How to Achieve a Good Quality Sleep

What are the best things to help you sleep at night? Many people do not give enough importance to how crucial good quality sleep is. More than likely, you charge your phone every night to avoid it running out of battery the next day. So why don't you recharge your own batteries? Good quality sleep helps us to wake up feeling more energised as we are well-rested. It is recommended that we should get roughly eight hours of sleep each night to ensure we are well-rested.

There are lots of benefits of a good quality sleep, such as:

• Boosting your immune system
• Preventing weight gain
• Improving your mood
• Improved memory
• Reduced risk of developing medical conditions such as heart disease
• Reduced risk of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression

Therefore, sleep is just as important to us as exercising and eating a healthy diet.

One of the best things to help you sleep is to try and use your bedroom as a place that is only used for rest. Therefore, try to avoid it as a working space when working from home or somewhere that you spend time doing other activities during the day. As a result, your brain will recognise your bedroom as a place where you can relax. Therefore, it would be best to avoid having your phone in the same room as you whilst you sleep.

In fact, having a mobile phone next to you while you sleep makes it more challenging to get a good quality sleep. The reason for this is because mobile phones give off blue light, which suppresses the sleep-inducing hormone. Therefore, when you sleep beside your mobile phone, you are more likely to take longer getting to sleep, have nightmares, wake up frequently. In addition, it may also increase your chances of getting cancer. Furthermore, you should try and put your phone away at least an hour before going to bed. As a result, your brain will slow down and relax to help you achieve a good quality sleep.

Also, it would be best to avoid having a TV in your bedroom. Not having a TV in the bedroom means you will be less inclined to watch TV just before and after going to sleep. What we think about just before we go to sleep and just after we wake up can significantly impact us. Instead, we should spend this time thinking and doing something more useful—for example, meditation, reading, and thinking through each day's tasks. As a result, we are likely to enjoy good quality sleep by falling asleep faster and taking less time to get ready each morning.

You should feel comfortable in your bedroom to promote good quality sleep. There are many different things to ensure that your bedroom will promote good quality sleep, for example:

• Do not eat in your bedroom. Eating in your bedroom is not one of the best things to help you sleep. Bringing food into your bedroom can be unhygienic as crumbs may fall onto your floor and the bed. As a result, bugs may enter your room, hindering you from having a good quality sleep.
• Try and reduce the amount of noise in your bedroom whilst sleeping. Most people tend to sleep better in a quiet environment. If there is noise in the bedroom, it can take longer to fall asleep and cause you to wake up. As a result, noise can prevent us from having a good quality sleep as even though we may be able to get back to sleep quickly, we are no longer in a deep sleep. Often it is not the length of time that we sleep for that is as essential as the quality of our sleep. Deep sleep has many benefits, including cell regeneration, promoting growth and restoring our energy levels.
• Ensure that your bedroom is at the right temperature for you to be at your most comfortable. Most people believe that a cooler environment helps them sleep better. However, others argue that they sleep better when they are warmer. Either way, ensuring that the temperature is the way you prefer will help you get good quality sleep.
• Try to sleep in the dark. Most people like to sleep in total darkness. However, some like a little light, for example, a nightlight. Our bodies are programmed naturally to be awake during the day, when light outside, and sleep at night when it is dark. Therefore, we should stick to this pattern to help us achieve a good quality sleep.
• Keep your bedroom tidy. When your bedroom is cluttered, your mind probably is too. Having a tidy bedroom is known to decrease stress, and therefore, you are more likely to sleep well.

Exercising more during the day is one of the best things to help you sleep. Exercise can tire you out, and therefore you will get to sleep faster as your bodies way of re-energising. Furthermore, it would be best to have some time outside each day, which can be exercising or doing something else. Exposing yourself to daylight during the day can help to realign your sleeping schedule. In other words, you will have more energy during the day and experience a good quality sleep at night.

Caffeine increases energy levels. When we want to achieve good quality sleep, we should avoid caffeine for up to eight hours before we sleep as it can remain in the bloodstream for this length of time. Therefore, if you do fancy a coffee in the evening, why not try decaffeinated?

Alcohol, primarily when drank in an excessive amount, is known to harm our quality of sleep. As a result of drinking alcohol before going to bed, sleep quality will likely be lower.

Good quality sleep is more likely when you sleep to a routine. In other words, you go to sleep and wake up around the same time each day. Therefore, try to be consistent with your sleep schedule to benefit from good quality sleep in the long term. Additionally, having a nap during the day may seem harmless and short naps are often helpful to increase energy levels. However, it is best to avoid long naps during the day as they disrupt your sleeping schedule. As a result, it can be a hard to get a good quality sleep at night. Therefore, if you nap often and would like to improve your sleep at night, try to avoid napping. This may be one of the best things to help you sleep.

Written by Amy Bamford