Good sleep hygiene is more under your control than you might think. When you follow healthy sleep habits, it can make a significant impact on your life.
What is sleep hygiene you might ask?
“Sleep hygiene” is the term that's referred to when a person follows a healthy habit that can help them have a good night's sleep by increasing the hours they spend sleeping. This term includes those whose sleep routines are negatively changed by insomnia, jet lag, and changes to work shifts.
One of the best essential sleep hygiene remedies is to spend a healthy amount of time asleep in bed. This means to plan for a healthy balance of sleep that doesn't include too little sleep or too much sleep.
The desire to sleep varies across ages and is especially impacted via lifestyle and health.
Sleep hygiene may sound like a far reached goal or dream, but getting a healthy sleep routine is the best way to get the sleep you desperately need for yourself emotionally and physically!
Here are five helpful ways to improve your sleep hygiene habits to get the best sleep you need.
Don’t Eat Dinner Too Late
Sometimes we don't eat dinner in time, or we plan to eat late with a bunch of friends, and we go for something fun and easy, like a pizza or wings. However, this can deprive you of a good night's rest.
It's best to ensure you finish your dinner at least several hours before going to bed and to steer clear of foods that cause indigestion which we will talk about next.
Watch Bedtime Snacks
It's very easy to get into the habit of eating junk food before bed, so it's very important to be careful that what you're putting in your body before bed (and of course any other time too) is healthy. The last thing you need is to stay awake all night with terrible indigestion or heartburn! To avoid this, avoid fried, greasy, fatty and heavy foods, spicy snacks, citrus drinks, and especially soda.
If you couldn't help yourself (and we all fail in this habit one time or another), take an antacid like a Tums or Pepto Bismol to aide your stomach discomfort. There are also fantastic stomach-soothing Essential Oils that help with this, such as TumBliss™ from Isagenix.
Exercise before Sleep
We hear over and over again that exercise is a significant part of our routine, and this includes doing so even before bed!
Light exercise can promote an incredible quality of sleep. You only need to do so much as 10 minutes per night, whether this is by taking a walk, biking, going on a treadmill or even swimming. Lightly exercising before bed can drastically improve your nighttime sleep quality!
While it's recommended to do 10 minutes of light exercise, how often and how hard you choose to exercise varies from person to person, so make sure to select an exercise routine that promotes the best sleep for you.
Go to Bed at the First Sign of Tiredness
Our bodies are so great at giving us signs, including when we are tired, but often we ignore the signs of tiredness so we can enjoy the rest of the night's festivities. However, this is a very unhealthy habit and can really impact how well you sleep at night!
Once you receive the signal from your body that you're tired, it's best to listen to it and to prepare for and go to bed. If you don't, this can lead to frustration and a night of restless sleep.
If you get restless for longer than 20 minutes, get out of bed into another quiet room and read a book, listen to music or something that will make you tired enough to go back to bed.
Create a Comfortable Sleeping Environment
One excellent way to ensure you get great sleep is to make sure you are comfy-cozy! Ways to do this are:
Replacing uncomfortable pillows or mattress
Adding more pillows to your sleep space
Invest in some blackout curtains
Use eye-shades and earplugs to block out light and noise
Turn off all bright and blue lights and screens (this helps your brain get used to the dark room helping you sleep sooner)
Add white noise to your room (this can be done with an app or a loud fan)
Adjust your bedroom temperature to a healthy 60 – 75 degrees
Diffuse a relaxing Essential Oil
Sleep Yourself Off to a Healthier You
Like any healthy routine, making changes takes time and practice and may not happen overnight (in which case, be gentle on yourself and try again) but putting any of these into your routine, in the beginning, will promote a healthy night's sleep, which in turn, will promote a healthier you!
Lavender Essential Oil calms your nerves and is a great addition to your bedtime routine. Diffuse it or a little dab behind the ears or back of your neck. This is also great to rub on the bottoms of your feet with a blending oil like coconut oil.
Use Lavender…
- As a nervine/calmative
- To help relieve joint/muscle pain associated with sprain/strain/rheumatoid arthritis
- To help relieve headache
- As a carminative/antispasmodic for symptomatic relief of digestive discomfort
- To help relieve colds/cough
To the best of your ability, incorporate and stick, to these essential helpful tips to maintain good sleep hygiene!
If you find that, even after following these tips as much as possible, that your sleep is still lacking, it's best to consult your Doctor or a sleep specialist because you may have a deeper reason why you can't sleep, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome or other medical sleep concerns.
What is ONE new step you can add to your bedtime routine to get a better nights' sleep?
