We all know how amazing great sleep is. There is nothing better than waking up feeling fully rested, awake, in a good mood, and ready to take on the day. Teens (aged 14–17) should aim for 8–10 hours of sleep a night, young adults (aged 18–25) and middle-aged adults (26–64) should shoot for 7–9 hours, and older adults (65+ years) at least 7–8 hours.
“Getting a proper night of sleep is essential to our health,” explains Bill Fish, Certified Sleep Science Coach and Co-Founder of Tuck. “In fact, sleep is now known as the third pillar of wellness along with exercise and nutrition.”
“Self-care can help patients with long-term illness maintain a level of consistency and wellness they wouldn’t otherwise get with medications alone,” said Amy Orr, the author of Taming Chronic Pain and someone who lives with chronic illness herself.
Do you already sleep eight or more hours a night but still feel tired during the day? Sleep quality is more important than sleep quantity, that is, how well you sleep is more important than the number of hours you sleep. Try the following tips to help you get better, more restorative, sleep.
TIPS FOR GETTING QUALITY SLEEP -:
Sleep Must Be a Priority: Do not make other plans when you should be sleeping.
Must Follow Consistent Sleep Routine: Set a bedtime that is early enough for you to get at least 7 hours of sleep. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day…even on weekends and vacations. Occasionally staying up a few extra hours for a party or to meet a deadline is acceptable as long as you maintain your normal waking hour the next day and use early afternoon naps and/or earlier bedtimes for the next few nights to make up the lost sleep.
Add Exercise and/or Gentle Stretching to your Daily Routine: Cardio exercises work best, however, all exercise is helpful. Avoid strenuous exercise for at least 2 hours before bedtime. Exercise is the only proven way for healthy adults to boost the amount of deep sleep they get.
Limit late night electronics: TV and video games can be over-stimulating, making it difficult to fall asleep. In addition, the glow from electronic devices can inhibit natural sleep cycles.
Avoid substances with caffeine and alcohol within a few hours of bedtime. Caffeine is a stimulant with a half life of about 5 hours, meaning it can take 10 or more hours to be fully metabolized. Alcohol acts as a temporary sedative, but once the alcohol is processed it stimulates the brain causing sleep problems later in the night.
Avoid Large Meals Right Before Bedtime: Eat dinner at least 3 hours before sleeping.
Eat a Light Snack if Hungry at Bedtime: Try a banana, whole grain carb, or a glass of milk.
Avoid High Excitement Media and/or Web Surfing 1–2 hours before bedtime: Turn off all electronic devices (computer, TV, video games, bright lights) at least 30 mins before bedtime.
Keep it quiet and dark: If your room is loud, consider using earplugs. You also can use a sleep mask to cover your eyes if your roommate leaves the light on. Worrying about a problem or a long to-do list can be a recipe for insomnia. Well before you turn in, try writing down your worries and make a list of tasks you want to remember. This “worry journal” may help move these distracting thoughts from your mind. Closer to bedtime, try comforting rituals that may help you to sleep: Listen to soft, calming music, take a warm bath, do some easy stretches or read a book or magazine by soft light.
Avoid Alcohol 2 hours before bedtime. Alcohol suppresses REM sleep so although it may help you fall asleep, you will not sleep well. Alcohol is responsible for up to 10% of chronic insomnia cases. Also, because alcohol relaxes throat muscles and interferes with brain control mechanisms, it can worsen snoring and other nocturnal breathing problems.
Do not Watch the Clock While in Bed. Do not think about the sleep you may be losing. Turn the clock around so you do not keep checking it.
Contact your Health Care Provider if You Continue to have Sleep Difficulties after Trying These Tips. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends seeking medical advice if sleep deprivation has compromised your daytime functioning for more than a month. Do not hesitate to ask for help when you are sleeping badly following a death in the family or other stressful event. A physician may suggest the short-term use of a sedative to help you sleep at night. This may help you cope better during the day and prevent the development of a long-term sleep disorder.
