How to improve your sleep hygiene? To regain control of your night, you know, you must do everything to improve your sleep hygiene!
So, what can be the consequences of poor sleep hygiene on your daily life? What do you need to know about sleep in adults?
What are the good habits to adopt to spend sweet moments with Morpheus?
We tell you our secrets in this article!
Also read: What type of sleeper are you?
Let’s go.
The Consequences Of Poor Sleep Hygiene
Sleeping well is an art, and there are do’s and don’ts when it comes to improving your sleep hygiene. Without quality sleep, there are many signs of fatigue during the day.
You have to deal with major slack and daytime fatigue that sometimes prevents you from concentrating, controlling your emotions, or memorizing new information.
However, when we don’t get enough sleep, it also affects our immune systems, making you more susceptible to viruses and colds. You are also more likely to have cardiovascular disease or diabetes.
In short, by improving your sleep hygiene, you take care of your physical and mental health!
Get Rid Of Bad Habits
We all have bad habits that can disrupt the quality of our sleep! To help you sleep better, we have grouped together a few points on which you can work in order to reconcile yourself with Morpheus.
Eat Badly Before Sleeping.
In the list of bad eating habits that you need to get rid of, we can mention:
Eating too much sugar or too much fat: Your body must make considerable efforts to digest overly large meals, which can create major disturbances during sleep;
Drink coffee, tea, and sodas, which are stimulants and will keep your body awake. After 4 p.m., we stopped drinking all these drinks.
Drinking alcohol: Alcohol makes it easier to fall asleep and sleep during the first third of your night but disrupts the other two-thirds with frequent nocturnal awakenings;
Instead, drink water, and eat foods that contain tryptophan, as this amino acid helps you create the sleep hormone!
Oilseeds, cabbage, salmon, legumes, bananas or even brewer’s yeast can be used to compose your meals.
To learn more about what you can eat to sleep better, do not hesitate to consult our article on the links between sleep and food.
Watching Too Many Screens
This is probably the most difficult bad habit to banish, and yet it is the one that can help you considerably improve your sleep hygiene.
Avoid smartphones in the evening, tablet screens, and computers.
Scientific studies have shown that this light exposure is enough to slow down the arrival of melatonin, the hormone that should immerse you in the arms of Morpheus.
Blue light tells your brain to stay awake, which keeps you from falling asleep and can create nighttime awakenings.
Exercise in the evening
The two hours before your night’s sleep should be dedicated to rest. This is what will help you produce the hormones that will make it easier for you to sleep.
Conversely, if you exercise, you wake up your muscles and produce arousal hormones! Favour calm activities, such as meditation, yoga, reading, creative activities, crafts, writing, etc.
Decorate Your Bedroom For A Good Night’s Sleep
Purify
The sleeping environment plays a considerable role in the quality of your nights. To sleep well, and take control of your sleep hygiene, make way for uncluttered bedrooms.
Avoid cluttering it, and do not place too large furniture there.
Your bedroom should be dedicated to sleep, and nothing else. Don’t read in bed, don’t watch TV.
Do not place a painting workshop in your room, computer, or library; do not practice your sports session there.
Your bedroom is your temple of sleep!
Refresh
Maintain a temperature of around 18 or 19°C, no more, no less. If it’s too cold, your body will shiver to warm up, which slows down the process of falling asleep.
If it is too hot, your body temperature will not be able to decrease; yet, it needs this to enter a state of sleep.
Darken
To improve your sleep environment, make sure your bedroom is very dark, and does not let the light in at dawn.
Also make sure there is silence.
Use a sleep mask and earplugs to create a bubble around you!
ventilate
A room in which you sleep well and a perfectly ventilated room. For good oxygenation of the brain during the night, the room must be ventilated regularly.
Here, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening can make all the difference.
Indeed, in the atmosphere of a house, there are many pollutants, related to cooking, cleaning products, perfumes…
Ventilation will allow you to clean up the atmosphere of your room, and to better sleep!
Trouble Sleeping? Get Out Of Bed!
Do not stay in your bed when you cannot sleep; you reinforce your anxiety and your nervousness, which prevent you from falling asleep and, above all, establish a bad relationship between you and your bed.
Bedtime doesn’t have to be stressful. You must feel good in your room, and not equate it with negative thoughts.
You can practice some sophrology exercises to sleep well, such as positive thinking and heart coherence, which will help you improve your relationship to sleep and relax.
