What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene refers to healthy sleep habits. Good sleep hygiene is important because good sleep is crucial to your mental and physical health, as well as your overall quality of life.
Your behaviors throughout the day, not just before bed, can affect the quality of your sleep. Your capacity to sleep is influenced by a variety of factors, including your diet and beverage preferences, your routine, your evening routine, and many more.
11 tips to improve your sleep:
If you don’t sleep well, you can take several steps, both during the day and before going to bed, to improve your sleep.
Sleep hygiene is just that: building various healthy habits to help you get a good night’s sleep.
Let’s take a closer look at 11 ways to improve your sleep hygiene for better sleep.
1. Keep a consistent sleep schedule:
Even on the weekends, make an effort to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day. By strengthening your body’s internal clock, or sleep cycle, this can help you go to sleep and wake up more easily every day.
Sticking to a consistent schedule can also help reduce daytime sleepiness.
Make sure you can get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night by setting a reasonable bedtime.
2. Create a relaxing bedtime routine:
A relaxing bedtime routine helps you wind down and be ready for sleep. And keeping a consistent routine helps your body recognize that it’s time for bed when you start your routine. This may help you fall asleep faster.
The best time to start the routine is about 30-60 minutes before going to bed.
Anything that helps you feel more at ease can be a part of your routine, as long as it doesn’t involve a blue light emitting device. Here are some ideas:
Take a warm bath or shower. Not only is the water relaxing at this time, but the drop in body temperature as you cool off can make you feel drowsy.
Try some gentle stretching exercises to help your muscles relax and release tension.
Spend a few minutes meditating to calm your body and mind.
Try listening to soothing music while you focus on your breathing.
Spend time reading a book, but try to stay away from electronic reading devices.
Avoid anything stressful or overly stimulating, such as emotional conversations or work.
3. Turn off electronic devices before you go to sleep:
Blue light, which is released by electronic devices like your phone, can lower melatonin levels in the body.
The hormone melatonin regulates the cycle of sleep and wakefulness. When melatonin levels decrease, it may be more difficult to fall asleep.
Blue light-emitting devices can also divert you and maintain mental alertness. Sleeping might be more challenging as a result of this.
You may think that not looking at your phone before bed is enough, but keeping your phone near your bed can disturb your sleep, even if you’re not aware of it.
Message notifications, buzzing noise, and light that can suddenly come on in the middle of the night can wake you momentarily, leading to interrupted sleep.
4. Exercise regularly:
Aerobic exercise, even for just 30 minutes a day, can enhance your general health and quality of sleep. And if you can exercise outdoors, that could increase the benefits even further, as exposure to natural light helps regulate your sleep cycle.
But if you can’t go out, don’t worry. Regular indoor exercise can also help you sleep better.
Just don’t work out an hour or two before bed. Your body temperature and energy levels may rise as a result, making it more difficult for you to fall asleep.
Try yoga or stretching later in the day if you’d like to engage in some kind of exercise.
5. Limit your caffeine intake:
The effects of caffeine can last 3 to 7 hours after consuming it. That means your afternoon cup of coffee could keep you awake and alert much longer than you’d like.
Although it’s generally advised to restrict caffeine consumption to the morning, bear in mind that each person’s tolerance to the drug varies.
Some people may be able to extend drinking until mid-afternoon, while others may need to stop much earlier to fall asleep easily.
The less caffeine you consume, the more sensitive you may be to its effects.
6. Make your sleep environment work for you:
A cool, dark, quiet room can help you fall and stay asleep more easily.
For most people, a bedroom temperature between 15.6°C and 19.4°C (60°F and 67°F) is the optimal temperature for sleeping.
It’s also critical to check that your bedding, pillows, and mattress are comfy. It will be simpler for you to go asleep and stay asleep if you are more at ease. Want suggestions? Browse our marketplace, full of pillow and mattress recommendations verified by experts and trusted by editors.
If you are a light sleeper or have noisy neighbors, a good pair of earplugs can help you sleep without being disturbed.
Additionally, if your bedroom is flooded with too much light, you may want to consider using blackout curtains or an eye mask to keep your sleeping environment as dark as possible.
7. Use your bed only for sleep and sex:
When you have a comfortable bed, you may be tempted to use it for reading, working, talking on the phone, watching TV, or other activities.
However, it is important to only use the bed for sleeping and sex. This helps strengthen the brain’s association between bed and sleep, making it easier to fall asleep.
Reading can be a way to relax before bed, but books can also disrupt your sleep if they keep your brain alert. Instead, try reading on the couch before bed.
8. Go to bed only when you’re tired:
If you’re not tired, avoid staying in bed while tossing and turning. Instead, try doing a relaxing activity until you start to feel tired, then go to bed.
If you don’t fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed, get up. Not being able to fall asleep can make you feel frustrated, which can keep you awake even longer.
Once you get out of bed, do something to help you relax, like reading on the couch, until you’re tired enough to go back to bed.
9. Limit napping — or avoid it if you can:
Napping during the day can make it harder to fall asleep later and can make you more prone to waking up during the night.
If you need to take a nap:
Keep it for 30 minutes or less.
Avoid taking a nap in the late afternoon.
Napping may affect the sleep patterns of older adults more than younger people, but the extent of this is not yet clear.
10. Manage stress before going to bed:
Thinking about the things that worry you can keep you up at night. To prevent worries from keeping you awake:
Write down your worries before going to bed to get them out of your head.
If your to-do list stresses you out, write that down too. Prioritize what you have to do tomorrow and the rest of the week, then try to relax.
Research suggests that a weighted blanket can help with anxiety and insomnia and may provide similar benefits to deep pressure therapy.
Try meditation before bed to calm your mind.
11. Practice Relaxation Techniques Before Bed:
Muscle relaxation such as deep breathing is a relaxing technique that can relax both your mind and body and reduce anxiety or muscle tension that might keep you up at night.
The bottom line:
Sleep hygiene is about adopting healthy sleep habits. Your behaviors, both during the day and before bed, can affect the quality of your sleep.
If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, you can try several strategies to fall asleep faster and stay asleep for hours at a time. Most of these concern improving sleep hygiene.
Sticking to a schedule, having a relaxing bedtime routine, exercising regularly, keeping your bedroom dark and at a comfortable temperature, and watching what you eat and drink can all affect the quality of your sleep.
If you continue to have problems with sleep or insomnia, be sure to see your doctor. They can determine whether an underlying condition is causing your sleep problems and can provide the treatment you may need.