How To Correct Poor Sleep Hygiene
Are you having a hard time falling asleep, experiencing frequent sleep disturbances, and suffering from daytime sleepiness?
If you said yes, you might not be getting enough sleep, or you may have poor sleep hygiene. Poor sleep hygiene refers to the behaviors, practices, rituals, and habits that result in sleep onset or maintenance difficulties and unrefreshing sleep.
Similarly, good sleep hygiene is all about putting yourself in the best position to sleep well each and every night. The advantages of good sleep hygiene are a boost to your immune system, prevention of weight gain, a better mood, increased productivity, and a strengthened heart.
To help you fix sleep hygiene issues and get you on the path to a good night’s sleep, the experts at Care Medical Clinics have listed four ways to help you correct poor sleep hygiene.
1. Develop a sleep schedule
We all have busy lives that sometimes demand long hours and overtime in the office. We also try and fit our social responsibilities and hobbies in our already busy schedule, hardly prioritizing our sleep patterns.
Developing a set sleep schedule normalizes sleep as an essential part of your day and gets your brain and body accustomed to getting the full amount of sleep that it needs. You must calculate a target bedtime based on your fixed wake-up time and do your best to be ready for bed around that time each night.
Another tip we can offer is to avoid long naps as while they are a handy way to regain energy during the day. They can leave you sleepless at night. Remember that fluctuating sleep schedules keep you from getting into a rhythm of consistent sleep. Hence, care should be taken to develop and maintain a sleep routine you can follow.
2. Eat right
After a restless night’s sleep, people often blame their bed for being too hard or their partner for moving around too much, failing to notice how their dinner or late-night snack may have contributed to their negative experience.
Consuming Tryptophan-rich foods like milk, cheese, fish or eggs, can be beneficial for a good night’s sleep as they produce the brain chemical serotonin. Serotonin induces deeper and more restful sleep by creating melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleep-wake cycles. Similarly, carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice, bread, pasta, or potatoes have also been found to be conducive to a restful sleep.
Things to avoid eating for dinner and before bedtime includes processed food-like products, food heavy in spices or multiple ingredients, and caffeine from coffee, tea, or chocolate.
3. Exercise right
While some of our jobs are physically demanding, many careers call for long hours at a desk without any real physical exertion. We forget to get much-needed exercise and then wonder why we can’t fall asleep at night.
Studies have found that daily moderate-to-vigorous exercise for at least thirty minutes can increase sleep quality for adults by reducing sleep onset and decreasing the amount of time they lie awake in bed at night. Additionally, physical activity can help reduce daytime sleepiness and, for some people, diminish the need for sleep medications.
4. Get enough vitamin D
Recent research has conclusively linked vitamin D levels to sleep quality. In fact, several studies associate low levels of vitamin D in your blood with a higher risk of sleep disturbances, inferior sleep quality, and reduced sleep duration.
The most potent source of vitamin D is the sun. However, factors like skin pigmentation, sunscreen use, and the sun’s strength all affect the amount of vitamin D that your body can make. Vitamin D-rich foods like fatty fish and fortified dairy and dairy alternatives are beneficial dietary sources of vitamin D. Furthermore, supplements are another great option that can give you that extra boost of vitamin D.
For more tips on sleep hygiene and ways to stay healthy, reach out to Care Medical Clinics today! Opened by a group of family physicians in North West Calgary, we are a highly qualified team at the forefront of innovative care with a track record of providing the best clinical standards. We help you to take ownership of your health, set your own goals, and are always there to guide and facilitate the best outcomes. Some of the health care services we offer include physical exams, driver’s medical, men’s and women’s health care, chronic disease management, and cancer screening.
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