We spend a lot of our lives sleeping. Children need more rest because they’re continually growing. While adults need anywhere from 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night.
However, many people struggle to get enough. Does this sound like you? Continue reading for some great tips.
Get the Right Mattress
When you get up in the morning with pain, it could be from your mattress. It’s time to make an upgrade. You’ll have to think about how you sleep. Stomach and back resters need a firmer one to help keep their back straight at night.
Side sleepers need one that provides firmness to their back but lets their hips, knees, and shoulders sink in. Check a list of the best mattresses for side sleeping to get an idea of what to look for.
Reduce Blue Light at Night
We’ve all stayed up too late to watch one more episode. However, this could be disturbing your circadian rhythm, which is your body’s way of knowing when to be asleep and when to be awake.
Blue light of all kinds tricks your body into thinking it’s still daytime, so it should be awake. Instead, you should turn off electronics at least 2 hours before you want to rest.
Watch How Late You Drink Caffeine
A caffeinated drink first thing in the morning can help get us going, but it could be affecting your sleep if you consume a cup too late in the day. If you’re feeling restless at night and are an avid coffee or tea drinker, this could be your problem.
Caffeine stays in your system for 6 to 8 hours. Your last cup should be no later than 2 pm to ensure by bedtime that all the caffeine is out of your body.
Refrain from Alcohol
A glass of wine or beer can indeed relax us at night. You might feel like the alcohol is assisting you in dozing off, but it’s not helping at all.
When you consume alcohol and then go to bed, you’ll have reduced REM sleep. This is the deepest rest and where the body’s healing goes on. Without enough REM at night, you’ll wake up tired and groggy.
Have a Routine
Getting up and going to bed at the same time every day will help set your circadian rhythm to a schedule. You need to do this on the weekends as well.
Soon you’ll start to feel tired at the right time and wake up without an alarm clock. Doing relaxing activities at night will also signal your brain to get ready for sleep.
Take Melatonin
If nothing else is working for you, it’s possible you need to start taking a melatonin supplement. This is the natural hormone everyone produces, which makes us feel sleepy.
When you’re stressed or suffer from anxiety, your body struggles to make melatonin naturally. Just taking 2mg can improve your sleep by 15%, states the researchers at The National Library of Medicine.
The Bottom Line
Sleep is an essential part of living a healthy life. When you have an issue with getting enough rest, you won’t be able to perform at your best during the day.
Luckily, there are ways to help improve your snoozing. You should buy the correct mattress for how you sleep, reduce screen time, don’t consume caffeine late in the day, refrain from alcohol, have a routine, and take melatonin. Once you start doing these things, you’ll get better sleep every night.