Getting a good night’s sleep can be tricky. Especially if you are making one or more of the sleep mistakes below. Keep reading to find out what they are and how you can resolve them and improve your nightly rest.
Sleeping in the day
While it can be tempting to take a little nap or two during the day, especially if you’ve had a bad night’s sleep or didn’t get up late the night before, it can be a big mistake. This is because napping can really mess up your natural sleep rhythms and make it tough to fall asleep when it comes to your bedtime.
To that end, it’s best to avoid napping in the day, even occasionally, as this can mess things up for your whole week when it comes to sleep. Instead, try and get enough sleep at night, or if you really need a mental reset in the day, try an activity like Yoga Nidra that can help occupy your mind in a restful way. Indeed, this practice can be so helpful that it’s often referred to as the “Sleep of the Gods.”
Not giving yourself decompression time
Many people think that they can go to bed after a busy day and fall straight to sleep. However, few people’s brains and bodies actually work in that way. Instead, we need to decompress or wind down and prepare for the different state of consciousness that is sleep.
To do this, it can be helpful to complete a routine, as this will signal to your body that it’s time to sleep soon. Activities in this routine should be restful and calming, including meditation, a warm bath, stretching, yoga, or your skin care routine.
Not having a set bedtime
Another major issue that can impact the quality of sleep we get is not having a set bedtime. Having a set time that we go to bed and a set time that we go to sleep every day helps our mind and body know what to expect, and it can allow us to get tired at the right time each night.
It also means that you can work your evening around this time, and so start calming things down, making sure you get enough decompression time as mentioned in the section above.
Usually, it’s best to have a set time when you go to bed, and then a set time when you turn out the lights and go to sleep, usually around 30 minutes to 60 minutes after.
Too much light
Something that can really impact your ability to get a good night’s sleep is too much light. This is because your body uses light as a signal to determine when you produce melatonin, a sleep hormone. When the space in which you are trying to sleep is too crowded, it can signal to your body that it’s not the right time to make melatonin, and so stop you from being able to get to sleep.
Happily, there are a range of things you can do to reduce the amount of light both that is in the room in which you sleep, and that gets into your eyes as you try to drift off. This is particularly good news to those who work nights and have to sleep during the day!
The first action you can take is to invest in blackout curtains. These are specially designed to block out as much natural light as possible, ensuring your bedroom stays dark and conducive to sleep.
Although blackout curtains won’t help if the light that is disturbing you is an indoor one that your partner is insisting stays on as they read, or that is coming from their phone. In those cases, what you really need is a sleep mask that blocks out all light. When choosing such a mask, you will also want to prioritize comfort, as the nicer it is to wear, the easier it will be to drift off into a restful night’s sleep while using it.
Consuming media in bed
Whether it’s watching TV or scrolling social media on your phone, all that activity can give the wrong signals to your brain, especially if you do it when you’re already in bed. To that end, it’s best to avoid consuming media in the bedroom altogether. That might even mean getting rid of your bedroom TV and switching to paper books.
In fact, adding reading in this way to your daily bedtime routine can give your brain just enough to think about without overloading it. Something that can help you drift off into a healthy sleep.
