Lee Levy

Lee Levy

Lee is a professional blogger and passionate about trying new products. She is a side sleeper and always looking for ways to avoid back pains in her sleep.

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How to Get a Better Sleep?

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Sleep is often thought of as a period when both the mind and the body shut down. However, that could not be any farther from the truth. In reality, sleep is actually a very active time when your body does a lot of significant processing, recovery, and strengthening. And while the exact science of how all these happens remains a mystery, what has been established by scientists and experts is that sleep is of the utmost importance when it comes to ensuring your health and well-being is at its very best.

One of sleep’s most important functions is that it helps us solidify our memories. As each and every one of us go about our daily lives, our minds absorb an incredible amount of data. However, before any of it gets logged in or documented by our brains, these first need to be processed and a lot of these things actually happen whenever we are asleep. Throughout the night, the information that we have retained is moved from temporary caches to long-term memory in a process that is referred to as consolidation.

Scientists and researchers have also come to understand that after people get a better quality of sleep, they are more likely to keep data and perform much better in tasks that require the use of memory. Long periods of great sleep is essential to our body’s restoration and recovery, the building of muscle and the repair of damaged tissues, just to name a few of its benefits.

Alarm before sleep

How Much Sleep is Enough Sleep?

Great quality sleep is vital for everyone. After all, we all need the ability to keep the information as well as absorb new ones to do better in life. The question that is almost always asked is: just how much sleep is enough sleep? Experts have long established that adults need sleep that lasts anywhere between seven and nine hours every night. However, children of different ages need various amounts of sleep. 

One-year-olds need an estimated 11 to 14 hours of sleep while children that are already going to school require sleep that lasts anywhere between nine and 11 hours. On the other hand, teenagers need sleep that lasts anywhere between eight and 10 hours. During these periods of crucial growth, younger people require heavy amounts of sleep to maximize the development of their minds and bodies.

A person who regularly lacks sleep, however, cannot just hope to somehow “make up” for it by logging in many hours of slumber. And so, it is important to develop great and consistent sleeping habits that would allow you to fulfill your required number of hours of sleep to be of sound body and mind day in and day out.

All that being said, here are our best tips for getting better sleep

1. Pay Attention to Sleep Cycles 

The circadian rhythm of your body is set on a loop, lining up with both the sunrise and the sunset of every day. Becoming consistent with when you go to sleep and when you wake up is very beneficial to attaining great sleep quality. One particular study took note that people that had inconsistent sleep patterns consistently had poor sleep. Another study also pointed out that sleep patterns that are irregular can actually change your circadian rhythm and melatonin levels, which gives your brain the cue to go to sleep. And so, if you are having difficulty with sleep, do try to develop the habit of going to bed and waking up at the same time. Try this for several weeks and you will notice a huge difference in the quality of sleep that you get every night.

2. Monitor Your Light Exposure 

Whereas being exposed to light during the day helps, the opposite happens whenever you are exposed to light at nighttime. This is once again traced back to your circadian rhythm, as your mind is actually getting the idea that it still is daytime, and as such, it still is not time to sleep. This lessens the production of melatonin, which aids in your relaxation and sleep. The very worst culprit of nighttime light is blue light, which you regularly get from your smartphone and other devices. Worry not though, as there are several methods that can help you lessen exposure to blue light during nighttime.

  • Put on glasses that are designed to block blue light.
  • Download an app that blocks blue light either on your smartphone or laptop.
  • Refrain from watching television or fiddling with your phone right before you go to sleep.

3. Follow Regular Exercise Routines 

One of the most trusted methods of getting better sleep is to regularly exercise. This is because it can bolster the different elements of sleep and can actually help battle the symptoms of insomnia. One study that involved older adults proved this as it showed that regular exercise cuts the amount of time they needed to sleep in half, as well as gave the respondents more sleep. Another study that involved people with severe insomnia showed that consistent exercise habits proved to be more beneficial to getting better sleep than any kind of drug or medication.

One thing that you should note though, is while exercise during the daytime is great, doing it so close to sleep may actually have some adverse effects and hence, cause more sleep issues. This is because of the stimulatory impact of exercise which leads to raised alertness and the production of hormones such as adrenaline.

4. Create Good Eating Habits 

You might not realize but when you eat actually plays a key role in your sleep. Eating too late at night has an adverse effect on the quality of your sleep as well as the production of both HGH and melatonin. In addition, what you eat also plays a part. One study showed that a meal rich in carbs that were eaten around four hours before sleep time helped people get to sleep faster. However, another study had interesting results as it showed that a diet that is low in carbs also helped people get better sleep. So the next time you get some hunger pangs later at night, you better think twice about chowing down a heavy meal as it can result in some poor sleep and disruption of hormones. If this is a consistent problem of yours, then consider taking in a light snack or a meal a few hours before your sleep time.

Healthy Eating Habits

5. Relaxation Tips

Having a relaxation routine before you go to sleep will definitely help you get better sleep and have been proven to even help people suffering from insomnia. A study showed that people who were suffering from an illness that got a massage helped them get better sleep. If you still do not have a relaxation routine, you have a bevy of methods to choose from. You can try listening to calming music, perusing through a book, a warm bath, some meditation, and deep breathing exercises. Try these out and see which suits you best.

6. Curate Your Sleep Environment 

While having a relaxing environment that is conducive for sleep is a big plus, the mattress that you rest your body on is another element that you should not forget about. A study that took a close look at the benefits that you can glean from having a new mattress showed that it can lessen your body’s aches and pains by as much as 60%. Another study proved that a new mattress could also bolster sleep while having a low-quality mattress can likely lead to pain in the lower back region. (Learn more about mattresses for back pain)

If you are looking for a new mattress, you should go and check out our different mattress reviews before you go out and purchase one. 

For the best mattresses made for every conceivable situation, you can head over here

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