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We all have restless nights but sometimes we can
find ourselves struggling to get to sleep over more prolonged period.
Even minimal sleep loss will take its toll on your mood, energy levels and your
ability to handle stress. The quality of your sleep directly affects the
quality of your waking life. It influences your mental sharpness,
productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality and even your
weight.
We all know it is important to get a good nights
sleep, but sometimes we struggle to achieve this. However there are some steps
that you can take to try and alleviate the factors that may be causing you to
have a poor nights sleep.
1. Alter your wake up time
It is not the total length of time that we sleep
that makes us groggy when we wake up in the morning. We sleep in
approximate 90 minute cycles so you may be waking up half way through your
sleep cycle everyday.
If you go to bed at 10 pm then try
setting your alarm for 5:30 (a total of 7 ½ hours of sleep) instead
of 6:00 or 6:30. You may feel more refreshed than with another
30 to 60 minutes of sleep because you’re getting up at the end of a sleep cycle
when your body and brain are already close to wakefulness.
It is important to get the temperature of your
bedroom correct. Too warm and you will be sweating and shifting around,
and sleeping on top of the duvet with all the windows open. However, if
the room is too cool then you will wake up shivering and it will take until you
warm up to drift off again.
The body naturally starts to cool as we drift off
to sleep so a temperature of between 60-68F (16-18C) is ideal. Perhaps
more importantly is to keep the temperature constant and ensure that it does
not fluctuate dramatically.
3. Turn off the light
Your body responds at night to the loss of daylight by producing melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. During the day sunlight triggers the brain to inhibit melatonin production so you feel awake and alert.
Darkness is a trigger within our brains for sleep,
and so ensure you have a dark room in which to sleep in. Buy the black
out curtain linings and switch off the television and any bright lights.
If this is not possible then invest in a sleep mask that will do this job for
you.
Small children will often have a favourite toy or blanky that they have to cuddle before they fall asleep. As any parent will know lose that toy and all hell breaks lose. Adults can adopt this trick too. If you start to form a habit before you fall asleep you can help to associate that with deep sleep.
It may be as simple as stroking your cheek before you fall asleep
or inhaling lavender oil on your pillow. Find a simple routine that can
repeat easily over successive nights and you will start to associate it with
successful sleeping.
5. Lower the noise
Loud bangs from the neighbours or street, claps of
thunder or even the baby in the next room all register with us and can cause
problems sleeping. Try to keep the bedroom as quiet as possible, or
perhaps select the quietest room in the house in which to sleep. It may be
beneficial in some instances to block out the noise whilst you are trying to get
to sleep with some earplugs, but remove them when you wake again from your
first sleep cycle and do not become too reliant on them.
Probably the biggest cause of a restless night is the intake of too much alcohol or eating too late in the evening before you sleep. Substances like alcohol, caffeine and nicotine can disrupt deep sleep so it is best to limit them before bed. You may also want to avoid drinking for a few hours before bedtime if you are waking up in the night to visit the toilet.
7. Turn off your smart phone
My partner sleeps with his phone next to the bed
and even though its on silent it drives me insane when it vibrates, waking me
(not him) up. When he wakes in the night he will always reach over and check
his phone for messages before he falls asleep again.
More and more people are taking their smart phones
into the bedroom, whether it is to charge the phone, use the alarm or for
security reasons. However, because the phone is in the room in which you sleep
you are not mentally switching off from it. Don’t believe me? Well
try moving the phone for a week into another room that is not easily
accessible, and do not check on the phone in the night. I bet you will
find that you sleep better then without the distraction of a phone nearby.
Quiet meditation and breathing will help you to relax. Breathe deeply through your nose and you can help to calm yourself back to sleep. Lie on your left side, resting a finger on your right nostril to close it and take slow, deep breathes in the left nostril.
9. Try to stay awake
Ever been lying in bed and thinking about all the thing you could be doing if you were up? Try telling your brain you are going to get up and do these things, it may well just make you drowsy enough to fall asleep. This double bluff is called the sleep paradox and can fool your brain into rebelling and falling asleep. Keep your eyes wide open and repeat to yourself ‘I will not sleep’.
10. Make a list
Often your mind can be full of items to do; tasks at work, shopping to buy, kids to be collected. When it all becomes too much start to visualise that you are filing these thoughts away in a filing cabinet to be accessed the next morning. Alternatively you can keep a pen and paper next to the bed to jot down any worries or to do items until the next day.
Remember these
are just lists to remind you to deal with items the next morning - you don’t
have to investigate how they will be done. It can help you release these
worries and fall to sleep.
For related articles click onto:
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GI Diet - Fruit and vegetables
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GI Diet - Dairy foods
GI Diet - Food and Diet
GI Diet - Low GI Foods
GI Diet - Porridge with berries
GI Diet - Smoked salmon and cottage cheese sandwich
GI Diet - Vegetable pizza
Low GI foods
Salt
Superfoods
Weight
What is a vegetable?
What is a food allergy?
What is a food intolerance?
What is tonsillitis?
What is the difference between a food intolerance and a food allergy?
What is the difference between a cold and the flu?
What is 5 A DAY?
For related articles click onto:
Allergies
Cold symptoms
Foods to avoid during pregnancy
Gestational diabetes
GI Diet - Falafal
GI Diet - Fruit and vegetables
GI Diet - Carrot and pineapple cake
GI Diet - Dairy foods
GI Diet - Food and Diet
GI Diet - Low GI Foods
GI Diet - Porridge with berries
GI Diet - Smoked salmon and cottage cheese sandwich
GI Diet - Vegetable pizza
Low GI foods
Salt
Superfoods
Weight
What is a vegetable?
What is a food allergy?
What is a food intolerance?
What is tonsillitis?
What is the difference between a food intolerance and a food allergy?
What is the difference between a cold and the flu?
What is 5 A DAY?