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Are You Getting Enough Sleep? 

It is not always a guarantee that once you get into bed, you automatically go to sleep. Sleep arises from discipline and a culture of establishing regular sleep and wake patterns. People that do not get sufficient sleep are likely to suffer headaches, colds, mood swings and muscle aches.  You need to get enough sleep of about 8 hours though this could vary from one person to the next. Experts claim that as people grow older, they tend to sleep fewer hours than they used to in their young or middle-aged years.

If you are able to meet the basic amount of sleep hours, you are more likely to function normally and comfortably in your life than a person that does not sleep better. People who have better sleep are usually awake and alert during the day. If you feel sleepy after lunch, it is reported that a 10 minute catnap will enable you come back on track so that you can continue with your normal operation. It does not matter when you choose to sleep. The most critical thing to bear in mind is that you are able to get adequate sleep with the 24 hour cycle. There are some people who would prefer to work the whole night and spare some time during the day. Better sleep can reduce stress, headaches and irritability.

A person that fails to sleep better the previous night, could either feel sleepy during the day or might be forced to sleep early in order to make up for lost hours in the previous night. In order to sleep soundly, you need to adopt sleep hygiene practices and make sure that you follow them strictly. You can sleep better if you keep anything that is likely to interrupt your sleep. Some of these items include: television, computer or laptop and sometimes telephone. Having these devices in your bedroom could cause you to cut short your sleep so that you can continue watching a movie or playing your favorite game from where you left it. This means that within the 24 hour cycle, your sleep hours will be significantly reduced and if this recurs, chances of accumulating into insomnia are very high. Sometimes if you are anticipating a stream of calls from friends or colleagues while you are asleep, it will be prudent to either switch off, mute or keep your phone far away. Incessant ringing of the phone or telephone could interrupt your sleep and prevent you from enjoying better sleep.

If you choose to embark on a project or initiative which you can not manage to accomplish within a given timeframe, you are likely to get stressed thinking and planning on how to implement it. Set realistic goals which you are very sure of accomplishing through a step-by-step process and not a one-time achievement. People with unrealistic goals do not have better sleep because they are thinking about how and when they will accomplish such projects. When they realize that they are not achieving their goals, they get scared, anxious and restless. It is impossible to sleep better when you are in such a state. Some of them are so overwhelmed with the fear of failure. If you find yourself in a condition like this, you need to begin to revise your goals. If things never went as you expected, accept that they happened, draw lessons from them and pick yourself up and move on. Worry and anxiety it make it hard for you to have better sleep.

The power to sleep better is within your grip. You should try using some natural sleep aids to improve the quality of your snooze. Some of the sleep hygiene practices that you can adopt include making your room dark and quiet and also keeping noisy pets and partners out of your room. If your dog yaps the whole night, you may not be able to have quality sleep that you planned to have. Let your bedroom be purely for sleep and sex. Do not carry huge novels to your bedroom. Novels are known to be excellent sleep deprivers and should be avoided at all costs. If you keep on interrupting sleep so that you can read, the body will begin to get tuned to a dose of reading every night thus making it hard to stick to your sleep and wake pattern. 

5 Good sleep hygiene practices

Every person desires to sleep better because sleep quality can help reduce stress. You can only achieve sleep better if you observe good sleep hygiene practices which require a lot of determination and discipline. Most people have sleep disorders and they do not know the main cause of such sleep-related problems. Whenever people hear of sleep hygiene, they quickly think about bed cleanliness. While keeping your bed is extremely important, it has nothing to do with the hygiene being referred to here. Sleep hygiene simply refers good sleep habits as well as maintaining conducive sleep environment. The following are some of the good sleep hygiene practices that you can adopt in order to sleep better and consequently reduce stress if at all you had any:

1). Maintain regular sleep and wake times

When you have regular sleep and wake times, your body will get used to such sleep patterns. It is possible that when you decide to be sleeping 8 hours per night without any inconsistency, you will not struggle to sleep. You will be able to sleep better than that person that lacks the discipline of keeping regular sleep and wake times. However, this factor can also be influenced by other things if they are not checked and some of them are going to be discussed in other sleep hygiene practices.

2). Use the bedroom only for sleep and sex.

If you decide that you are only going to use your bedroom for sleep and sex only, you will be able to achieve the kind of sleep quality that you always dream to have. Your bedroom becomes a place to relax and have fun. Some people carry all their plans and problems to their bedroom; they carry notebooks to plan and strategize. Some couples carry all their old grudges to their bedrooms while others convert them into drinking and snacking arenas. If you do this, it will be impossible to take your mind off such issues, foods and drinks. Someone said that if you have any problem or pending issues, pray about and leave them in the sitting room and desire to sleep like a baby. Let your bedroom be a perfect sanctuary that you can use to reduce stress and not a place to ruminate over some of the things that you should have done in the office or study.

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3). Keep pets and snoring partners form your bedroom.

Some people might wonder how on earth you can keep your snoring spouse from your bedroom. This does not necessarily mean that you should kick them out of your room. It simply means that you need to find relevant remedies so that your partner’s snoring habit stops. Snoring can be very annoying and could make it extremely hard for you to maintain desired sleep quality. The quality of sleep can also be affected by noisy pets in your room. Some pets could come and sleep on top of your blanket/sheets or somewhere that will make you uncomfortable thus affecting the way you sleep.

4). Keep your bedroom quiet, cool and dark.

Most people can not sleep better when lights are on. Light in your bedroom could cause you to think that it is daytime and could hinder you from attaining optimal sleep quality. You might also find it hard to sleep if your room is extremely cold and noisy. In case your room is next to a brightly lit street or noisy street, you might have to consider moving to another room.

5). Keep Television and computer out of your bedroom

These devices are so tempting. Some people could decide to wake up so that they can play computer games or watch a move with the hope that doing so will reduce stress. If you make it a habit of waking up at night to watch a movie or play computer games, you will undoubtedly upset your normal sleep and wake patterns. Before you realize it, your sleep quality will be no more and could usher in insomnia. Instead of using computer or TV, release your problems to God or the higher power as some people call it especially if you realize that getting anxious about them will not reduce stress. 

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