What’s proper sleep hygiene?
Photo by Alexander Possingham on Unsplash
Why is proper sleep hygiene so important?
Sleep hygiene consists of the practices you can put into place to help you better prepare for sleep. I discussed some findings stressing the importance of adequate sleep in the previous post. In this post I share tips to help you get a better night’s sleep (1). It is generally agreed upon by the scientific community that anywhere between 7 to 9 hours of sleep (1, 2) regularly is considered adequate sleep.
General rules:
Go to bed at the same time every night—our brains like habits.
Keep the temperature down to around 67 degrees. When our core temperature is lowered it signals our body that it’s time to sleep.
If unable to lower the temperature, turn a fan on and/or take a hot shower. The heat rising to the surface of your skin will lower your core temperature.
Sleep in a completely dark room. Melatonin, which is our sleep hormone, is only released in the dark.
Resist the urge to have anything with caffeine past the morning. Caffeine has a long half- and quarter-life which means coffee at noon could result is caffeine still being in your system by bedtime.
Avoid napping—it interferes with your natural wake/sleep cycles and makes it harder to fall asleep at the right time.
About one hour before bedtime:
Start dimming lights or turning about half of them off.
Stop checking texts and emails.
Get off devices.
If reading on an e-reader, set the background to black.
Don’t drink alcohol—even 1 glass can impair the quality of your sleep.
Some television is fine but stay away from stimulating content.
If unable to fall asleep within 15 minutes:
Leave the bedroom and read elsewhere. It helps your brain to maintain the association that the bedroom is for sleeping.
Try taking melatonin—no more than 5mg because it makes no difference to take more.
Lastly, if you snore, consider getting yourself checked out to rule out sleep apnea.
Sleep well, my friends,
xo, f
References:
10% Happier podcast: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast - Listen to #221
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need