Don’t Pressure Yourself About How Much Sleep
You certainly know this stress, when setting your alarm clock for the next day, when the phone tells you how much time you have left before getting up.
Know that in reality, what matters is not the quantity of sleep, but its quality!
By thinking quantity, you convince yourself that the lack of hours of sleep will create irreparable fatigue, and you tend to go to bed when you are not yet tired!
This is a bad idea, which will only delay the time of falling asleep. Never force your sleep! Listen to your body, and go to bed only when signs of fatigue are felt (yawning, itchy eyes, etc.).
The idea is really to make sure you get more deep sleep, even when your nights are short.
Regular Sleep Schedules
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Start by setting your wake-up time and go to bed at night when you feel the need to sleep.
Even if, at first, you will go to bed quite late at night, the bedtimes will gradually settle down.
Expose Yourself Regularly To Light During The Day
Your biological clock responds very strongly to exposure to light.
The idea here is to maintain perfect regularity in your hours of exposure to light and darkness.
Expose yourself to as much sunlight as possible during the day, summer, and winter, and sleep in the dark.
When you get up, and two hours before going to sleep, stay in dim light. Turn on indirect lights rather than ceiling lights to avoid exposing yourself to too much light during these times of the day.
Indeed, melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep, flees light: in the evening, the interest of darkening the room in which you are is therefore essential!
Zoom In On Your Pillow And Mattress
A pillow can truly change your relationship to sleep. Indeed, its role in your nights is central.
It allows you to raise your head in order to place it in the exact extension of your neck and your spine. This position promotes muscle relaxation, calming, falling asleep, and helps you not to wake up at night;
It allows you to enjoy a high level of comfort: a good pillow acts like a little cloud of softness under your head.
It helps you to relax, to feel perfectly at ease. This is indeed what can help you improve your relationship to sleep;
By opting for a filling adapted to your needs, you fight against health problems that can disturb your quality of sleep.
Shape memory pillows can for example help you fight against neck pain, back pain or even headaches.
Natural latex, feathers, and down, or hollow siliconized polyester fibers can help you fight night sweats. Synthetic materials will allow you to say goodbye to dust mite allergies.
With a good pillow, you improve the amount of restful sleep, and you get up in better shape, without lengthening the duration of your nights!
The mattress is also important: it helps you distribute pressure points evenly throughout your body. For this, it must be adapted to your morphology.
If you have an XS or S morphology, opt for a fairly soft mattress, if you have an M or L morphology, semi-firm mattresses will be ideal, and if you have an XL or XXL morphology, firm and very firm mattresses will be ideal. your best allies.
Also, be sure to choose the filling carefully: memory foam, natural latex and pocket springs help you enjoy high-quality mattresses, which are sure to improve your sleep.
Avoid naps
If you suffer from insomnia, and you are very tired during the day, avoid taking a nap. Indeed, your nap may reduce sleep pressure: you will then be less tired when sleeping at night.
Note also that the nap disrupts your sleep/wake rhythm. And since you have decided to establish a regular sleep rhythm, it is indeed a habit not to be broken.
During the day, if you have significant bouts of fatigue, adopt several reflexes:
Go out for some fresh air, and walk a little: avoid breaks when you are sitting, you risk nose dive. Fresh air boosts your concentration, and helps you to be more operational;
Eat healthy: oilseeds, dried fruits, honey, whole meal bread, eggs… The goal here is to provide your body with enough vitamins to last all day.
For lunch, choose healthy products, avoid fatty foods and fast sugars, which will promote drowsiness. Fruits, chocolate, quinoa, bulgur, vegetables will be welcome!
If you have the opportunity to take a cool shower at noon, do not hesitate: it will restore your energy! Avoid hot showers, which relax your muscles and make you want to sleep even more.
Do Not Check The Time At Night
When you look at the clock in the middle of the night, your brain can’t help but count the number of hours you have left to sleep.
The result is clear: You unconsciously reinforce your stress about the passage of time, and this stress promotes insomnia.
If you have to deal with nighttime awakenings, resist the urge to check the time at night at all costs.
As you will have understood, to improve your sleep hygiene, all habits during the day, evening and night count. You need to take the time to listen to your body, and help it establish regular sleep/wake rhythms!
Conclusion
Now you know how to improve your sleep hygiene, have in mind that eating too much sugar, eating too much fat: your body must make considerable efforts to digest overly large meals, which can create major disturbances during sleep.
I have an extended article stating: The different sleep cycle