Sleep makes you feel better, but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more. Poor sleep is a major cause of lost productivity and accidents in the workplace, road and at home. Sleep rejuvenates all the cells in your body, gives brain cells a chance to repair themselves, helps wash away toxins that build up during the day, and activates neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate due to inactivity.
Recent research shows that not getting enough sleep, or getting poor-quality sleep, increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
Important Sleep Strategies You Should Try at Home
You can adopt the following important sleep strategies to improve your sleep and eventually your health:
Maintain a regular sleep schedule
Go to bed at the same time each night and wake up (regardless of how much sleep you got the night before) at the same time each day, including on weekends (it might seem difficult at start but once you get used to it, it will be easy).
Your bedroom should be comfortable
Control the temperature so that your room isn’t too hot or too cold. Also, keep your room as dark as possible while sleeping. Make sure your pillow and bed are comfortable and you can lie down comfortably.
Create a soothing nighttime routine
A warm bath, meditation, or massage can help you relax.
Don’t take naps!
This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you have trouble sleeping. Daytime naps will make the nighttime sleep cycle disruption worse.
Use sound therapy
Soothing nature sounds, soft music, wind chimes, white noise makers or even a fan can induce a very peaceful mood and lull you to sleep.
Increase serotonin
Drink a mixture of warm milk, a teaspoon of vanilla (the real stuff, not imitation), and a few drops of stevia which will increase serotonin in your brain and help you sleep.
Technology-free bedroom
Take computers, video games, the TV and cell phones out of your bedroom and turn them off an hour or two before bedtime to allow time to “unwind.” Plus, they emit a type of light that stimulates the brain.
Regular exercise
This is very beneficial for insomnia. However, don’t do it within four hours of the time you go to sleep as vigorous exercise late in the evening may energize you and keep you awake.
Move the clock so you can’t see it
If you wake up in the middle of the night, refrain from looking at the clock. Checking the time can make you feel anxious, which will only make it harder to go back to sleep.
Meditation
Try to relax before falling asleep. Turn off the TV and just relax comfortably let your mind rest until you feel ready to sleep.