Quality sleep is essential for every one of us who goes through the motion of existence, no matter how mundane that may be. If your sleep is on the back burner and has been for a long time, here are steps you can take to be successful.
Staying On Your Phone
The distraction of social media, streaming platforms, and online entertainment can cause difficulty falling asleep. If you find yourself staring at your phone screen for hours on end before bedtime, it might be a good idea to turn off every bright light around you to help you fall asleep.
Eating Late
If you have the bad habit of eating late-night meals or eating meals at unpredictable times, it can affect your sleep terribly. If you need to develop a healthy sleep rhythm, the best way to do it is to have a consistent time when you eat food. Eating dinner at a specific time helps to keep your sleep rhythm in check.
Drinking Excessively (Or At All) Before Bed
Alcohol has a funny way of working with the human system. According to Victoria Albina, N.P., MPH, a nervous system specialist and holistic nurse practitioner, drinking before bed can affect the quality of your sleep over a period of time and can significantly affect OUR rapid eye movement sleep, which is also known as REM, the stage of sleep in which we dream.
Getting Too Toasty
Sleeping in a sweltering environment can be highly uncomfortable and uneasy. Our body temperature inherently lowers before it is time to sleep, so a hot bedroom is not ideal for sleep. Too much exposure to heat can reduce rapid eye movement and make falling asleep uneasy.
Working Out Too Late
Although working out is essential to a healthy lifestyle, if you want to fall asleep seamlessly, it is best to work out four to six hours before hitting the snooze button.
Delaying Sleep
If you are fond of putting off sleep to fold laundry, do laundry, or finish up a work project, then you are harming your natural sleep cycle. Delaying sleep can cause you to sleep later than usual and lead to compounded fatigue over time, negatively affecting your psyche and overall wellness.
Laying Down Too Much
Before you lay down to sleep, it is important to only get in bed when you are sure that you will fall asleep immediately. If you know that you won't fall asleep, it is better to avoid going to sleep until you are close to falling asleep. By laying down too often, you're telling your brain that the bed is not only a place to sleep.