Getting a good night’s sleep is not always as easy as it sounds. In fact, a 2022 study found that more than 7.5 million people in the UK alone have trouble sleeping and sleep less than 5 hours a night. The worldwide figures are just as shocking and prove just how much of a global epidemic poor sleep truly is.
Poor sleep habits can hugely affect an individual’s everyday function and can even cause potential long-term health problems if not fixed. The topic of sleep to many can be extremely daunting due to sleep disorders such as sleep deprivation, insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome and so many more.
In this article, we will detail some small changes that you can implement into your lifestyle and bedtime routine to hopefully see some improvements in your quality of sleep.
Why Is Sleep So Important?
Sleep is one of the most important things that you need to maintain the healthy functioning of your body. Getting enough sleep and good sleep quality help to support a healthy brain function as well as your mental health, physical health and overall well-being.
More often than not, the way in which you feel while you are awake is determined by the amount of sleep and sleep quality that you get during your hours of sleep. Therefore poor sleep schedules and poor sleep quality will have a knock-on effect on how you feel the next day.
A consistent lack of sleep can have significant long-term effects in the form of health conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, depression and so many more. Therefore, in order to be a healthy adult, sleep is vital.
How To Improve Your Sleep
There are a number of ways in which people recommend improving sleep such as sleep medicines, relaxation techniques, sleep aids and so on. We have put together a list of 5 lifestyle changes that could help to transform your sleep patterns and help you to have a much-needed good night’s rest.
Create A Consistent Routine
It is very common for individuals who live a busy lifestyle to consistently go to bed at different times every single night. This means that it can be extremely hard to adhere to a consistent sleeping schedule. By doing this you are making it far harder for your body to get healthy sleep, causing regular sleep problems.
Research over the years has proven that sticking to a consistent sleeping schedule can have a hugely positive impact on the quality of sleep an individual gets. This is because good sleep habits such as consistent schedules help to maintain the body’s internal clock and circadian rhythm. This means that your body will get used to sleeping at a certain time making it far easier to fall asleep.
In addition to this, having a consistent sleep schedule allows you to be far more comfortable with the idea of sleep. People can often work themselves up by thinking about getting to sleep. Whereas a sleep routine will incorporate different things that will tell your body it is time to sleep.
Regular Exercise
While this one may seem obvious, too many people neglect it in their daily life. Doing more activities such as exercise will tire your body out during the day making it far easier to get to sleep come bedtime. The more tired your body is from the day, the deeper sleep your body will fall into.
There are a number of reasons why exercise can help to improve your sleep. One of the main ones is that it can help to reduce stress. One of the main reasons for sleep problems is stress and through exercise your body releases mood-boosting endorphins. In addition to mood-boosting endorphins, exercise also helps the production of melatonin which can be hugely effective for increasing sleep quality.
It is important to note that you should not partake in any physical activity up to 90 minutes before sleep. This is because it will not give your body’s core temperature enough time to cool down which can make it difficult for individuals to get to sleep.
Create A Nice Sleeping Environment
The mind is a very complex and intelligent place. It can be drastically influenced by your surroundings. That is why it is super important that you create a nice sleep environment that allows your mind to not be focused on anything other than sleeping.
The three factors that tend to have the most influence on an individual’s sleep are light, heat and noise. If these three factors are not exactly how you want them then it could have a knock-on effect on your sleep performance. Creating the perfect environment for your body and mind to be able to relax is integral to a good night’s sleep.
There are a number of things that people do to create the perfect environment, but it is important to remember that everyone has different preferences. Many people love to fall asleep to different things such as white noise, or music. All that is important is that you create the most comfortable and cosy environment possible.
Change Your Eating Times
There is truly nothing worse than trying to go to sleep on a full stomach after a big meal. In order to maximise your sleep and get the best quality of sleep possible you should be more mindful of the times in which you are eating.
This is because you need to give your body sufficient time to be able to properly digest your food. If your body has not been given enough time to digest your food before bed then you will more often than not be up at night with an upset stomach.
In addition to this, when you eat at night you often break your body’s circadian rhythm. This can therefore have a knock-on effect for nights to come. In the evening we often make far less informed and therefore unhealthier decisions. While this will not have an instant impact on sleep quality, the unhealthier your diet is the worse your sleep will become.
Reduce Evening Blue Light Exposure
One thing that most of us are guilty of before bed is using our electronic devices. While this is very common, our devices such as phones, laptops, and TVs all emit a light source called blue light. Blue light suppresses the amount of melatonin that our body created, therefore, making it more difficult to fall into a state of sleep.
There are a number of different things that you can do to reduce the amount of blue light you are exposed to. These are:
- Wear blue light glasses
- Use blue light screen protectors
- Lower your devices screen brightness
- Do not use any of your electrical devices up to an hour before your bedtime
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