When all is said and done, who doesn’t love a good night’s sleep?
If you ask the sleep researcher Matthew Walker about it, he’ll happily tell you that “sleep is your superpower,” and that it’s not only something that’s fundamentally important for your health, but that being better rested also boosts mental clarity, feelings of wellbeing, and productivity across a broad variety of different domains.
But, for a variety of different reasons, huge numbers of people from all around the world simply don’t get enough sleep each night — or end up getting disrupted, unrestful sleep.
Causes of poor sleep can range from health conditions to lifestyle factors, so there’s no one size fits all approach for correcting sleep issues — but there are certainly tips and principles that are very likely to help.
Here are some tips for sleeping better every night.
Begin the process of winding down for bed a couple of hours before you actually want to fall asleep
One simple and straightforward reason why many people don’t sleep nearly as much, or as well as they should, is because they just don’t “wind down” properly each night and don’t allow themselves enough time in bed.
The advice from experts is that every adult should aim for 8 hours of sleep a night. So if you get into bed 7 hours before you need to wake up, and then take half an hour to fall asleep, and maybe lose another half an hour due to waking up a few times in the night, you’re obviously not going to be rested enough.
At the same time, if you go straight from watching TV in a brightly illuminated room, to trying to sleep, you’ll naturally take much longer to doze off.
Begin winding down for bed a couple of hours before you aim to fall asleep. Have a warm bath, turn down the lights, and do some reading in bed.
Make your bed and bedroom as comfortable as you can
If you don’t have a comfortable bed or mattress that helps you to relax and fall asleep, you should absolutely invest in one — because simply being comfortable can have a major impact on your sleep quality.
Your bedroom should be an environment that helps to aid restful sleep, instead of getting in the way of it. So, make sure it’s dust-free, ensure your bed is comfortable, keep the space well-ventilated, and keep the temperature of the room on the cooler side.
Manage your stress levels during the day to encourage better sleep
Getting into bed earlier isn’t likely to do you much good if your heart is racing and you have to get up every ten minutes to use the bathroom.
If you find yourself in this situation, or if your quality of sleep is just poor as a whole, it might be the case that your stress levels are just too high.
Engaging in stress management practises during the day, ranging from meditation and yoga, to eating nutritious whole plant foods, may help you to sleep significantly better.
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