There are many things that are well-known to help you sleep better. It might be meditation before sleep, or not eating past 7pm. These are very well-known tips; however, with modern lifestyle changes, including habits, behaviours, and things around the house, there are things you think are normal, but are actually impacting your bedtime routine and your sleep. This might be why, even though you feel like you are trying, you are still waking up and feeling tired throughout the day.
To help you with your sleep and bedtime routines, here are some key elements that are frequently missed or done incorrectly before sleeping.
#1 Not avoiding screens and blue light
The common advice to help you go to sleep is to wind down before bed. In modern society, winding down is often scrolling on Instagram or watching a few episodes of a TV show on Netflix. However, this is not winding down appropriately before you try to sleep. The main issue is that phones and TVs emit a blue light that suppresses the production of melatonin, which is the sleep hormone. This keeps the brain alert. Activities like emails or scrolling, or playing a game, engage your mind and stimulate it, which can then make it harder to relax.
It is therefore important that your wind-down routine before bed does not involve screens. This could be a quiet, offline activity like reading, listening to a podcast, or doing yoga.
#2 Not being consistent
While you might be good on some nights, the lack of consistency is going to cause you a big issue. When you are not consistent, it throws off your body’s natural circadian rhythm, which makes it harder to fall asleep at night when you are trying, and to wake up at the time you wish.
A healthy sleep cycle can be created and reinforced when you go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. You also need to make your routine consistent. Find something comfortable to sleep in, like a night dress. Follow the same steps to get ready, wind down and get into bed.
#3 Using your bed for other activities
If you work, study, scroll social media or watch TV in bed, it can start to create an association in the brain for those activities. This makes your bed a place for activity and wakefulness, instead of sleep. This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make. Instead, you should work on this by trying to save your bed for sleep and intimacy. All other activities should be conducted in a different space, even just the other side of your bedroom will suffice. If you struggle to fall asleep after 20 minutes, it can be helpful to get up and move out of your bed into another space. You can then do something relaxing until you start to fall tired again, and then get yourself into bed to try to get to sleep again.
It is important that you are consistent with these tasks and the effort you put into your sleep routines to help train your brain, which will take some time.
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