How To Make The Most Of Your Sleep

Sleeping should be a pleasurable experience, but that’s not the case for most of us. We toss and turn in bed the whole night and find ourselves groggy in the morning. People go to doctors and seek sleep help and come back with a bottle of sleeping pills. However, popping medicines does more harm than good. The key to sleep better is to understand how the body works. Over-exposure to devices, insomnia and stress are just a few reasons. By making some small things to your sleep pattern, you can find wonderful dreams coming to you.

What To Do Before Bedtime

Your daily routine leading up to bedtime play a major role in sleep patterns. If you find sleep evading you or have a number of sleeping bouts, try these tips.

Don’t Use Your Phone 2 Hours Before Sleeping:
Electronic devices are guilty of our insomnia. With social media platforms active 24*7, people lose sense of time when they’re surfing the Internet. You should put your phone on silent before turning in for the day. Notifications and messages can always be checked the next morning.

Read An Interesting Book:
It’s wrong to think that reading is only for children. If a particular book is boring, you’re likely to put it down. If the book has an exciting storyline, your brain will go into ‘imagination mode’ and you’ll start feeling tired. Within no time, you’ll be fast asleep dreaming of the story.

Yoga or Meditation:
Doing yoga or meditation before you go to bed is an aid to sleep better. They relax your mind and body and you go into rest/digest mode.

Aromatherapy:
Aromatherapy is the use of particular scents or oils that soothe and make you feel sleepy. Inhalation or getting a body massage with fragrant essential oils is a good way of reducing sleep anxiety.

During Sleep

Don’t Bring Your Phone Into the Bedroom:
If you can’t stop yourself from checking messages sitting in bed, the remedy is to keep your phone outside. The bedroom is no place for your phone as you’ve gone there to catch up on sleep. Use a device that doesn’t have social media messaging tools if you want to watch some Netflix before going to sleep.

Adjust Temperature Of Your Bedroom:
Many people find it difficult to sleep as their room is either too hot or too cold. Adjust the temperature of the heating to make it conducive. This is different depending on an individual’s body temperature. So, it’s necessary to find a balance if you share the bedroom with your partner. Else you’ll wake up in the middle of the night perspiring or feeling chilly.

Use Earplugs & Eye Mask:
Noisy neighbours can drive away sleep fast. In case your house overlooks a busy street, sleeping peacefully becomes impossible. If sound disturbs you, try using earplugs that cut the din. Also your partner may keep the bedside lamp on for some work, wear an eye mask and prepare for sleep.

Draw The Curtains:
Light from the neighbouring building or a street lamp may light up your room. Some people can’t sleep in brightness. So, it would do good to draw curtains. While buying curtains, look for ones that are thick and serve the purpose.

After Waking Up In the Morning

Let Some Sunlight In:
It’s a great idea to build up your store of vitamin D when you wake up in the morning. Push open the curtains and get some early morning sunlight. It’ll make you feel refreshed instantly.

Use A Timepiece:
A timepiece is a clock that has an in-built alarm. Looking into your phone when it buzzes with sleepy eyes is not good. Another benefit of a timepiece is that there’s no snooze button so you’ll have to drag your feet out of bed.

Breakfast Healthy:
Chips and junk food is not what you put on the table as breakfast. Choose to have a healthy breakfast like a sandwich loaded with veggies along with a cup of coffee or juice. The first meal that you eat on an empty stomach improves sleep patterns.

Jog & Be Active:
Staying fit goes a long way in helping you sleep better. Go jogging first thing in the morning. Being active will tire your body and induce sleep.