Advantages of a good sleep in Nights -:
- Improved memory, learning and mental performance: a person who is well-rested is able to focus their attention and absorb material more efficiently, and new research shows that sleep and dreaming play an important role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information. Therefore, sleep provides benefit both before and after engaging in a learning activity. In addition, being over-tired impairs our ability to recall previously learned information.
- Increased athletic performance: sleep restores energy to muscles and improves focus.
- Maintain a healthy weight: insufficient sleep is linked to weight gain, increased appetite and food cravings. People who regularly sleep less than 6 hours a night are significantly more likely to have an above average BMI.
- Improve your mental and emotional health: just one or two nights of poor sleep can lead to irritability, fatigue, and decreased motivation, optimism and sociability. Chronic sleep problems are correlated with stress, depression and anxiety.
- Prevent disease and increase your life span: Inadequate sleep on a regular basis is associated with long term health consequences including diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. Data from 3 large epidemiological studies showed that sleeping five hours or less per night increased mortality risk from all causes by roughly 15%.
👉👉 “There are many reasons why people with chronic illness will neglect self-care, from feeling as though they simply don’t have the energy to engage in the exercises to feeling undeserving or helpless to create a positive impact on their physiological and/or emotional well-being,” said Dr. Felecia Sumner, a family medicine doctor in suburban Philadelphia and the author of Fill Your Cup: A Physician’s Guide to Caring for Yourself, Creating Your Purpose, and Masterfully Managing Your Condition.
For people with chronic illnesses, self-care begins with an attitude adjustment. Don’t focus on struggling with disease. Think about ways to make life more enjoyable.
“When we are operating in survival mode there is no awareness of our overarching quality of life because the brain only cares about keeping us alive,” Dr. Sumner said. “Accessing small ways to bring self-care into the focus will calm the survival brain so we can begin to build a healthy relationship with ourselves.”
A daily gratitude exercise — voicing three things to be grateful for each morning — can reduce stress and enhance the effect of dopamine and serotonin, chemical messengers sometimes referred to as “happy hormones,” said Kate Truitt, Ph.D, a licensed clinical psychologist in Pasadena, California.
Achieving consistent self-care is a journey. It doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you stay up late or take a second helping at dinner.
“The day-to-day grind of always taking the best possible care of yourself, and putting your physical health first, wears even the most diligent patient down, and lapses are inevitable,” Orr said. Forgive yourself and move on.
Why do we struggle to sleep?
Our sleep cycle can be affected by a number of factors in our daily lives that we encounter on a daily basis, namely:
- Working late
- Spending too much time with technology (late night texting, watching series until all hours, playing video games)
- Exercising too little
- Poor nutrition (too much caffeine, alcohol and sugar, not enough balance in our diets)
- Excessive partying or socialising
- Stress and worrying about life
- Depression and poor mental health.
How to practice better sleep hygiene
Sleep hygiene are those habits that you proactively incorporate into your life that help you have a good night’s sleep. Common sleeping problems (such as insomnia) are often caused by bad habits reinforced over years or even decades, which we have mentioned above. Before seeking professional help (if your situation deteriorates to that extent) you can take control and practice self care by doing the following things daily to break the cycle and sleep better:
- Make a list of your key priorities for the next day. This will help lighten the load on your mind.
- Turn your electronics off at least an hour before you sleep (or even buy some funky blue light blocking glasses)
- If your bedroom gets a lot of light filtering in from neighbours or street lights, perhaps invest in blackout curtains to help darken your room.
- Try not to exercise right before bed time — although it’s different for everyone
- Listen to music that relaxes you.
- Try meditating for 15 minutes before bedtime.
- Instead of watching TV, read that book you’ve been promising yourself you’re going to start.
In conclusion, a healthy, balanced diet and regular exercise are needed when you have goals in mind pertaining to weight loss, muscle gain, and overall health and sleep is the third crucial component that brings everything together and makes your goals easier to attain.
You will feel more active, have more energy and even feel happier and healthier when you are getting your eight hours of sleep a night, waking up refreshed and renewed, ready to take on the next day with a smile on your face and a spring in your step.
