27 Dec 8 rules you must follow if you want to sleep well
If you are not sleeping as well as you should, we give you a series of tips that you can follow to have a totally restful sleep
Between 20 and 48% of the adult population suffers, at some point in their life, difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep. This is indicated by the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), an organism that recalls the importance of sleep in our health: lack of rest increases the risk of suffering from overweight and obesity, as well as hypertension and other diseases, in addition to affecting our quality of life. life and general well-being.
Are you not sleeping as well as you would like? Here are some keys to improve your sleep hygiene and notice the benefits of rest in your day by day:
1. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
Establishing a regular time to go to sleep and also to wake up is essential to maintain good sleep hygiene. On weekends you can make an exception, but during the week try to respect it as much as possible. Training our body in this way will make us fall asleep more easily, rest better, and wake up fresher.
2. As tempting as it may be… don’t snooze!
The ‘snooze’ or snooze button on our phones is the worst enemy of good sleep habits. Even if you think that those extra 10 or 15 minutes will give you more energy to face the day, the truth is that the opposite happens, since the brain begins the sleep cycle again and your body prepares to sleep again instead of to wake up. This fragmented sleep will make us feel even more tired when we wake up, causing irritability, bad mood, and drowsiness for the rest of the day.
3. Do not drink stimulant drinks 6 hours before going to bed
Caffeine and theine stimulate the brain and interfere with sleep. That is why you should not drink drinks such as coffee, tea, or other stimulating drinks such as Coca-Cola or Red Bull after mid-afternoon, especially if you are a person especially sensitive to its effects. It also dispenses with alcoholic beverages. Even if you fall asleep quickly due to its depressant effect, it will alter the phases of sleep and cause you to wake up during the night.
4. Avoid copious dinners
Try to dine early and light. While it is true that heavy dinners are not beneficial at all, neither is going to bed hungry, as it can cause you to wake up during the night wanting to eat something. Following a balanced diet throughout the day and respecting meal times will also help you improve your quality of sleep.
5. Don’t use screens before you go to sleep
External stimuli such as television or especially mobile phones greatly weaken the quality of our sleep. Artificial light – also called blue light – radiated by computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. It can trigger sleep disorders since in order to fall asleep our body secretes melatonin – the hormone that regulates the sleep cycle – approximately two hours before going to sleep. If we use this type of electronic device with light, our brain will understand that it is still daylight and will not secrete the hormone, so we will delay the start of the sleep cycle with all that that entails.
6. Reserve the room just to sleep
Taking care of the space in which we sleep is equally important to improve our quality of sleep. For this, it is important to dedicate the bed only to sleep and to have sex. For the rest of the activities, such as watching a series lying in bed, or playing with the mobile, etc., we will have to do it elsewhere to accustom our brain to the fact that this is the space dedicated to rest. Making your bedroom an orderly and clean room will also help you fulfill this purpose
7. Play sports
Staying active during the day will help you fall asleep at night. It is better that we reserve intense physical exercise for the morning or first thing in the afternoon since if we practice it two hours before going to sleep it can cause the opposite effect: we will be too active to relax. On the other hand, there are other sports or activities that are perfectly suitable for the evening-night, such as yoga, Pilates, or aerobic exercises.
8. Naps, in moderation
We don’t have to get rid of a Spanish habit like naps but try not to sleep in the afternoon for more than 20 or 30 minutes, especially if you have sleep problems. This is the ideal duration for the nap to be restful sleep since if we sleep longer we will wake up groggy and can interfere with our night’s sleep.
And if you can’t sleep… seek professional help. If you still have a lot of trouble falling asleep or staying at night, you may have some kind of sleep disorder or chronic insomnia. Do not hesitate to go to your doctor.
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