It is not so easy for many people to get over the problem of insomnia or poor quality of sleep. Relying on sleeping pills may not solve the deep-rooted problem of insomnia.
Sleep quality is influenced by your behavior, performance, and diet. Factors like food choices, medication, work schedules, and evening activities can contribute to deep, sound sleep or insomnia. To learn more about how to improve sleep quality or get access to proper sleep hygiene, one can follow the tips given below:
Get regular exercise
Exercise of any pattern happens to regulate your body clock. It helps stimulate your state of wakefulness, stamina, and interest in work until the time you feel tired and feel like retiring to bed. Breathing exercises or light stretching can be suitable tips for better sleep. As proven by a specific survey done on certain people exercising at 8 p.m., they fell asleep further and slept longer than the people who were not exercising at all.
Do yoga or meditation
Stress and anxiety never allow a person to have deep and uninterrupted sleep. But gentle yoga asanas and meditation unfold the secrets of how to improve sleep quality.
Performing yoga nidra or Shavasana while maintaining the state of consciousness releases tension or uneasiness from the muscles, calms down the restless mind and nervousness, and improves the circulatory system. You will be in a state of relaxation in this yoga asana by lying down on a bed or mat like a corpse and taking a deep breath in and out.
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Relaxation Techniques
Lying on the bed in the night for 3 to 4 hours and still not falling asleep is a common problem for many people. Maybe they are not getting the right way of relaxing their body and mind or getting bothered by the pressure of work or studies.
But one needs to forget any negative thoughts and apply acupressure techniques with any cream or oil in your palms, between and around the fingers of both hands.
You never know when you will fall asleep. It is one of the easiest sleeping tips. Other ways of relaxing are listening to light music during bedtime, cultivating a positive relationship with your spouse, and striking up a healthy chat with your family members. It will divert your mind from worries and calm down the entire nervous system.
Eat well, avoid heavy meals
There are range of benefits of healthy diet plan. Plan your dinner with a light and healthy diet so that you do not wake up late at night being affected by stomach disorders. Avoid creamy dairy products during the meal at night. Rather, you can opt for lentil or vegetable soup with roti or rice.
Stay away from trying anything inflammatory, like chili peppers. Rather, you can use spices that may relax your muscles and mind. It may be ginger, cumin, fenugreek, or garlic to gain digestive benefits and have a long and deep sleep. You can also drink warm milk infused with calming spices like turmeric, jaiphal, cinnamon, or cardamom.
Drink responsibly
It is surely not a good idea to drink regularly and in higher amounts to achieve long hours of relaxed and deep sleep. Alcohol consumption will not help with the query about how to improve your sleep quality. You may experience drowsiness and fall asleep. But it will not make you sleep deeply for a longer time.
You may wake up again and find yourself in uncomfortable conditions with a severe headache. Because alcohol consumption does not regulate rapid eye movement, It may cause cognitive disability, disrupt memory, and disrupt emotional balance. It can disrupt your breathing mechanism during sleep and let you go through sleep apnea.
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Manage sleep times (even on weekends)
You may be tempted to sleep longer during weekends, which may go beyond your actual sleep-wake cycle of weekdays. Waking up late during the weekends may lead to inconsistency and thus disrupt your internal body clock. You may find difficulty falling asleep the night before your next day of work. It is recommended to maintain your sleep-wake cycle the same as you do on normal working days.
Optimize your bedroom environment
Keeping the environment in the bedroom quiet, dark, and cool with a comfort-yielding bed mattress and soft pillows may have serene effects on your body and mind. You can keep your head towards your south or east and legs in the north or west direction to help yourself with comfortable and deep sleep. It is one of the most effective tips for good sleep, as suggested by any Vastu expert.
Limit screen time
Before going to sleep, you must stop checking social media accounts, chatting, or doing any casual activity using your smartphone, laptop, or any other electronic device. Instead, you must invest that particular time in arranging the bed and pillows. Otherwise, the blue rays generated by such electronic devices will not let you have enough melatonin hormone to regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Avoid late-day naps
You may have woken up from sleep at 7 AM and felt sleepy again when you hit lunchtime. You can take a short nap at that time. But stay away from falling asleep during the late afternoon or early evening hours. It might interrupt your sleep during the night. Sleeping during the night will regulate your overall metabolism and enhance your productivity. But then night shift workers will have to fulfill their sleep needs during the afternoon hours.
Listen to your body's cues
To understand how to improve your sleep quality, you must keep a check on your lifestyle habits and maintain a record of the hours when you are on highs and lows in energy level. It will help you to understand your natural sleep-wake cycle. It is necessary to pay attention to how much sleep your body requires and make suitable adjustments accordingly and as per your shift timings in the office.
Stress Management
Good food habits, regular exercise, meditation, and time management are the right ways to deal with stress and improve the quality of sleep. Going for a regular walk in the early daylight hours and after dinner at night and establishing closeness with nature will aid in forming interconnectivity between your body, emotions, mind, and surrounding environment. Such activities would set windows for melatonin production and make your sleep deeper, longer, and healthier.
Get plenty of light during the day
Exposure to the sun's rays in the early morning hours will keep you in a state of wakefulness and set a correlation between the internal body clock and the outer environment. It will help you have more energy, focus, and concentration.
Further, it will regulate your serotonin production, improve your performance, and help you gain better sleep during the night.
Avoid taking any caffeinated beverages
Caffeine would ruin your sleep timing by acting as a stimulant for the nervous system. If the person drinks tea, coffee, or any other caffeinated energy drink, caffeine will not let the adenosine act on the nerves with relaxation and drowsiness.
As a result, the person will not feel sleepy. Even if a small percentage of caffeine goes inside your body several hours before your actual sleep timings, you will find yourself in a state of wakefulness for a longer time. You may not have continuous sleep.
Conclusion
Thus, the above-mentioned points determine how to improve your sleep quality. Understanding your body’s internal clock system and implementing a holistic approach accordingly will surely help you regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Insomnia is a common issue influenced by various factors, including behavior, performance, diet, work schedules, and evening activities. To improve sleep quality, individuals can exercise, practice yoga, relax, eat a healthy diet, and control alcohol consumption and caffeine consumption. These points will not only improve your sleep but also improve your overall health by improving immunity and managing stress.
Controlling your screen time and avoiding afternoon naps will improve your sleep quality. It would be necessary to enhance your serotonin production with enough exposure to sunlight at the beginning of the day and with a nighttime walk after dinner. So, follow these tips for better sleep and to improve your overall health.
