words Alexa Wang
The feeling of waking up refreshed starts with a good night’s sleep, but that’s not all. It also helps maintain your balance, both physically and mentally. During sleep, our brain processes and “digests” the information recorded during the day. When you don’t sleep well, this process is disrupted, making it difficult to concentrate the next day.
Here are ten tips for getting a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed.
Photo by Vladislav Muslakov
1. Establish a bedtime routine.
To get a good night’s sleep, it’s essential to establish a “sleep routine.” We recommend that you go to bed at a fixed time every day. The same goes for waking up simultaneously, even on the weekend! It’s an excellent way of getting back to restful sleep. The more you train your mind and body to stick to a specific routine, the better it will be for you in the morning. At a certain point, you’ll find that your body can naturally wake up without an alarm clock.
2. Take up a sport.
Doing sport during the day improves the quality of your sleep. Moving around for half an hour daily is ideal for a good night’s rest. Just 15 to 30 minutes of exercise a day, such as brisk walking, cycling, and sleeping, is a great way to get yourself in shape and open the pathway to quality sleep. If you find yourself full of energy at night, exercising during the evening might do the trick to draining your energy just enough for you to feel tired and need some much-needed rest.
3. Avoid coffee and tobacco.
Coffee, like tobacco, contains caffeine. It gives a momentary boost of energy but disrupts sleep in the evening. This is another reason to give up those two addictions, coffee and cigarettes. You’ve probably heard about drinking a warm cup of tea before bed. Tea also contains a certain amount of caffeine, so it’s best to avoid it together. If you must have something hot before bed, why not try a chocolate malt drink or a warm cup of milk?
4. Limit your alcohol consumption.
Alcohol is often drunk to relax. A few drinks, indeed, make it easier to fall asleep. However, the sleep that follows is often disturbed and not very restful. If you want something to rest your mind and body before bed, limit your alcohol consumption to a glass of sherry or a quarter glass of red wine to soothe the nerves and calm the senses.
5. Soak in a hot bath.
A hot bath two hours before bedtime is a great addition to a bedtime routine. It helps to increase body temperature, speeding up the temperature drop when you hit the duvet. It also signals your body that the day is ending and it’s time to relax. You don’t have to always have a bath before going to bed. You can prepare a bath at least two or three times at the same time each week so that you can mentally send a note to your brain that it’s time to sleep. Perfect for helping you fall asleep and sleep like a log.
6. Banish screens before going to bed.
It’s easier said than done. We all tend to take our mobile phones back to the bedroom and scroll social media, reply to emails, and so on before returning to bed. This is a cause for bad eyesight and it’s really a lousy bedtime routine. Ban TV screens from bedrooms, leave your mobile phone in the living area or your bag and don’t bring your computer or tablet to bed. The blue light from screens is not conducive to the relaxation your body and mind need to fall asleep.
7. Don’t eat before going to bed.
Eating a whole meal can make you tired. This may be true in the afternoon, mainly if lunch is proceeded by work. Your mind automatically loses interest in what’s coming up ahead. However, the effects of a heavy dinner at night are different. The reason is that a full stomach may lead to indigestion and bloating, eventually affecting how you feel and contributing to discomfort. Finishing your meals two to three hours before bed is always best. Your resting body will be quicker to take you to dreamland.
8. Don’t overheat your bedroom.
No tropical climate in the bedroom! A temperature of 16° to 18° is ideal to help you lull back to sleep. Please turn off the heating at night because we tend to fall asleep more quickly in a cool, well-ventilated bedroom. As we sleep, our body temperature drops. But if the room is too hot, this process disrupts you from falling asleep properly. Too hot a room can make things extremely uncomfortable. Of course, regulate your internal temperature if the temperature outside is cold.
9. Make your bedroom quiet and dark
Light often prevents you from sleeping or wakes you up prematurely in the morning. This is why it’s always an excellent idea to cover windows with curtains. If you don’t have blackout curtains, wearing eye masks is an excellent way to prevent light from disturbing your sleep. Getting your eyes into a pitch-black environment triggers the receptors in the brain to signal the entire body that it’s time to rest.
10. Use the right sleepwear
The main factor in ensuring that you have a good night’s sleep is comfort. Quality sleep also means having comfortable clothes to sleep in. Cotton is still a popular choice for many people, but silk has immense benefits too. You may want o mix and match your sleepwear to incorporate a cotton top with a silk pajama or vice versa. A silk eye mask is also the perfect way to introduce you to comfortable and quality sleep. Lunya is a great way to incorporate quality sleepwear as part of your sleep routine so you can drift away from the stress of life and have eight luxurious moments of disconnectedness to yourself.
