Sleep - Part 1: Sleep Hygiene

"Sleep Hygiene" is the term used to describe the best practices for optimal sleep. Here we will take a look at the top practices that you can implement to help you sleep more soundly. Something to take into consideration is that there can be so much variety in how people sleep and their patterns, etc., so what works for you might not necessarily work for someone else. Anyway, here we go…

Caffeine

• Avoid caffeine in the afternoon or evening. It differs per person but can take up to 8 hours to rid the body of caffeine.

Exercise

• Exercise can boost the effect of sleep hormones such as melatonin, making it easier to fall asleep at night. However, training too close to bedtime can be stimulating.

Bed for Sleep

• Keep your bed for sleep and sex only. We need the bed to be a stimulus for sleeping; otherwise, we start to associate the bed with things other than sleep, like watching TV or scrolling on our phones.

Environment

• Keep a cool, dark, quiet bedroom. Keep it free from distractions.

Sleep Ritual

• You could try and build yourself a sleep ritual, a set of habits that you do every night before sleep. The repetition will help instill the habit that, at the end of it, you fall asleep.

Sleep When You’re Tired

• If you end up lying in bed for 20 minutes, it may be a good idea to get up, move around, do something you find relaxing, and try again. Avoid screen time if you do get out of bed.

Light

• Use light to your advantage. An hour or so before bedtime, try and keep the ambient light lower to help stimulate the sleep response. In the morning, try to get sunlight straight away. Both of these things can help keep the circadian rhythm in order. Too much light in the evening can hinder the production of melatonin, the hormone that facilitates sleep.

Consistency

• Try to wake up within a 30-minute window every day. This helps build a sleep schedule habit that becomes easier to stick to the more regularly you follow it. It is important to keep this schedule even on the weekends. If you sleep in or stay awake an extra couple of hours for two days, it will mean a disrupted schedule, and then Monday morning will feel more difficult when you try to revert back to an earlier start.

Food

• Not too much food at night. Being full can make falling asleep more difficult and can also impair sleep quality. Going to bed hungry can also disrupt sleep, so a light snack can be a good in-between.

Prioritize Sleep

• Sleep should come first. Time management plays a huge role in ensuring you can keep a regular sleep pattern.

Try some of these if you’re struggling to fall asleep at night. Maybe even just start with one of them, practice it regularly until it becomes a habit, then add another to your routine.

We hope it helps!