Learning how to sleep better will improve your mood, health and wellness. Insufficient rest can cause our body to produce increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol, so getting a good night’s sleep can improve your cognitive abilities, boost your productivity and your mental health.
Here are some top tips on how to sleep better:
Go to sleep at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning. This includes weekends. It can be hard to implement a new routine into your life, so make sure you don’t ruin your progress by slipping back into old habits on a weekend.
Limit your naps. Don’t take naps after 3pm, and don’t nap longer than an hour. Have you ever fallen asleep during the day for a few hours, then woken up feeling more tired than before? According to research, the optimal nap time is 20 minutes to 1 hour.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. All three drugs can have an effect on our sleep. If you can’t avoid them, try limiting your intake of these substances, especially close to bedtime.
Get regular exercise. Exercise can improve your mental health, tire your body out for sleep and give you an energy boost. It is ideal to exercise earlier on in the day to give you a boost of energy and to make sure you are ready for sleep when it comes to bedtime.
Eat a healthy and nutritious diet. Try to get your 5-a-day in and drink plenty of water throughout the day. Don’t eat a heavy meal late in the day. A light snack before bedtime is okay.
Set the scene. Make your bedroom comfortable, dark, quiet, and not too warm or cold. Lighting a candle with a relaxing scent can be helpful just before bed time (be sure to blow it out before you go to sleep).
Follow a routine to help you relax before sleep. Reading or listening to music are good activities to do before sleep. Turn off the TV and other screens at least an hour before bedtime.
Don’t lie in bed awake. If you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, do something calming until you feel sleepy, like reading or listening to soft music. If this doesn’t help, try getting out of bed and doing a light, repetitive activity in another room, such as stacking the dishwasher or folding clothes.
Don’t associate your bedroom with anything other than sleep or bedtime activities. If you work in your bedroom, it can be hard to switch your brain from work to sleep. Keep these two activities completely separate and make your bedroom into a calming, sleep-only space.
Create the ideal sleeping environment. By conscious environmental design you can improve the quality of your sleep with some one time actions such as buying the best mattress and pillow you can afford, installing black out curtains, setting a cool room temperature (for sleeping lower temperatures have been shown to be better), ensure no noises and lights.
Have a relaxing bath or shower before bed. If you have trouble falling asleep, a warm bath or shower one to one and a half hours before bed can help as, while your core body temperature will heat up during the bath or shower, it will cool afterwards and help with falling sleep. It can also help you to relax and clear your mind ready for sleep. Try imagining the water washing off any worries or stress from the day.
‘Good sleep doesn’t just mean lots of sleep: it means the right kind of sleep.’
Sleep affects our ability to use language, sustain attention, understand what we are reading, and summarise what we are hearing; if we compromise on our sleep, we compromise on our performance, our mood, and our interpersonal relationships. Try out some or all of these tips and see if you can get a better night’s sleep.
