10 Steps To Sleeping Better at Night

Todd Heslin
2016-09-20T14:15:00+10:00

Sleeping is really the only time that the body and mind are able to repair themselves properly. Sleeping isn’t going to be enough though. You need “restful” sleep.

So how well were you able to sleep last night?

When you have a great night’s sleep you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. There are other health benefits including a boosted metabolism. The following are some ideas on how you can get a better night’s sleep for yourself and feel the benefits.

A great night’s sleep is a night when you go to sleep and sleep soundly until the morning, waking up refreshed and filled with energy. When you sleep properly you never really think about what’s bothering you. There’s no lying awake thinking about what’s on the news. Instead you just fall asleep in less than ten minutes and you’ve got nothing but good things on your mind.

Another way to determine if that sleep you had was really good or not is your dreams. A positive and fun dream means you rested well. Having a bad or stressful dream means that you’ve been tossing and turning and your sleep could hardly be called restful.

If you’re wondering why it’s important to get this quality sleep then the answer is pretty simple; you need it. Without adequate rest your body quickly breaks down along with your mind. You need rest from the stresses of life to deal with them. Sleep is the only time they can do this.

The problem is made even worse if you’re a snorer as snoring interrupts your sleep more than you’d expect. A study has shown that people who snore have their sleep interrupted 300 times per night on average. It’s impossible to get a good night’s sleep with that! If you haven’t been sleeping properly for some reason then you’re just not giving your body the time it needs to heal.

This loss of healing means that you start your day without the energy you need to focus and for your body to function properly. It’s with a regular sleeping pattern that your body will be able to rejuvenate and, without it, the body just degrades further.

So how much sleep do you need?

The basic answer is generally accepted to be eight hours of restful sleep a night. If you’re a healthy person who is eating right, exercising, and takes breaks from stress during the day you could get away with a little less. No less than six hours a day though.

The following are ten top tips to help you sleep soundly at night:

Top 10 tips to sleeping better

1. Write down everything you plan to do tomorrow and keep the list near your bedside in case something else pops into your head. Writing things down like this tells your brain it doesn’t need to think about them until tomorrow.

2. Avoid watching television before bed, especially the news. Also turn everything off so you can’t hear the TV or radio while sleeping.

3. Read something inspirational or in the self-help niche for at least half an hour before going to bed. You want to have these motivational thoughts crammed into your brain so that you think uplifting thoughts as you fall asleep. It makes a nice change from all the worrying things people usually think about before sleeping.

4. Turn out all the lights and make your room as dark as it can be. Your body is designed to sleep in the dark so the darker your room the easier it is.

5. Make things as quiet as possible. Turn off everything and get other people you live with to be quiet themselves.

6. Avoid eating for at least three hours before you go to bed. Having undigested food in your stomach makes your body focus on digesting that food rather than healing up; which is what it’s supposed to do when you sleep. Your body wasn’t made to digest food when lying down.

7. A great sleep schedule to keep is to be in bed by 10:00PM with an alarm set for 6:00AM. It’s a part of Ayurvedic medicine that some activities are best done at a certain time. This sleeping schedule allows your body to rest as deeply as possible so you have all the energy you need in the day.

8. Unless your physician has told you otherwise you should avoid taking sleeping aids. Most of them just numb your senses and slow down your body. Your body needs to stay active during sleep so that it can repair itself. A sleep aid slows down everything; even the beneficial systems.

9. Make sure your room is properly ventilated and there is plenty of fresh air. Air that stays indoors just becomes trapped and toxic. Sleeping means that the air you can take in is limited to the air around you. Open up the window a little, even if it’s just a crack. The fresh air that comes in is better for you and helps your body stay healthy.

10. Try and do an hour of exercise during the day. Feel free to break it down into two 30 minute sessions, or three 20 minute sessions. You get the idea. Just make sure it all adds up to an hour. Walking is especially healthy and helps you sleep at night.