A good night’s sleep can do wonders for your emotional and physical well-being. If you don’t get enough sleep, it may negatively affect your mood, productivity, and health. Despite this, many of us often have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night.
How To Improve Sleep Quality?
A peaceful slumber may seem like a distant dream if you are wide awake in the middle of the night. However, you have more influence over your sleep quality than you may realize.
Just like how your sleep quality affects your mood throughout the day, everything you do during the day also affects your sleep at night. So, making healthy adjustments to your daytime routine can effectively improve the quality of your nighttime sleep and do away with your sleeplessness once and for all.
Five Ways To Enjoy A Good Night’s Sleep
Here we have compiled a list of five simple ways to enhance sleep quality. Keep scrolling to learn more.
1. Be mindful of your diet
What you eat throughout the day, particularly in the hours leading up to bedtime, may impact your sleep quality. For some, nicotine and caffeine both have energizing effects that last for hours and might make it difficult to fall asleep.
Similarly, alcohol might produce drowsiness initially, but it can cause sleep disruptions later. It is easy to become addicted to alcohol if you drink before going to sleep every day. If you do that, stop immediately. In the event you have trouble quitting that habit, you should seek professional help. Check out a rehab facility and see what options you have. Facilities like www.vistapineshealth.com offer several programs and services that can address your underlying issues and improve your quality of life.
Some people may think snacking is harmless and eat junk before bedtime to help them fall asleep faster. However, not everyone benefits from a snack before bed as it can cause indigestion and trouble falling asleep for many others. Reducing your consumption of sugary and processed meals is better as the high amount of sugars and carbs can make you feel more awake, preventing you from falling into a deep slumber
Remember that a balanced, nutritional diet throughout the day is essential for quality sleep. Instead of focusing on individual meals, changing your dietary habits can greatly impact your sleep and general health. If you’re having difficulty falling and staying asleep, try adopting a Mediterranean-style diet high in vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats, with minimal quantities of red meat.
2. Maintain a healthy sleep schedule
A good night’s sleep can help you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. On the other hand, poor sleep quality will have you waking up feeling tired and lackluster. One of the best ways to maintain sleep quality is by sticking to a schedule.
Eight hours is the ideal amount of sleep time for an average adult. Try to set up a regular sleep schedule for going to bed and waking up every day of the week, including weekends, as it helps your body’s circadian rhythms.
If you’re in bed wide awake for more than 20 minutes, try listening to relaxing music to calm your nerves. If nothing works, other factors, like stress or anxiety, might be at play. You can reach out to professional therapists to try and understand the underlying causes behind your sleeplessness and provide a solution that can cure it once and for all.
3. Create a relaxing environment before bed
Light exposure controls the production of melatonin, a hormone that plays an important role in maintaining a healthy circadian cycle. When its dark out, your brain produces more melatonin, which helps with sleep, and when it’s light out, it produces less, which makes you feel more awake and alert. However, many features of modern lifestyles can disrupt your biological clock and the body’s melatonin generation.
You can stimulate melatonin production by establishing optimal conditions for sleep (i.e., a cold, dark, quiet environment) before bed. If you’re having trouble sleeping, turning off all electronic devices at least an hour before bed might help. Avoid using your mobile phone any time before bed, and consider utilizing room-darkening curtains, earplugs, a white-noise machine, or another modern tech to create an atmosphere that works for you.
You can improve sleep quality by relaxing activities like a calming bath or meditating just before bed. If you have to get up at night, try doing it with little light. Put a soft nightlight in the hallway or bathroom or carry a flashlight to walk securely in the dark. Doing so will help you maintain drowsiness, which will help you fall asleep faster.
4. Get plenty of physical activity
Those who exercise regularly enjoy better sleep at night and wake up feeling more alert. Exercising regularly also alleviates sleep disorders and increases your time in the deep, restorative stages of sleep.
The intensity of your workouts can amplify the quality of your sleep. However, even little activity, like walking for 10 minutes a day, enhances the quality of one’s sleep. Regular exercise can improve sleep quality, but it may take many months of effort before you see a difference. Therefore, be persistent in establishing a permanent habit of exercising daily.
Exercise can stimulate faster metabolism, body temperature, and hormones like cortisol that promote stress relief. There is no best time to exercise, and you can do it any time of the day; just try to avoid working out just before bed, as it may have the opposite effect on your sleep quality. Make it a goal to complete any exercise ranging from moderate to intense at least two hours before bed. If you still face trouble falling asleep, exercising earlier in the day is better. Furthermore, evenings spent engaging in calming, low-impact activities like yoga or mild stretching are effective in facilitating restful sleep.
5. Find ways to fall back asleep
Having brief awakenings in the middle of the night is common, and there are strategies you may do to attempt to go back to sleep. First, if you’re struggling to sleep, try a relaxation method like visualizing your thoughts, meditation, or progressive muscle relaxation. You don’t even have to get out of bed! Relaxation isn’t meant to replace sleep but can help you feel refreshed and calm your tense nerves.
If you can’t fall asleep even after twenty minutes, it’s best to change your room and do something relaxing, like reading a book. Keep the lights low and stay away from electronic devices to maintain a near-sleep-like state, which will help you fall into a deeper sleep.
Bottom Line
Sleeplessness at night might indicate that your daily behaviors and lifestyle choices negatively affect your mental and physical well-being. Poor sleep quality can adversely affect your appetite and mood. Furthermore, if a poor sleep cycle keeps up long enough, you are also at risk of sleep apnea, stress, and other chronic health disorders.
Having trouble falling asleep is nothing to be concerned about once in a while. However, if it becomes a common occurrence and disrupts your daily life, it’s time to reach out to your healthcare provider. If you struggle with sleep quality, you can consult a therapist to find the underlying cause behind the sleeplessness.
A nutritious diet, plenty of exercise, and a healthy sleep schedule can help you fall into a deep, restorative slumber every night. Follow these four tips to improve your sleep cycle and wake up feeling rejuvenated.
