Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene is essential to a good night sleep and good practices are often lacking in society today. Sleep schedules consist of staying up too late and getting up to early, while late night overstimulation, drugs, chemicals, and workloads interrupt our sleep.

Good sleep hygiene is basically common sense and the tips that we have all heard. Although the habits are obvious, they are not typically followed. To begin getting a good night sleep, there are important practices to administer throughout the entire day to set you up for a good night sleep.

Sleep Hygiene: Daily Habits

• Regular Bedtime and Awake Time: Everyone has heard this suggestions but it is not often followed. The importance of a predictable time is that the body will adapt to the pattern and you will fall asleep sooner and awake easier.
• Avoid Long Naps: As a power nap may be what you need to stay energized all day, but a nap beyond 45 minutes or too late in the afternoon can making falling asleep a challenge.
• Exercise Regularly: Exercise can help to deepen sleep. However strenuous activity should be avoided within three hours of your bedtime to prevent too much stimulation.
• Alcohol and Caffeine Timing: Both substances should be avoided 4-6 hours before bedtime. Once your nighttime regime is established, ensure that you do not ingest these stimulants. For some, caffeine anytime of the day can cause problems with falling asleep and should be eliminated for a time. Although alcohol may aid in sleepiness for some, once the alcohol levels in the blood begins to fall, the body can wake-up.
• Limit Heavy, Sugary, and Spicy Foods: This advice varies from person to person. Pay attention to how you feel after these foods and how they settle as you are going to sleep. If you have heartburn as you lay down, your insulin spikes, or your stomach is unsettled after any of these foods, avoid having them in the evening.

Sleep Hygiene: Bedtime Routine

• Relax Before Bed: Limit TV and computer use or stressful work too close too bed. Although these may not seem to bother you, they can stimulate your brain and make it more difficult for your mind to settle down. Try light stretching, restful poses with yoga, or deep breathing.
• Nighttime Schedule: Another practice to try to a routine to allow your body and mind to prepare for sleep with a regular schedule. Do the same stretches, read for ten minutes, listen to music and go to sleep. Whatever works for you and it does not have to last long, simply repeat it nightly.
• Notepad: To calm your mind try writing down all the thoughts and things to do, to allow your mind to relax instead of trying to remember everything for the next day.
• Snack: Depending on your last meal and how heavy it may have been, do not go to bed with a growling stomach. Foods high in amino acid tryptophan such as bananas or almonds can help aid sleep as well.

Sleep Hygiene: Sleep Environment

• Relaxing Environment: Is your room a mess? Cluttered? Is your bed covered with stuff? Your bedroom should be inviting and calming. Is your bed comfortable? You do not need to go buy a new bedding set, but make small changes with a new pillow, a softer set of sheets, or whatever you need to do to make your bed inviting and comforting.
• Bed Activity: What activity is done in your bedroom and on your bed? Avoid any confusion with bedtime by reserving the bed for sleep. Limit or even better remove the TV from the bedroom. Do not do computer work on the sheets. Your body will associate the bed with sleeping, which is of course what you want.
• Eliminate Distractions: Try to make your room as dark as possible and with the least amount of noise. Turn your alarm clock around, cover glowing cell phones, put up dark shades, and whatever else you need to do for a pitch black room. With a completely dark room helps aid the deep sleep cycle. Is your computer buzzing or does your spouse snore? Turn off noisy electronics or use earplugs.

The goal of sleep hygiene is to have a routine and to use common sense. Although most people are aware of these recommendations, how often do we drink coffee or tea in the afternoon? Is the TV on up to the minute you head to bed? Do you go to bed or wake up at the same time everyday?

Give yourself a true assessment. Often people will claim, I can drink caffeine and go to bed, I can be on the computer up until my bedtime. These stimulants or activities can make you wired or have a subtle affect that will harm your ability to fall asleep.

If you are serious about getting a good night's sleep and are tired of feeling groggy during the day, I encourage you to practice these simple sleep hygiene recommendations for an extended period of time. You may think that you have tried this before, however a day or week is not enough, this needs to be a habit and needs to be followed consistently over weeks and months to be effective.