How to sleep well? Nowadays, life is always promoted in a constant run – long hours at work, additional activities for us and children, meetings, omnipresent and tempting entertainment. The temptation is to move the boundary between rest and active life – so that we will not miss something, so that we will be constantly online. We regularly sleep less and less, promising ourselves that we will make up for the deficiencies during the weekend, and certainly during hard-working holidays. Are you sure?
Of course, it is something else to help with naps, especially during an intense, long day – I sometimes use it myself. However, at this point I want to definitely cut myself off from excessive pushing the boundary between being active and sleeping. I believe that a regular, uninterrupted few hours rest is essential for the proper functioning of the body, especially in the long run.
Doctors and scientists say that it takes about 8 hours to walk all the phases of sleep and nighttime for most people. Of course, this is some average, each of us is different and this length may differ slightly in individual people. During the nighttime rest in the human body many phenomena occur at both the physical and mental level. Regular neglect of full night rest, the passage of all sleep phases, can have many negative consequences.
10 ways to sleep well
For a good night’s sleep, or a day for people working on a second shift, there is no one universal way.
Below you will find a few ways that can help you wake up the natural, evolved body’s ability to regenerate nighttime rest.
- Avoid stimulants. For a minimum of 4 hours before your main rest, do not consume caffeinated and theine-based drinks, which also usually have a stimulating effect. I intentionally write because I have met people who drink coffee just before bedtime and sleep like souss all night – at least they say so. However, in my case, when I was still drinking coffee, in fact evening coffee did NOT make it easier for me to fall asleep quickly.
- Sleep in a dark room. Our body has been so programmed by nature that it adapts to the natural cycles prevailing in nature. Sunlight is a clear signal to activity. However, not only sunlight, any lighting in the room in which you sleep causes disruption of the activity – rest cycle. Interestingly, it does not have to be a brightly lit supermarket car park outside the window, just a weak street lamp or even a backlit clock in the room where you sleep. So if you have problems with good sleep, install blinds that cut off the light and switch off all light sources in the room where you sleep. Alternatively, you can also use an eye band that will isolate you from light pollution.
- Sleep in a cool room. Of course, each of us is different and there will certainly be people who find that they are thermophilic and that they sleep perfectly in a room with a temperature of 24 ° C or higher. However, most often the temperature of 18 ° C is given as the most suitable for sleep – we sleep at this temperature.
- Avoid the stimulating information before going to bed. I do not know how you, in my case, one annoying message at bedtime can definitely disrupt the entire night rest. It can be a difficult phone call, text message, e-mail just read, whatever. Therefore, just a few hours before you plan to go to bed, just do not take them away. Do not browse the message, if you can turn it off, even your cell phone.
- Clean your mind. If the next day in the morning I have something important to do, I often think about it intensely, which makes it difficult to fall asleep. It helps me to save such things on a piece of paper, this clears the mind. Then I do not have to constantly remember it and it does not disturb my good sleep.
- Avoid late intense exercise. During physical exertion, endorphins are released in the human body – the hormones of happiness. Feeling very pleasant, but equally stimulating. After such an injection, happiness can be more difficult to calm down and fall asleep.
- Throw the smartphone and tablet out of bed! Many people have the habit of browsing the Internet content at bedtime. Displays of these devices also emit light disturbing the natural day-night cycle. In addition, due to the entertaining character of most of the content currently produced and consumed on the Internet, they have a stimulating effect, making it difficult to fall asleep.
- Plan to go to sleep regularly. If you have a problem with going to sleep regularly – set an alarm in the alarm clock. Often sitting in the evening we are tempted to do something more, another article on the Internet, another chapter of the book, another episode of the program … If it is possible (work on one shift) sleep should walk regularly, every day at the same time, preferably between 2100-2300. During these hours, we feel natural fatigue and the easiest way to fall asleep. By dragging daily activity, later it will be harder for us to fall asleep. In addition, due to the natural cycles of our body (night cleaning) it is very important to fall asleep before midnight.
- Read a nice and relaxing book. The less interesting the book the better, the point is to calm down (the opposite of excitement), almost bored and just fall asleep. It’s good that this book should be read only before bedtime, so that it would be associated with the time of rest, falling asleep over time.
- Create your own ritual of going to sleep. Make sure that every night the last hour before bedtime is the same, tailored to your preferences. It can be a warm bath, prayer or meditation, a book – a repetitive sequence of events that, like a string, will calm you down and lead you in the only right direction – to bed
At the end – how to sleep well?
Deep, uninterrupted, several hours (about 8 hours) sleep is essential for the proper functioning of the body. During such rest our body passes through all stages of sleep, cleansing itself of toxins, organizing thoughts and preparing to start another day with enthusiasm and full strength.
Not everyone is given such a dream on a tray. The most difficult are people working at irregular times, which knock the body out of its natural cycle of work – rest. However, even those who are able to sleep regularly at night do not always sleep well. It is often at our own request – I belong to the other group. Usually I go to sleep between 10-11 PM, and I get up about 6 AM, which gives me an average of 7 hours (not enough) of continuous rest. However, I do not always manage to maintain this discipline, it is immediately visible the next day – I feel tiredness in my eyes, I am less creative and it is harder for me to concentrate.
However, I’m on the right track, I stopped drinking coffee completely! I’m making a habit of not going to my smartphone after 20, we sleep in a cool room. You can read more about how to create healthy habits here.
What kind of ways do you have an uninterrupted regular and restorative sleep?