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Dos and don'ts for restful sleep
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Avoiding caffeine
Don't drink caffeine after dark. If you have your last coffee in the early afternoon, most of the caffeine will have been flushed out of your body by 11pm.
Although avoiding coffee or tea within 6 hours of going to bed will make it much easier to drop off, it is unclear whether there are any benefits to abstaining outside that time period.
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Sleeping diary
Keeping a sleep diary of your activity before bed, which helps to ensure you avoid the worst triggers.
You should avoid doing anything strenuous or stressful within a few hours of sleep time
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Reading devices
Many e-readers are backlit with blue frequencies of light, which can fool the brain into thinking that it’s still daytime.
Reading on these devices for a few hours before bed seems to suppress melatonin (the sleep hormone) and therefore makes it harder to doze off, compared to a traditional paperback. The same goes for tablets, MP3 players and smartphones.
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“Slumber-foods”
Meals high in carbohydrates and protein (especially oily fish), but low in fat, show moderate benefits to overall sleep duration and quality, provided they are eaten at least 1 hour before you plan to sleep.
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Changing sleeping positions
Many restless nights can be linked to sleep apnoea – a condition linked to snoring, in which the airways becomes constricted when you are unconscious.
There are several causes, but some cases may be easily solved by switching from lying on your back, to sleeping on your front or side.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle
- Try to go to sleep and get up at the same time every day;
- Avoid sleeping in, even on weekends;
- Limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon;
Melatonin
Is a naturally occurring hormone controlled by light exposure that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark, making you sleepy, and less when it’s light, making you more alert.
However, many aspects of modern life can alter your body’s production of melatonin and shift your circadian rhythm
Influence exposure to ligh
During the day:
- Expose yourself to bright sunlight in the morning.
- Spend more time outside during daylight.
- Let as much natural light into your home or workspace as possible.
At night:
- Avoid bright screens within 1-2 hours of your bedtime.
- Say no to late-night television.
- Don’t read with backlit devices.
- When it’s time to sleep, make sure the room is dark.
- Keep the lights down if you get up during the night.
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The necessary amount of sleep
Most adults function best after 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
When we get less than 7 hours, we’re impaired (to degrees that vary from person to person). When sleep persistently fa...
Polyphasic sleeping
It's based on the idea that by partitioning your sleep into segments, you can get away with less of it.
Though it is possible to train oneself to sleep in spurts instead of a single nightly block, it does not seem possible to train oneself to need less sleep per 24-hour cycle.
Replacing sleep with caffeine
Caffeine works primarily by blocking the action of a chemical called adenosine, which slows down our neural activity, allowing us to relax, rest, and sleep.
By interfering with it, caffeine cuts the brake lines of the brain’s alertness system. Eventually, if we don’t allow our body to relax, the buzz turns to anxiety.
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Not getting enough sleep
Now that is an issue most of us face on a daily basis: not getting enough sleep because we are too stressed or paying too much attention to our screens, for different reasons.
The bad news ...
Make believe it is time to go to bed
If you find yourself experiencing issues when trying to fall asleep, you might as well consider making your brain believe that night has come.
In order to do this, you could start using dim table or side lamps instead of bright ones, turning on your phone the so-called 'night mode' or using a mask to cover your face.
The so-called 'sleep debt' and how to fight it
Whenever we fall behind on sleep, most of us have the tendency to try to catch up during weekends. The result is not that good though: it confuses our internal clock and therefore, we tend to feel even more tired afterwards.
So we should actually try waking up and going to bed at the same hours on both weekdays and weekends and building up a regular schedule that suits our needs.