Tips to Sleep Better at Night

Say goodbye to insomnia: Tips to improve sleep quality

Sleeping well is a well deserved strategic time out that your body and mind needs for a healthy and bright life. Learn to do what you can for a good night’s sleep and beat insomnia.

This Sunday, I woke up early and felt strangely lethargic and not my usual self. I felt like I slept but it wasn’t a good sleep. Neither could I sustain my sleep for a period sufficient enough to refresh myself. Talking to friends, I realised it’s a malady common enough.

Increasingly, I find myself having poor sleep. Is this what they call insomnia? Now, people often relate insomnia with sleepless nights, taking turns on the bed and not being able to fall asleep despite persistent efforts. But according to the US government’s National Library of Medicine, insomnia is defined as the presence of four things; facing difficulty in falling or staying asleep, confronting sleep disorder despite enough opportunities to sleep, some amount of distress from daytime activities and finally, inconsistent sleep for 3 nights a week, for at least a period of one month.

Sleeping well is a strategic time-out that your body and mind need for a healthy and bright life. Here, we share some effective tips that will help you sleep better at night. So learn to do the following things for a good night’s sleep and to beat insomnia.

Stick to a sleep schedule

Your body is active throughout the day and needs rest in the night. This much we all know. But a time discipline is crucial for a sound sleep. Interestingly, our body clock is always active and adjusts according to the routine we follow for sleep. Body clocks once tuned to a fixed time of sleep, can generate alerts for our minds to unwind and urge bodies to start preparing for sleep.

This practise runs contrary to the hyper active night life that most of today’s generation indulge in. But if you are short on sleep and struggling with insomnia, a fixed sleep schedule is non-negotiable. Not just sleeping on time but also getting up at a fixed time in the morning is required. Benjamin Franklin, America’s great polymath, inventor and writer aptly underscored the importance of a fixed sleep schedule when he stated that, ‘Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.’

Meditation

A sound sleep helps in repairing damage to the body cells caused by wear and tear, calms the nerves and gives a much needed rest to the muscles of the heart. The sleep acts like a meditation tool wherein you withdraw from all your energy needs and focus on repair work alone.

Stress and anxiety are urban life by-products that have the potential to derail your sleep, leading to a life that lacks basic energy or sustenance. To address it, you should actively pursue meditation. Various researches have proven that mediation can calm your mind and body, help you to rediscover yourself and even lend a golden touch towards a full night’s sleep. Meditating early in the mornings or evenings will teach you to focus on the present and ensure that your thoughts stay in the positive zone which is crucial for a sound sleep. Remember, a happy mind goes fast asleep.

Minimise caffeine consumption

Every morning when you wake up, you look forward to having a cup of your favourite tea or coffee to refresh yourself. The caffeine in this tea or coffee has an immediate effect on your central nervous system, making you feel more awake and alert. This boosts your energy and mood in an instant, making it an integral part of your daily morning routine. But few people are aware that this is exactly what a sound sleep does to your body, the only condition is that you must sleep well for the appropriate number of hours that your body needs.

One tends to wake up fresh and free of any body pain if the internal body system has gotten adequate rest. So try and minimise your caffeine consumption, and definitely do not have it in the latter part of the day. The goal is to not put your nervous system in an unwarranted state of alertness and improve your sleep quality.

Maintain an active lifestyle during the day

A common saying goes like this – day is to work and night is to rest. The best solution for a full night’s sleep and well deserved rest for the mind is to stay active and adopt a lifestyle that fills your day with lots of physical activities. A morning walk early in the morning, cycling up and down the hill roads, an active workday are all quintessential to sleeping better at night.

Due to lack of time or various stresses during the day, people keep shifting their physical activities towards the end of the day. Most of us hit the gym during the evening or night which is not recommended for sleeping well. Putting your body through overtime is not recommended just before sleep time. A better thing to do is to set time aside for meditation, walking, stretching exercises or yoga to help you sleep better.

Say goodbye to digital devices before sleep

From early mornings to late nights, the one body organ that is constantly on the go is our pair of eyes. They  are exposed to sunlight, radiation from tube lights and dust during the day. While your eyes are designed to handle such pressures during the day, it surely needs some rest in the night.

Our eyes often get ignored and are put to rigorous use throughout the day and even late into the nights. It is essential to limit the exposure to radiations from brightly lit rooms and hazardous light from laptops and mobile phones. Staying glued to your mobile phone in pitch dark rooms is even more dangerous, straining your already tired eyes even further. This not just impacts your sleep but also harms and weakens the muscles around the eyes. Reading or glancing through daily news just before sleep is also not recommended, as it may be negative and sensational in nature impacting your mood along with your sleep.

Pen your way out of exhaustion

This is the best solution for people who are suffering from insomnia and despite best efforts, are not able to come out of a spiralling world of worries and anxiety. Always keep a journal near your bed and write down all the worrying ideas and wandering thoughts which keep coming to you repeatedly. Writing down about your problems or history of emotional or physical trauma or even ongoing stressful events is an excellent way to calm your nerves and give a comforting pat to your mind and body.

Steadily, as you follow these tips and start getting a good night’s sleep and  wake up fresh and healthy every morning, you will soon realise that an improved sleep quality is every bit worth the efforts put in getting there.

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