Stop Ruining Your Sleep
Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash
We all know that sleep is important.
We need sleep for our survival. Without it, our body wouldn’t be able to recover from the stressors of the day… And we would die.
We sleep for roughly ⅓ of our entire lives. That’s a big chunk of our life.
We should treat our sleep like it is the most important thing we do each day… because it is.
Yet, we do many things that hurt our sleep.
The quality of sleep we do get is often not very good. Here are some reasons why:
We don’t prioritize our sleep
We get less sleep than we need
We take over an hour to fall asleep
We toss and turn at night
We wake up in the middle of the night
We wake up too early and aren’t able to fall back asleep
Over time, improper sleep can negatively affect your health. Here are some long-term problems that improper sleep can cause:
Brain fog
Increased risk of accidents
Decreased attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem-solving
Impaired judgment
Heart problems
High blood pressure
Increased risk of stroke
Diabetes
Lower sex drive
Depression
Aged skin
Weight gain
Increased risk of death
And more…
However, there’s good news.
Our poor sleep is often caused by our poor lifestyle habits. We can make simple changes to our lifestyle that can improve our sleep… with little to no effort! Here are some bad habits that hurt our sleep:
Not getting the recommended hours of sleep each night. (Here's a great chart from the National Sleep Foundation on how much sleep we need each night.)
Having caffeine or alcohol too close to bedtime
Getting blue light exposure from electronic devices too close to bedtime
Going to bed too early and forcing yourself to sleep
Not having a consistent bedtime
An uncomfortable sleeping environment (being too hot or too cold)
Sleeping in a painful position
Frequently going to the bathroom in the middle of the night
Changing just one of these things can dramatically improve our sleep. In fact, it could save our lives!
These things are simple to fix.
We can simply avoid drinking caffeine or alcohol a couple of hours before bedtime.
We can turn off our electronics an hour or two before bedtime. Or we can turn on grayscale, which turns the screen to black and white, eliminating the blue-light from our electronic devices.
We can find sleeping positions that are more comfortable for us. Maybe we need another pillow. Or maybe we to sleep on our back instead of on our side.
We can adjust the thermostat to a more comfortable temperature. We can also add or remove blankets. Or sleep with a fan on at night.
We can set a bedtime for ourselves and put it into our daily schedules, calenders, etc.
See how easy these solutions can be?
Here is a simple action plan to improve your sleep by changing a bad lifestyle habit:
Decide is there is a habit or habits hurting your sleep
Decide which bad habit you want to change
Determine how you are going to change it… What are you going to do instead?
Decide how long it’ll take you to notice improved sleep.
Implement the new habit
Wait to see if the change improves your sleep… if it doesn’t improve your sleep within a couple of weeks, maybe rethink how you’ve changed the habit. Or determine if there is another habit that needs to change.
Once you’ve successfully changed one habit and improved your sleep, decide if you want to change another or not. If so, repeat the process above.
Experiment and find solutions that help you sleep better.
It will take some time for these changes to improve your sleep. Be patient. Improving your sleep is well worth the time investment in experimenting with solutions that help you sleep better.
Talk to your doctor if changing these habits don’t improve your sleep.
Good luck! Here’s to better sleep!
For more information:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/why-do-we-need-sleep
https://sleepsurge.com/causes-of-sleep-deprivation
https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/10-results-sleep-loss