Go to sleep and get up at the same time every day.
This helps set your body’s internal clock and optimize the quality of your sleep. Choose a bed time when you normally feel tired, so that you don’t toss and turn.
If you’re getting enough sleep, you should wake up naturally without an alarm.
We all have trouble sleeping from time to time, but when insomnia persists day after day, it can become a real problem. Beyond making us tired and moody, a lack of sleep can have serious effects on our health, increasing our propensity for obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes
Sleep More and Improve Your Life
- Sleeping makes you learn better.
- Sleeping helps you lose those extra pounds.
- Less than 5 hours of sleep decreases testosterone.
- Too little sleep makes you sick.
- Not enough sleep makes you emotionally unstable.
- No sleep makes you less alert.
- Not sleeping will degrade your performance.
- No sleep makes you stupid.
Here are top tips that help you get to sleep faster and sleep more. These points also answer the question of how to wake up earlier?
If, after implementing the tips, you still lack sleep, then you might what to consult a medical professional.
Don’t live in your bedroom. Your bedroom is for sleeping.
Sleep is so important you should only do sleeping related activities in your bedroom (with one exception). “No gadgets” should be one of the most important rules. Maybe a little bit of reading is allowed. If you live and sleep in the same room, make sure that the bed is only for sleeping.
1. Switch off
Digital screens can make your brain think it’s still daytime, and it should stay alert. Take some time to get away from your gadgets and stop watching TV. Turn everything off an hour or at least 30 minutes before your bedtime. Put away all the items that emit light in your bedroom or cover them if you can’t turn them off.
2. Dim the lights
Turn off the more intense light sources in your home 2 or 3 hours before you want to go to sleep. When you read before you go to sleep, then use a low-intensity yellow light.
3. Silence is golden
It depends on where you live, but try to get the ambient sound level in your bedroom as low as possible. Consider the noise levels when you are buying or renting a home. With too much noise where you can’t avoid it, use the earplugs.
4. Be cool
Find the right temperature for your bedroom. Experiment with the room temperature. Lower temperatures are usually better for bedrooms and sleeping. Try 64 to 70F (18 to 20C) range. Sometimes, air conditioning may be noisy, and you have to choose between a cooler or quieter room.
5. Darkness
Melatonin helps you sleep. It’s produced in the darkness. Make your bedroom dark. If your neighborhood has a lot of street lights or other light pollution, get special sleeping blinders (for your eyes or windows or both). Turn off all the glowing and illuminated items in your bedroom.
As a medicine, melatonin is used to treat insomnia; One review found onset of sleep occurred 6 minutes faster with use but found no change in total time asleep. Insomnia: Pharmacologic Therapy
6. Sleep and sex only
Make your bedroom a sleep and sex room. Avoid doing everything else in your bedroom.
Anything means:
- No watching TV in the bedroom
- Remove the TV from the bedroom
- No phones and computers in bed
- The bedroom is for sleep and sex.
For example, if you can’t sleep for some time, get up and read in another room. Then come back.
The bedroom is for sleeping!
7. No dogs, cats, alligators
People sleep in people’s beds. Pets sleep in their own beds. When pets sleep in your bed and move around at night, then this may cut your sleep short. Of course, this is also true about human companions, but you would probably like to keep the current arrangement.
8. Don’t look at the time
Do not have a visible clock on your nightstand. Often, it emits light. When you look at your phone, then you’ll be almost blinded. Just don’t do it. It’s better to leave the phone in the other room, anyway.
Do you know Pavlov’s dogs? When he rang a bell, they started salivating. Condition yourself in a way that when you go to the bedroom, the routine kicks in, and you get to sleep. It takes time to establish a routine, but it’s well worth it.
9. Build a regular sleeping schedule
This is the most important piece of sleep advice!
Train your body to follow the daily rhythm and go to bed every day at the same time. Set your alarm at the same time every day. When you are training your brain with the new schedule, then wake up at the same time, even on weekends. You can allow some variety after you have built a solid sleeping habit.
If you only do one thing to improve your sleep, do this!
Work and life problems that you focus on may create mental noise that you can’t shut down easily. It may take special steps to quiet the voice in your head. Writing down what you have to do the next day may help to get some closure for the day. Meditate, yoga, take a warm bath, and listen to relaxing music. Start your winding down 2 or 3 hours before bedtime, but even 10 or 20 minutes of relaxing will help.
No Stimulants
Don’t use substances that make you alert and energetic. Depending on how easy it’s for you to go to sleep, consider avoiding anything that prevents you from sleeping for at least several hours before bedtime.
11. No caffeine
No caffeine 6 hours before bedtime – You can have your coffee in the morning. Have as much as you want, but stop 6 to 10 hours before your bedtime. If you want to go to sleep at 11PM, then you should have your last cup of coffee no later than 4PM. And even that seems a bit too late. 3PMish, maybe.
12. No alcohol
Don’t drink alcohol before bed – alcohol acts as a stimulant. When you drink, before going to bed, you will have a lower quality of sleep. You may also wake up at night more often than usual. As you are trying to fix your sleeping habit, you should not drink at all. At least cut it to a minimum.
Or you may start drinking in the morning so the alcohol has time to leave your body before you go to sleep. (This is a joke.)
13. No smoking
No smoking before bed – nicotine like alcohol and caffeine is a stimulant. You don’t have to quit smoking but leave an hour or two between your last cigarette and sleep time. Quitting smoking is one of the best willpower exercises, and it comes with a ton of other benefits. So, if you can quit smoking.
Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting! ~ Jules Verne
No Eating and Drinking
14. Don’t eat just before bedtime
Try to finish all your eating and snacking at least an hour before you go to bed. Avoid foods that take a long time to digest. For example, you can have an apple an hour before bedtime.
15. Don’t drink a lot before bed
Avoid large quantities of any drinks before you go to sleep. Half a glass of water is OK, but if you drink more, you might wake up for the bathroom. After that, it may be hard to get back to sleep.
Other tricks that may help
There are many things that may help you get to sleep faster. Experiment with different options and keep the ones that help you sleep more. For example, I drink a large cup of peppermint tea with honey 30 to 60 minutes before I go to bed.
16. No naps
Try not to sleep during the daytime. Yes, there are power naps that can energize you if you feel tired, but you will do it at the expense of your night’s sleep. When you are exhausted, go for a walk, drink ice water, or call a friend. You can walk while talking to a friend on the phone and sipping ice water from the bottle.
Important!!! When you drive a car, and feel tired, take a nap! It is extremely dangerous to drive if you feel sleepy.
17. Exercise
Working out will help you sleep better. I already mentioned walking. Walking is all you need, but if you do something more active, then aim to complete your workout session at least one hour before bedtime.
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