Develop Better Sleep Habits
We all know how vital sleep is to our health and mental well-being, but sometimes getting a good night’s rest can feel like an impossible task. Below, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite tips for getting better sleep.
Set yourself up for success. Create a simple, manageable sleeping routine that you can follow every night. Some key components to consider include:
- Stop looking at electronics an hour before bedtime. The bright light from computer screens, TVs and cell phones tricks the brain into thinking it’s time to be alert and awake. It may be terribly tempting to check your email one last time before bed, but doing so really messes with your sleep schedule.
- Unwind with some easy exercise. Walk around the block a few times, do a few minutes of stretching, or try a handful of yoga poses.
- Soothe your senses. Drink warm tea, take a bath, light an aromatic candle, turn down dimmer switches, or wrap yourself in fuzzy blankets.
- Don’t drink caffeine later than the afternoon.
- Exercise. Studies have repeatedly shown that exercising helps you fall asleep faster and improves the quality of your sleep.
Create the perfect atmosphere for sleep.
- Proclaim your bed (and, if possible, your entire bedroom) for sleeping and intimacy only. You can train your brain to recognize that bed is where you go to fall asleep. As tempting as it may be to laze around in bed on a Sunday morning, or stay up late reading your favorite book, try to ban non-sleeping activities from your bed and bedroom.
- Keep all electronics out of the bedroom.
- Keep your bedroom cool. A cold temperature helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night.
- Invest in a high quality mattress and good pillows.
If you’re having a hard time turning off your thoughts at night, you can try a few distraction techniques to help you fall asleep faster. The key is to give your conscious mind a simple task that is distracting enough to keep out other thoughts, but not so involved that you wake yourself up even more.
- Try running through your entire day in your head. Start with the minute you woke up, and slowly work your way through everything that happened after that. The more mundane, the better.
- Do some simple math in your head. Aim for really easy stuff, like basic addition.
- Count numbers slowly, or go through the alphabet.
If sleep just won’t come:
- Get up and move to another room if you don’t fall asleep within fifteen minutes.
- Don’t look at the clock. Harder said than done, I know, but looking at the clock will only make things worse.
- Get out a journal and write down how you are feeling.
- Take some time during the day to evaluate your lifestyle. Are you giving yourself enough time to get a good night’s sleep? Are you avoiding issues that you need to deal with? Are you prioritizing your health?