Problems falling asleep or staying asleep? You have many factors in your own hands that help you sleep better. We reveal the biggest sleep disruptors and why you should ban them.
Sleep is vital and should not be viewed as a luxury or waste of time.
Many would like to sleep better to be fresh and productive again after seven or eight hours in bed. Are you doing everything right for an optimal night’s sleep?
This checklist will show you what sleep disruptors are and how you can avoid them.
Sleep Better Without Lights And Electronic Devices
A street lamp throwing light into your bedroom can disrupt your sleep, as can the little standby lights from gadgets or electrical outlets.
If possible, ban electronic devices from your bedroom or cover small lights and use blackout curtains or blinds to ensure that no light from outside disturbs you.
The change between daylight and darkness is crucial for melatonin production. The sleep hormone ensures that you can fall asleep and sleep through the night.
You should also avoid using your cell phone and the laptop immediately before going to bed – preferably two hours before.
The blue light emitted by these devices confuses our bodies and impedes melatonin production.
You can install special filters, but it is undoubtedly even more relaxing to put away your entertainment electronics and mobile phone in good time and ideally place them in another room so that they cannot disturb you while you sleep.
Avoid Wrong Food And Drink For Better Sleep
Your lifestyle has a significant impact on the quality of your sleep. Late afternoon coffee can make it harder for some people to fall asleep.
Heavy meals that you have eaten in the evening make you feel uncomfortable when you lie down because they pinch you and make you gasp – the body is then so busy with digestion that we can do it while we sleep (or sleepless). Sense.
So eat lighter in the evening and don’t eat too late. By the way, to support your digestion, you should rather lie on your left side than on your right! In right-side sleepers, the stomach presses on the pancreas and hinders its work.
Alcohol, on the other hand, may help you fall asleep, but it disrupts sleeping through the night. Another reason why you shouldn’t drink alcohol every day!
We all know that we should drink plenty of water. However, if you drink large amounts in the evening before bed, you will likely wake up several times during the night to go to the bathroom, disrupting your sleep.
So stop drinking before you go to bed.
Sport Before Going To Bed
Physical activity plays a crucial role if you want to sleep better, especially if you’re in the office all day.
The right amount varies from person to person; not everyone sleeps well after a short workout in the gym – for many, something gentler like yoga or a relaxing evening walk is better.
It would help if you planned the more strenuous workouts during the day or in the early evening.
Sleep Better Without Stress
Sometimes you go to bed tired and look forward to sleep, but your thoughts begin to spin as soon as you lie down on the pillows.
You must find ways not to take the work in your head home or even to bed with you.
And if you disagree with your partner, try to make up before bed or put the discussion on hold instead of lying in bed with your heart pounding.
If you want to sleep better, you need ways to unwind, so your mind and body are correct.
If you’re finding it difficult to let go of the excitement and challenges of everyday life, nightly rituals can help — whether it’s hot cocoa to curl up with or to try to cover another page in a book in bed. If necessary, sleeping sprays can also be used.
Relaxation techniques such as autogenic training or progressive muscle relaxation, meditation and mindfulness exercises are also helpful.
They are easy to learn and are more effective the more regularly you practice them. And you are guaranteed to sleep better afterwards.
Sleeping Poorly Because Of The Wrong Pillow
Around 60% of people sleep on their side – and should therefore also support their sleeping position. Unlike sleeping on your stomach or back, sleeping on your side improves breathing.
This means that breathing pauses are less common. You can also clasp a side sleeper pillow with your legs and don’t have to clamp a duvet or pillow between your legs.
Anyone who wakes up in the morning with neck pain should choose a suitable neck support pillow.
It usually has a concrete (curved upward) support in the area of ​​the lower cervical spine so that the head does not buckle and trigger specific symptoms, especially when lying on your side.
Sleep Better Without Animals In Bed
Bad news for animal lovers: If you let your pet sleep in your bed, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Animals often have different sleep rhythms than humans, so they go through waking phases at other times, move during them and possibly wake you from your deep sleep.
You don’t necessarily have to ban your pet from the bedroom to prevent this. Just set him up a place to sleep next to your bed!
Sleep well in the summer heat
In the summer, temperatures can quickly reach the tropics here, too – and unfortunately, also cause hot nights. The heat suppresses a mechanism in the body that it desperately needs to rest: the cooling system.
“To sleep, many organisms go into a state of rest, for which the body has to be cooled down by one to two degrees,” a renowned sleep researcher at the University of Regensburg.
While we sleep, the excess heat in the body is released through the skin through blood circulation. I
However, if the ambient temperature is too high at night due to the heat and is well above the optimal 18°C, the natural cooling no longer works. The cooling system fails.
“Create Italian conditions,” .”Close doors and windows during the day, preferably lower the blinds. The cool morning air can be used for ventilation.”
Endurance sport also creates a healthy sleep rhythm with longer deep sleep phases. It makes it easier to fall asleep – the University of Regensburg has proved this with several studies.
Strength training or very demanding sports, on the other hand, tend not to contribute.
Poor Indoor Climate, Poor Sleep
Ideally, the temperature in the bedroom should be between 16 and 19 degrees Celsius for healthy sleep. Especially during the cold season, heating air threatens to disturb this, as it dries out the respiratory tract and causes a restless night.
The sleeper sweats and tosses and may go through several waking phases that disrupt the sleep rhythm.
If you like to be queasy at night, you shouldn’t turn up the heating control but rather cover yourself up to more warmly – preferably with several blankets. If it gets too hot, you can then take off a layer.
ALSO READ: DOES SLEEPING ON YOUR BACK IMPROVE SLEEP?