Even on stimulants or performance enhancers, there’s a reason why you can’t manage to stay awake and productive for more than 2 to a few days. It’s because your body is wired in such a way that it requires rest. It requires to shut down some of its processes to refresh and rejuvenate. And if you guessed right, this happens during sleep. Even though the lungs, the heart, brain, and other vital organs remain active during your sleep, the 6-9 hours of slumber can make or break your overall health and wellness. Sleep deprivation can cause a plethora of negative effects on your health, including physical, mental, and emotional problems.
For instance, poor sleep has been linked to impaired judgment, weight gain, low concentration, poor focus, increased risk of blood pressure, mood disorders, hallucinations, and hallucinations. Without a good dose of sleep, it is not uncommon to wake up the next morning feeling fatigued, foggy, confused, and moody. In this situation, going about your day-to-day activities can feel like a nightmare.
Now, a day or several wouldn’t be enough to discuss the consequences of inadequate sleep. The importance of enough quality sleep can never be overemphasized. However, we live in a busy world that is full of things that can prevent you from getting a goodnight’s sleep. From noisy neighbors to medications, diet, tech gadgets, busy routines, and unhealthy lifestyle habits, factors that can affect your sleep quality and quantity are limitless. What’s worse, they could be the reason why you wake up feeling as if you were run over by a train or struck by lightning.
Luckily, here are some tips you can use to get a more refreshing sleep every night.
1. Watch Your Diet Routine
Did you know that your nutrition can affect your sleep? What you send down your gut, how much of it, and when you do so can have an effect on your ability to fall asleep as well as the quality of your slumber. For instance, too much caffeine or nicotine in the late evening can prevent you from falling asleep, especially if done close before bedtime. Also, while taking too much of fluids before bedtime can disrupt your sleep with trips to the bathroom, heavy meals before bed can cause heartburn and other issues such as bloating, which are powerful sleep disruptors. For your sleep to be more refreshing, therefore, you’ll want to:
- Keep nicotine and caffeine on the low
- Avoid heavy meals before bed
- Limit alcohol before bed
- Have dinner a few hours before sleep time
- Stay away from spicy foods in the evening
2. Use A Sleep Enhancer
As earlier mentioned, many factors can keep you from falling asleep. Perhaps you’re a bit anxious about a business deal, or you’re a bit stressed up about your relationship, these things can keep you awake at night, no matter how comfy your bed feels. In such a case, sleeping aids can be a great solution. And you don’t have to take pills, especially since sleeping pills are known to be addictive in a way. These days, sleep supplements are also available in transdermal patches, which deliver the active ingredients into your bloodstream in controlled doses, thus reducing the risk of tolerance and dependence on sleeping aids. According to Earl Hailey and the team from PatchMD (https://www.patchmd.com/sleep-patches.html), the most effective sleep patches contain ingredients like Melatonin, Hops, Valerian Root, Magnesium, 5-HTP, all working together to promote a refreshing night’s sleep. With an effective sleep patch, you can say goodbye to bouts of insomnia or waking up in the middle of the night. You can be more assured of waking up refreshed and energetic to face the next day’s activities head-on.
3. Have a Bedtime Routine
Your sleep quality and quantity are also closely linked to the part of the brain associated with learning. This is why if you sometimes find yourself waking up a few minutes before your alarm rings. More often than not, however, this happens if you have a regular sleeping pattern. For a more refreshing sleep, learn to go to bed at the same time every day.
4. Exercise Regularly
The benefits of exercise go far beyond just improving your fitness levels. Research has it, that regular exercise is good for healthy sleep. It triggers the release of sleep-promoting chemicals in your brain and body. It also fights insomnia, reduces anxiety, and relieves stress. However, you will still want to watch your routine and exercise early in the day rather than close to bedtime. Exercising less than two hours before bed can raise your adrenaline levels, which could lead to sleep disruption.
5. Make Your Bedroom Sleep-Friendly
Whether you sleep on the couch or your bedroom, comfort is key to ensuring quality sleep. Your sleeping environment should be dark, quiet, cool, and comfortable. Along with a comfortable bed, a good mattress and warm covers, this means ensuring that your window curtains block out light from outside and that your bedroom is noise-proof. To get the 7-8 hours of sleep you need, the room should also be well-conditioned, so make sure your heating and cooling system is always functioning optimally. If you’d rather leave the lights on, you can try wearing a sleeping mask. For those who live in noisy neighborhoods, sleeping earplugs can be helpful to block disruptive noises away. To make it easy for you to wind down each night, your bedroom should be reserved for sex and sleeping, nothing more, nothing less.
6. Watch Your Naps Carefully
Especially in the afternoon, a short nap can do your body a world of good. It can help calm your nerves, reduce fatigue, and spike up up your energy levels. The health benefits of napping are numerous. However, afternoon naps can create sleep disruptions in some people, especially when taken too late in the day or longer than 30 minutes.
Your productivity throughout the day relies heavily on the quality of sleep you had last night. Your overall health also depends on it, and how much quality sleep you get each day. To improve your health and well-being and wake up feeling refreshed each morning, the pointers above are worth your reading to the letter.
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