7 Tips to Help You Sleep Better

by Limitless Pharma May 15, 2020

Sleep is important for many reasons. It helps our body repair physical damages from the previous day’s activities and makes it ready for the next day. Good quality sleep will make your mind fresh and keep you active throughout the day.

According to a study [1] by the National Sleep Foundation, an average adult needs about 7-9 hours of quality sleep per day. So, if you are getting any less of that, it’s time to rethink your priorities.

After being glued to your computer or smartphone for long hours and/or having pulled an 18-20 hour workday, it can be difficult to get your mind to be relaxed enough to get a good night’s sleep of at least 6-7 hours.

If even after getting sufficient (7-9 hours) sleep each night you still feel tired or exhausted the next morning, chances are that you’re not getting the desired quality.

What Does It Mean To Have Good Quality Sleep?

As much as it’s important to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep per day, it’s more important to ensure that you get good quality sleep.

The main thing that differs good quality sleep from poor quality sleep is the time needed to sleep. If you cannot fall asleep within 30 minutes of getting into bed, you probably need to improve your sleep quality. If you are having quality sleep, you will not wake up more than once. And when you do, you should be able to sleep back within 20 minutes.

Based on these criteria, you should be able to figure out whether or not you’re getting a good night’s sleep. If not, here are some tips to help improve your sleep quality.

How To Improve Sleep Quality

So, now that you have a quite good idea of how quality sleep works, let’s discuss a few proven ways to get it.

Avoid Gadgets Before Sleep

It is necessary to avoid or stop using any electronic device such as television, laptop or cellphone at least 30 minutes before you go to bed (to sleep). This is important for two reasons:

The blue light coming from these electronic devices causes both your mind and eyes to remain active and not relax, making it difficult for you to fall asleep instantly.

Second, by not using any gadget a few minutes or an hour before bedtime, you let your mind know that you’re ready to sleep and help it relax.

Besides not using any of these gadgets before bedtime, you can also consider dimming lights down throughout your room or house at night.

Take proper nutrients

Eating habits have a direct impact on sleep quality.

If you’re taking good and varied nutrients in your diet, chances are you’ll get a better night’s sleep. Make sure that your diets include at least the daily required amount of important nutrients like protein, vitamins, calcium, magnesium, iron, etc.

Magnesium is one of the key minerals that can help you get good quality sleep by increasing melatonin in the body.

Maintain A Sleep Schedule

Having a poor and inconsistent sleep schedule can lead to bad quality sleep.

If you’re going to bed too early even when you’re not ready to sleep, it might take you some time to fall asleep. And even if you do fall asleep, the quality will not be optimum.

On the other hand, if you’re sleeping very late at night, your mind and body may be too tired to relax and have good quality sleep.

So, it’s important to follow a good and consistent sleep schedule.

Follow An Active Lifestyle

Being active does not mean that you have to hit the gym or engage yourself in heavy workouts every day.

Getting your daily dose of morning/evening walks and a good workout session once or twice a week is sufficient to ensure a healthy body and an active mind, which may greatly help achieve a good night’s sleep.

And in turn, good quality sleep will help improve your body’s endurance and performance, enabling you to be more active.

Maintain An Average Room Temperature

The Sleep Foundation recommends [2] that the ideal temperature to achieve a good night’s sleep is between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Any lower or higher temperature than that might make your place tool cool or hot for your body to relax and sleep soundly.

In order to sleep better at night, your body and mind need to cool down, which is why sleeping in a cold room is easier than in a place that’s too hot. Ideally, the temperature of your bedroom should be as recommended above.

Relax Your Mind Before You Sleep

It helps to do things to make your mind relax before you’re ready to sleep.

For instance, taking a bath before bedtime is known to be beneficial in soothing the body and mind and making them ready to have quality sleep.

Similarly, reading a book or listening to slow music can also help the mind drift to sleep.

Avoid Alcohol And Caffeinated Beverages

Last but not least, try to avoid consuming any caffeinated or alcoholic beverages at least a few hours before, and especially during, bedtime.

In fact, reducing your alcohol consumption throughout the day can have amazing benefits to your sleep quality.

The quality of sleep largely depends on your mind’s ability to relax, especially on short notice. Throughout the day, your mind comes across several things, which it needs to process. So, in the night, you need to find a way for your mind to get out of those thoughts and start relaxing. The above tips can definitely help.

REFERENCES:

[1] How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? From https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need

[2] 5 Signs That Your Sleep Quality Is Poor (and How to Fix It) From https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/5-signs-your-sleep-quality-poor-and-how-fix-it