Sleep is one of the pillars of good health. The day that anyone expends awake completely depends on the quality of sleep that they had last night. One’s performance and productivity relays on sleep quality. So, it cannot be denied that maintain better sleep is one of concerned health-related issue.
But it can be hard to get better sleep quality sometimes. Here are most effective medically proven 10 tips for how to get better sleep naturally with practically possible sleep habits and hygiene to boost sleep quality.
10 Recommended Sleep Habits
1# Sleep in a cool room, not a much cool but a colder
temperature.
So, the National Sleep Foundation actually recommends temperatures around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is roughly eighteen point five degrees Celsius. Now that does sound a little cold and I don't think I’ve ever slept in a room that cold, but I started to reduce the temperature in my room when I slept and I found that it makes a big difference.
When my thermostat is set to higher,
I tend to wake up in the middle of the night kicking off the sheets because I'm
too hot. So, it does work. Now, what's the reason behind this? It's because when
we go to sleep our internal body temperature naturally drops and a lower body
temperature promotes deeper sleep and when our temperature is too high, we have
very fitful sleep. So, if you’re having trouble sleeping consider sleeping in a
colder temperature room.
2# Sleep in
darkness or use blackout curtains.
The reason for this is when we are exposed to light our bodies
can’t produce melatonin that well. Melatonin is a sleep hormone. If you don't
produce melatonin properly, you're not going to sleep well so any exposure to
light isn't a good idea and I personally struggle with this. When I’m sleeping
in a room that has a little bit of light, I can't fall asleep. I wake up several
times in the middle of the night. Now I do have blackout blinds but I find that
there's a little gap between the blinds and that's enough light to be
disruptive.
3# Use a white
noise machine if necessary.
Now if you have a habit of sleeping in a quiet surrounding and you are not a light sleeper. You probably don't need a white noise machine. but if you live in the city the way I do there's a lot of street noise and sometimes.
If
you're a light sleeper, you can wake up in the middle of the night. Use a white
noise machine to drown out that sound. So white noise machines have sounds like
a waterfall or an electric fan or just regular white noise. These noises can
basically drown out any of the extraneous sounds so you won't wake up on the
middle of the night. This helps Sleep Waves to complete their cycle
without any disruption.
4# Avoid devices
before bed.
Devices such as a computer, a laptop, television, phone all of these devices produce blue light. The problem with blue light is your body thinks its daylight and because of that it can't produce the melatonin and you can't fall asleep properly.
So, if you’re struggling with sleep try to limit
your device usage before bed. I try not to use my phone an hour to an hour and
a half before bed, but you know let's face it sometimes you do use your phone
so there is a little thing that you could do. So, a lot of phones have
something called the blue light filter and my Samsung has it.
So, I just click that blue light filter and I don't have to worry
about blue light being emitted from my phone. If you don't have a blue light
filter on your phone directly you can actually get it an app - there are many
apps to deal with this. The other option which isn't it.
It isn't ideal but I should mention it because it came up in my
research. So, you can use the orange goggles. So, you can buy these off Amazon and
these orange goggles can block blue light from everything so you don’t have to
use those filters on your phone anymore. Just wear the goggles but I don't know
I just don't see myself wearing orange goggles around the houses I try to avoid
my devices before bed now.
5# Develop a
sleep routine.
So, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that you have a sleep routine because when you wake up at different times on the weekend than you do on the weekday it confuses your body. It's sort of like when we travel, we have that trouble with sleep schedule in a new time zone.
It's because our bodies aren’t used to it. So, let's
say you sleep at 10 p.m. on a weekday and then on the weekend you're sleeping at
2:00 a.m. your body is going to breather confused. To get proper sleep
throughout the week it's a good idea to stick to a sleep schedule - a sleep
routine.
6# Get enough exercise.
studies show that people who exercise more often specifically aerobic exercise tend to get better sleep quality. If you are having trouble with sleep try exercising. And I think this works. The days I exercise I’m exhausted by the end of the day and I need to get my sleep and I fall asleep rather quickly.
Now the timing of exercise it varies- some people can exercise
before bed and have no problems but other people cannot it tend to make them
feel a little awake. So, you need to figure out what works for you Impersonally
don't exercise in the evening I don't find that it works for me I tend to get a
little revved up and then I can't sleep I try it in the morning.
7# Avoid caffeine
in the six hours before bed.
there are studies that show
that caffeine and sleep aren’t interrelated. So, it's a little confusing now,
personally, I can have caffeine and fall asleep very quickly. Caffeine does not
work that well on me in terms of keeping me awake but everyone's a bit different
so that's why I think the studies are not very conclusive because everyone's
genetics impact how caffeine affects them. If you happen to be one of those
people who's having trouble with sleep try to cut down the caffeine and see if
it works.
8# Increase
Magnesium Intake.
To get enough magnesium consider taking supplements or eating more
magnesium. Magnesium is known as the relaxation mineral. It can help relax your
muscles and it can help you sleep better. The problem with magnesium is it’s
only available in whole foods. It's not really prevalent in processed foods.
There’s very little so people who are relying mostly on processed foods don’t get enough and even if you're eating whole foods sometimes it's hard to get enough magnesium because our soil doesn't have as much as it used to so a lot of people are deficient in magnesium and it impacts how you sleep.
If you're having trouble sleeping and you think you might be low in magnesium
consider taking a supplement. I like to take magnesium citrate now and then or
you can eat more magnesium-rich foods on a regular basis.
9# Use relaxation
oil.
getting into the fun stuff lavender essential oil, lavender is known as a relaxation essential oil and it does work. I was able to find a few studies that show that inhaling lavender can promote better sleep in one.
In
conducted experiment one basically has to take a cotton ball put it into a
container and then put a few drops of lavender essential oil on that cotton
ball and they asked the study participants to basically inhale that lavender
oil ten times before going to bed and it made a difference. So, it definitely
is worth the shot.
It doesn’t seem like it's a very difficult thing to do. Now if you have cats or dogs, I do urge you to do your own research based on what I found that the ASPCA says that lavender is toxic to cats and dogs. I will not be diffusing lavender in my home.
I don't
want to take the risk but I do use lavender. I do it the way that they did in
the study I'll put it on a cotton ball and I'll inhale it or I’ll inhale it
straight from the bottle I'm not sure if that's good but I'll do it
occasionally.
10# Chamomile tea.
chamomile tea has been known as a sleep aid for a very long time but the research on it is scant. So, I couldn’t find anything that's conclusive but I did find something interesting while chamomile tea and sleep don't necessarily have a strong connection, there is a much stronger connection in the research with chamomile and anxiety.
If the reason you're not able to sleep
is anxiety or you know stress then chamomile tea probably will work for you. I
personally do find that chamomile tea works really well on me. I'll have a cup
of it and within half-an-hour, I'm out.
To know more about sleep, sleep cycle and sleep waves. How they
work and what is the underlying physiological mechanism
Also Read: Sleep Cycle-Stages, Sleep Waves Co-related Physiology