5 Tips to improve your sleep quality

1. Stick to a daily sleep routine

The most crucial strategy to ensure a sound sleep every night is to get in sync with the circadian clock of our body. If we can gain our natural sleep-wake cycle, we will be able to hit the bed and wake up at the same time every day. This habit will eventually make us feel more energized and refreshed than we could feel by sleeping the same number of hours every day. Even better, such consistency will remain with us even if we are forced to alter our sleep schedule due to shift work or some other unavoidable obligations.

But how to make sure to get in touch with our circadian rhythm, though? Here are a few techniques that you can use:

• Fix a regular bedtime: going the bed at the same hour every night is important if we want to reprogram our brain to make the best out of our sleep. When fixing the right time for us for sleeping, we should choose a particular time of the evening when we feel usually tired so that to make sure that sleep will come to us naturally, without any additional effort. We then need to try to stick to such a routine every day, weekends included, no matter how tempting is to stay up late.

• Smart use of napping: As we just mentioned, daytime naps help people (especially older adults) to compensate for any lost sleep. At the same time though, it may severely backfire on people suffering from insomnia. People with insomnia should avoid napping as much as possible. Even if these people are in need to take a nap, they should do so only in the early afternoon and for no more than 30 minutes.

• Resist the after-dinner sleepiness: If we feel sleepy way before our regular bedtime (because of a tiring day or a heavy dinner), avoid the bed or the couch but indulge in some mildly stimulating activity such as calling up a friend or washing dishes.

2. Respect the natural sleep-wake cycle

Our sleep-wake cycle is controlled by a naturally occurring hormone called melatonin. The production of melatonin in the human body is primarily controlled by light exposure. Ideally, the human brain should secrete more of this hormone during the evening (when it’s dark) to make us feel sleepy. On the other hand, the secretion should reduce substantially as the day breaks, thus allowing us to stay awake.

There are many ways that you can use to transcend all these obstacles:

• More exposure to sunlight during the day: We should try to spend more time outside during the daytime. For example, while at work we should try to take occasional breaks and have some small walks around the office building or take the dog out for a walk.

• Increase melatonin production at night: An overwhelming proportion of the population uses TV to relax or to fall asleep after a busy day. Unfortunately, this technique often backfires on these people as not only watching TV before bedtime can stimulate their minds, but also the light coming out of the TV may reduce the melatonin production in their bodies. Similarly, we should also avoid reading on any backlit device such as tablet computers or smartphones when we are close to bedtime.

3. Maintain a relaxing bedtime routine

Putting up a consistent and sincere effort to ease up and unwind before hitting the bed will help us to reach a deeper stage of sleep. A comprehensive bedtime routine can transmit signals to our brain that the time to relax and temporarily shut down the body and the mind has arrived:

• Get ourselves a comfortable bed: Make sure that we have enough room in our bed to turn and stretch comfortably. Also, if we often wake up in the morning with an aching neck or sore back, maybe we are in desperate need of a new mattress or pillow. If possible, try out different mattresses with different firmness before settling for the one that suits you the best.

• Maintain a steady temperature in the bedroom: Maintaining a steady and slightly cooler temperature in our bedroom than in other parts of our house can help us to sleep well at night. A bedroom either too hot or too cold may deprive us of having a good sleep. For most people, the ideal temperature to be kept in their bedrooms is somewhere around 18° C or 65° F.

• Get rid of noises: If for any reason we are unable to mitigate the noises coming from the loud neighborhood, the excessive traffic outside, or other family members in our household, then try to mask them with a soothing sound that helps us fall asleep. Earplugs often help to get rid of such situations. Yet, earplugs should not be used continuously given the danger that the additional pressure created on the eardrum, may create for our middle ear. In the alternative, we could purchase special sound machines or create our white noise by turning the radio in between two stations to cover the noise coming from outside our bedroom.

• Establish a personal ritual before going to bed: Having our ritual of actions to carry out before going to bed, can prepare our brain for sleeping time. Of course, these activities should help to relax our body rather than create tension in it. A few activities that we can try out to relax before going to bed are:

– Listen to an audiobook

– Read a magazine or book

– Enjoy some soft music

– Take a warm shower

– Exercise some easy stretches or basic yoga positions

4. Healthy foods ensure healthy sleep

Unfortunately, most people are still not aware that what they eat has a significant impact on how well they sleep as well. We should always keep in mind that if we want to have a good sleep, we must make sure that our brain is calm and relaxed rather than at the top of its activity. In this regard, some foods help our mind to relax (promoting, in turn, good sleep), whereas others could keep us awake throughout the night.
Including carbohydrate-rich foods in our daily diet ensures a stronger action of the sleep-inducing amino acids of our body.
As a general rule, remember that an all-carbohydrate meal, particularly those high in junk sugars are more likely to prevent us from having a good sleep. Hence, we should always try to mix up this kind of food with other items, especially those with protein and calcium.

Apart from the suggestions given above, other important items we should always refer to have a sound sleep are:
– No alcohol before bedtime
– Avoid smoking
– Low caffeine intake
– Don’t drink too much water or other liquids before bedtime

5. Exercise regularly

Regular physical exercises help us to have a good sleep every night. We don’t need to go to a fitness center or resort to expensive classes with a personal trainer to reap the exercise benefits. Just 20-30 minutes of light exercise every day would be enough to keep the body in need of sleep at the end of the day.