7 habits to sleep better every night: Insomnia is a sleep disorder that can lead to serious long-term health problems for people. Sleeping little or badly can become a real torture for the person who suffers it, having a negative impact on her body and mind. Some of these consequences can be: decreased attention span, memory, irritability, tiredness, deterioration of certain brain functions, etc.
However, this problem can be effectively combated by including in our daily routine the 7 habits that we will show you below; advice recommended by the Mayo Clinic Sleep Medicine Center, located in Rochester (Minnesota, United States):
7 habits to sleep better every night
Create a daily sleep routine
It is very important that you get your body used to sleeping and getting up at the same time every day, weekends or holidays. By always sleeping at the same time we help reinforce our sleep cycle. However, if you decide to go to bed and after 15 minutes you can’t sleep, get up and come back when you’re tired. If you are still in bed tossing and turning in anguish, chances are you won’t be able to fall asleep until very late.
Take care of your diet
Food is an important factor to sleep well even if we are not so aware of it. It is advisable that we do not go to bed with a very full stomach, but not hungry either. You also have to be careful with caffeine, nicotine and alcohol , as they can disrupt the sleep cycle. In almost all alcohol, although initially sleepy, it can cause loss of sleep quality causing you to wake up in the middle of the night.
Design a ritual before going to sleep
It is highly recommended to create a routine before bed. Always do the same things to signal to your body that it’s time to go to bed. An example would be taking a bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to relaxing music. On the other hand, you have to watch with electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets or TV. It has been shown that the light reflected by these devices in our eyes disturbs our sleep.
Get comfortable
Comfort is one of the most important factors for the quality of our rest. Having a good mattress, a comfortable pillow or a quiet and dark room, contribute a lot to favoring our sleep. Create a pleasant environment to sleep peacefully, without anything that bothers you or can wake you up. If you share a bed, make sure you both have enough space to sleep comfortably.
Limit naps
It is evident that if you abuse naps during the day, this can cause you to not be able to sleep at night. So the best thing you can do is try not to sleep more than 10 or 15 minutes, and if possible, in the middle of the afternoon. Avoid sleeping too much and too late because it will disrupt your natural sleep cycle.
Exercise regularly
A gift of physical activity can help a lot to sleep well at night because when we are tired we sleep soundly. But it is important that you choose the time to exercise well. If you are one of those who exercise at night, it may be that your body reactivates and you have trouble sleeping afterwards, so we recommend that you exercise in the morning or well before going to sleep.
Control stress
Feeling stress or worry about something can be a major reason why we do not sleep very well. So if this is the case, it is better to try to control these negative thoughts and not dwell on them when we try to sleep. Try to push these thoughts or stress away as much as possible.