Sleep is just as important as eating healthy and exercising regularly. Sleep also plays an integral role in the physiology of your body. First, it helps to repair your heart and blood vessels and also maintains optimum organ performance.
Sleeping adequately also gives you bundles of energy, making sure you are ready to face the day fresher and more optimistic than the day before. Well, in case you are having trouble getting better sleep, here are six simple tips that you can consider:
1. Avoid Caffeine at Night
If you don’t want to stay up all night, don’t drink caffeinated drinks at night. This one is a no brainer, to be honest. We all know that caffeine contains properties that enhance focus, attention, and mental performance. But while these are good attributes during the day, they are not needed at night. Just leave coffee and other caffeinated drinks for mornings and you will be fine.
2. Create A Sleeping Schedule and Stick To It
Our bodies love a routine and will respond better to a sleeping plan if you commit to sticking to it. Do not just sleep and wake up anytime you want. This creates an erratic sleep pattern that eventually affects the quality of sleep. Instead, have a specific time of going to bed and waking up. It will be difficult to stick to this at first. But once you get used to it, you will sleep better.
3. Increase Vitamin B in Your Diet
It is also advisable to increase Vitamin B into your diet for better sleep quality. Vitamins like B3, B5, B6, and B9 help to regulate the levels of tryptophan in the body, an important amino acid that triggers the production of a sleep-inducing hormone known as melatonin.
Common sources of vitamin B include whole grains like barley, rice, millet, and fruits like citrus, avocado, and bananas as well. You may also want to consider dark leafy veggies including spinach and broccoli and legumes such as beans and lentils.
4. Optimize Your Bedroom Environment
In most cases, the quality of your sleep depends on where you sleep. For this reason, it is important to spruce up your bedroom and optimize it for a better sleep environment. For example, change the lighting from bright eye-piercing bulbs to a cozier more radiant ambient light. If there is a large security light outside, consider getting heavy dark curtains to keep the light away.
Make sure you also manage noise and temperature. Ultimately, you want to create a soothing spa-like bedroom ambiance for the best relaxation. One more thing, put your phone on silent mode unless you are expecting an urgent call that night.
5. Avoid Eating Too Late
It’s very uncomfortable to fill up on dinner and jump straight into bed. This has two effects. First, the normal digestion of food will significantly limit the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.
Secondly, sleeping right after eating may also limit the efficiency of food digestion. This will leave you feeling full and uncomfortable for the entire duration of the night. A good rule is to eat at least two hours before you go to bed. Try and also avoid heavy alcohol intake before sleep time.
6. Avoid Daytime Naps
There is nothing wrong with taking a nice thirty-minute nap during your lunch break or your free time. But naps are supposed to be super short. If you are sleeping for three or four hours a day, then that’s not a nap.
Eventually, long daytime sleep will significantly affect how well your sleep at night. For this reason, try and limit daytime naps to a maximum of one hour if you can. Be sure to also take these naps well before your regular sleep time.
Sleeping better is very crucial for our health. While there are several things you can do for better more fulfilling sleep, the simple tips above should help you out easily.