3 Keys to Improving Sleep Quality
Sleep. Like breathing, it’s something we all do, and most times we don’t even have to think about it. That is until we find it elusive. Occasional restless nights are not a cause for alarm, but when falling asleep and/or staying asleep becomes a consistent problem, all areas of our life can be affected.
Lack of sleep has an immediate impact on mood and energy. In the long term, poor sleep can result in increased weight, higher propensity for heart disease and type two diabetes, and can lead to declines in mental health.
Contrary to popular opinion, sleep is not a chance for your brain to rest. Rather it provides an opportunity for your brain to keep working to better prepare it to learn, remember, and create. With its important role in our daily and long-term success and health, how can we take a more active role in maximizing the power of sleep?
Finding the Perfect Sleep
Quality sleep is more than the hours spent in bed. It includes how much of that time is uninterrupted and how consistent your sleep schedule is. A healthy amount of sleep for an adult nightly is anywhere between seven and eight hours. Excess is not necessarily better when it comes to sleep; maxing out at eight hours is great for your health. As for getting to those eight hours – healthy adults should be able to fall asleep at night within 10 to 20 minutes. Experts suggest that if you lay awake for more than 30 minutes you should get out of bed and engage in a relaxing activity like listening to music or reading a book.
There is no shortage of advice about how to sleep better, from specifics about room temperature to type of bed and bedding to vitamins and supplements that support sleep health. In this post we’ve boiled down a number of tips into three key areas that can make a big impact on sleep quality.
1. Create a Ritual
Children often have detailed and specific sleep rituals from the basic bath, teeth, book, bed to the complex arrangement of stuffed animals and required reading. However, as we age, we tend to put less emphasis on ritual and that can have a negative impact on sleep quality.
An overarching aspect to a sleep ritual is a schedule. A set time to go to bed and wake up each day. Set your alarm for the same time each morning (yes, even on weekends) to create a rhythm for your body. Even if you miss your “bedtime” keep your wake time consistent.
When heading to bed, prepare your body for sleep with a set of relaxing activities. These can include taking a bath, doing a meditation, or reading a book. These habits become cues to your body that sleep is coming.
2. Feed Your Need for Sleep
What you eat, drink, and do during the day can have huge impacts on your sleep at night. Exercise has an incredibly positive impact on sleep if done at the right time. Morning workouts can help your body get in tune with natural circadian rhythm. Timing exercise too close to bedtime can stimulate your body rather than wear it out. Yoga or stretching may be the best late-night options.
Similarly, food and drink before bed can disrupt the body’s rest patterns. Stimulants, including caffeine and nicotine, should be avoided after 2:00 in the afternoon to give them time to wear off by bedtime. While alcohol makes you feel sleepy, it does little to promote actual sleep. Even low amounts of alcohol (less than two drinks for men and less than one drink for women) decrease sleep quality by nearly 10%.
Food and bedtimes are a careful balancing act. A large meal impacts the body’s ability to sleep but going to bed hungry can also make falling asleep difficult. Later evening snacks that provide sustenance but not stimulation are half a turkey sandwich, a small bowl of whole-grain, low-sugar cereal, milk or yogurt, or a banana.
3. Using the Right Light
Natural and artificial light have immense impacts on sleep quality. Sleep experts agree that avoiding blue light from electronic devices (TV, phones, computers, tablets) is paramount to improving sleep. The recommendation is to turn off all blue light emitting devices at least one hour before going to sleep. For readers, consider using e-readers that don’t have their own light source rather than backlit tablets. Outside of blue light emitting devices, all artificial light from street lamps to lights left on for late night navigation impact the quality of sleep. At night the darker the better. Utilize blackout curtains and keep night lights to small devices placed outside of the sleeping area.
Natural light, however, can have a very positive impact on sleep. Exposing yourself to sunlight first thing in the morning, maybe taking your coffee outside, can help you wake up and sync your body’s rhythms with nature. Taking breaks outside throughout the day to expose your body to natural light will also help in keeping energy up when you need it.
While sleep seems like a passive activity, taking an active role in your sleep can pay huge health and well-being dividends. To understand what’s working, consider keeping a sleep diary to record hours slept, time to get to sleep, wakeful times. Then you can correlate that with activities to better understand factors that may help or hurt your sleep. With a little attention during the day, your nights can become more restful.
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