10 Ways To Fix Sleep Deprivation
Getting a good nights sleep is important. You may not realize how much being sleep deprived affects you and your body. Take a look at these 10 tip on how you can avoid it.
Set a Sleep Schedule
This is one thing that if you are only able to do one thing to improve your sleep, this one is a must. Go to bed every night at the same time and get up at the same time, even on your weekends off. A regular sleep schedule will keep your internal clock steady to help you get the best rest possible.
Exercise
Working out will help to lengthen and improve the overall quality of your sleep, especially cardio exercises. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise helps to keep your body temp up for about 4 hours time, so it’s important to not work out 4 hours before you are scheduled to go to sleep. When your body cools down, this will help to signal your brain to release melatonin which helps your body to induce sleep.
Enjoy a wind down time
Sleep doesn’t really have an on and off switch with it. It’s more of an easing transition. Giving your body a wind down time to go from active to bedtime will help you prepare for a better nights rest. Start about an hour before bedtime, prepare for tomorrow, take care of any personal hygiene, and then relax in bed. And practice deep breathing to move your body into slumber.
Snack on Crackers and Cheese
Cheese and crackers are the perfect nighttime combination of a calcium rich protein and carbohydrates. These two as an example contain tryptophan which has been shown to produce a boost in serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that helps you to calm down. Enjoy this snack about an hour before bedtime, giving the amino acids enough time to reach your brain.
Keep Your Room Cool
Experts agree that setting the temperature in your room to 65-75 is a good guideline. But you should really pay attention to how your body temp feels underneath the covers. Slipping in under cool sheets will help drop your body temperature which also triggers the body’s ability to produce melatonin. This is why it’s a great idea to take a warm bath or shower right before bedtime.
Get Rid of the Light
Light can be a signal to the brain to stay and be awake. Any glow, even from laptops, iPads, smart phones, or televisions can pass through to your eyelids even when they are closed, into the retinas and into the hypothalamus; this is the part of the brain that controls sleep. Darkening your room will allow you to sleep much sounder overall.
Turn off that TV
When you sleep with the television on in the background, this can cause you to have a much lower quality of sleep throughout the night.
Stop Drinking Caffeine During the Day
You may want to cut out your caffeine consumption during the day and limit it to morning use only.
Ban Pets and Cell Phones from the Bedroom
Pets and Cell phones are good at waking you up during the night, either a text message or your doggie taking up more room than he should.
Stop using Electronics an Hour Before Bed
Including your e-Reader devices. Those that use electronic devices up until bed time have a suppression of melatonin (hormone that helps you all asleep) for about an hour and a half. This makes it much harder to fall asleep.
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