lack of sleep overnight can leave you feeling tired during the day and you might be tempted to have a nap to ‘catch-up’. However, by having that nap the body clock is thrown out of sync and can perpetuate the problem that evening. If you absolutely have to catch forty-winks, advice recommends having no more than twenty to thirty minutes.
Quit smoking
Nicotine, one of the primary substances found in cigarettes, is a stimulant that can mask exhaustion. Studies suggest that smokers are more likely to report a bad night’s sleep than those who don’t. Sleep disruption isn’t the only potential negative side-effect of smoking on sleep, Nicotine can also increase the risk of developing the condition known as sleep apnea.
Make a to-do list
Lying awake anxiously thinking over everything that has to be done the next day can cause sleepless nights. One simple way to combat this is to write tomorrow’s to-do list the night before. Not only does it clear the worry from your brain and aid getting to sleep quicker, it also helps get you better organised and prepared.
Add a spoonful of honey to your diet
A famous song once told us that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and it turns out there might be some health benefits of having something sweet before bed. The brain uses a lot of energy at night, drawing from the liver’s glycogen stores to sustain itself. To give the brain an extra boost, try eating a spoonful of raw honey before you settle down.
Make time for regular relaxation
As tempting as it might be to fill your evening with lots of activities, or worse still, catch-up on some work – don’t. The best way to get prepared for bed is to let yourself unwind. For the last hour or two prior to going to sleep, keep activities gentle and calming in nature.
Read a book
The usefulness of reading a book before bed to aid sleep has arguments on both sides. A big pro is that it helps to relax the mind. However, if the book is too exciting, the urge to keep reading kicks in. It’s best to stick to a set amount of reading time, and don’t go beyond it, no matter how tempting it might be.
No more snoozing
The method of waking up is as important to sleep quality as falling asleep. When the morning alarm starts beeping, the urge to press snooze is strong. However, in allowing yourself a snooze, you are actually causing more harm. The extra ‘sleep’ is fragmented and can make yourself more tired. Worse still, it can affect cognitive ability, attention span, and your mood.
Have a shower in the evening
If you’ve ever zoned out in the shower, you will be aware of how good standing under running water can be at clearing your mind. Adding a shower to your evening routine can help you to literally wash off the troubles of the day and help your mind get into wind down and reset mode.
Avoid intense television shows and movies
Settling down in front of the television is seen by many as the perfect way to unwind in the evening, but what you choose to watch is more important than you think. The recommendation is not to watch anything too intense or scary prior to bed. This type of content causes spikes in adrenaline, which, when not given adequate time to dissipate, cause issues sleeping.
Get out to see the sun
Artificial lights are poor substitutions for the sun. Exposure to the sun, even if it’s hidden behind clouds, helps reset the body’s circadian rhythm. With more people working from home, time outside is being lost and throwing their rhythm out of sync. Prevent this by spending time outdoors, even if it is for just a few moments, ideally mid to late morning.
Try some beditation
As the name might suggest, ‘beditation’ is simply a form of meditation, but one performed in bed. Beditation is the perfect trick to use when sleep isn’t forthcoming, just take a few deep breaths and spend a couple minutes of mindful time to meditate your way to the land of nod.
Drink chamomile tea
Although caffeine might be a big no-no when it comes to inducing sleep, chamomile tea is regarded as having the opposite effect. Studies have shown that drinking a cup of the special tea around forty-five minutes before bed will help you to fall asleep faster and easier.
Sort your sleep hygiene
Sleep hygiene is a fancy way of saying get yourself a proper bedtime routine. Do the same things, in the same order, each and every night. The familiarity of the routine will signal to your brain and body that sleep is imminent, and will make sweet dreams that much more attainable.
Sleep supplements
If other tricks don’t work then it might be time to look into sleep supplements. Magnesium is said to be one the best sleep aids as it helps to increase GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) levels, which encourages relaxation and sleep. Magnesium can be found naturally in spinach, legumes, nuts and whole grains. Alternatively, most health stores stock it in tablet form.
If all else fails, reset
Sometimes no matter how many tips you try to implement, sleep will refuse to come. In this scenario, rather than lying there and getting frustrated, the best course of action is to get out of bed and ‘reset’. Get up and wind back your routine by around ten minutes and start the process anew.
