Today’s hectic lifestyle can make it feel like sleep is a waste of time, but sleep is critical to your well-being. Don’t let the grind kill your health. Use these simple sleep techniques to improve your quality of sleep and rest more in less time.
Improve Your Habits
Did you know a few bad habits can destroy the quality of your sleep and leave you feeling wrecked even after eight hours of sleep? Changing your habits to work with your body’s natural rhythms instead of fighting them can help deepen your sleep so you can feel more rested with fewer hours of rest.
Want to know the number one reason most of us sleep poorly? Modern life confuses our body’s internal clock and cycles.
Our brains use the amount of light we see to know when to begin releasing melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleepy, and the abundance of artificial light in our homes disrupts this cycle. Establish routine times to go to bed and to wake up. Dim your lights and shut off all electronics with their blue-lit screens about an hour before bedtime to let your brain know it’s time to get sleepy.
Design Your Environment to Help
An uncomfortable bed can make falling asleep difficult. Yet, even in the most comfortable bed imaginable, some environmental factors can still impact sleep quality.
As mentioned before, our brains use the amount of ambient light to calibrate our internal clocks. Our eyes can detect changes in light to some degree even when closed, so light pouring in from outside or from electronics can keep you from sleeping as deeply as you otherwise might. Inversely, you can use this fact to your advantage in the morning by opening curtains and brightening your environment as much as possible.
Sounds can also arouse your autonomic nervous system as a survival instinct. Muffling sounds as much as possible with earplugs, heavy curtains, or white noise machines can help prevent noise from keeping you awake or preventing the deep sleep you want.
Sleep is a surprisingly complex topic with many factors impacting it, but these simple steps can help you make a powerful impact on your sleep quality.
