Find out how to sleep better by having a consistent sleep schedule and bedtime routine, creating comfortable sleeping quarters, using natural sleep aids, taking gummies for sleep, and more. It is easy to improve sleep quality. This guide provides tips for better sleep to help you reap the maximum benefits of restful slumber, from boosting your brain power and improving your mood to repairing your body tissues, regulating your hormones, and improving your cardiovascular health.
Have a Consistent Sleep Schedule
Maintain a consistent sleep routine to align with your circadian rhythm, an internal clock that regulates your sleep-wake cycle based on light cues. Consistency improves the body’s seamless transition through sleep stages and boosts access to the restorative sleep phase. Additionally, it minimizes sleep inertia, reducing the grogginess associated with irregular wake-up times.
Develop a Bedtime Routine
Incorporate healthy sleep habits to maintain a consistent sleep pattern.
- Avoid screens during bedtime because they emit blue light, suppressing melatonin production, a sleep-signaling hormone. They also activate your brain, making it harder to wind down.
- Relax before bed by reading a physical book, taking a warm bath to relax your muscles, listening to soothing music, and maintaining a quiet environment.
- Avoid caffeine, Eliquis and alcohol before bed because they stimulate alertness, wakefulness, focus, and energy.
Create an Ideal Sleep Sanctuary
Keep your sleep environment dark, quiet, and cool. Darkness promotes melatonin production, which stimulates sleepiness. Light exposure, especially at night, can hinder melatonin, affecting your ability to fall and stay asleep. Loud noises, even if not consciously disturbing, disrupt sleep and cause brief awakenings, hindering deep sleep stages. Maintain a cool bedroom to support the natural evening temperature dip, facilitating a more profound and restful sleep experience.
Customize Your Mattress and Pillows Depending on Your Sleep Position
Invest in a supportive mattress and pillows to align your spine, preventing pressure points, discomfort, and neck pain. Choose mattress firmness based on your preferences and sleeping position. If you are a side sleeper, go for a softer form. Opt for a firmer form if you sleep in your back and stomach. Pillows vary in support and comfort levels. Memory foam conforms, latex provides bounce, and feathers offer breathability. Tailor your choices to ensure comfort and quality sleep.
Use Natural Sleep Aids
Natural sleep aids promote relaxation, regulate sleep hormones, and ease physical discomfort, enhancing restfulness and sleep quality. Melatonin and magnesium supplements address insomnia and disrupted sleep. Chamomile tea has apigenin, a flavonoid, which induces calmness, while lavender oil promotes relaxation. Valerian root affects GABA receptors in the brain, stimulating relaxation, while melatonin-rich tart cherry juice enhances sleep quality, particularly in older adults.
Avoid Heavy Meals Before Bedtime
A large meal closer to bedtime can cause abdominal discomfort, blood sugar fluctuations, and worsen acid reflux symptoms, resulting in fragmented sleep, frequent awakenings, and difficulty falling back asleep. Active digestion induces gas, bloating, and heartburn, hindering relaxation. It redirects blood flow from the brain and muscles, complicating sleep onset. High-carb meals cause blood sugar spikes and drops, leading to nighttime wakefulness and vivid dreams, resulting in fragmented sleep.
Stay Active During the Day
Move your body for better sleep. Exercise releases mood-boosting endorphins, easing stress and aiding sleep. Moderate to vigorous activity creates natural physical fatigue at bedtime, countering restlessness. It also regulates melatonin, signaling your body it’s time to sleep.
Use CBD for Sleep
CBD tablets have calming properties essential for body and mind relaxation. How does CBD improve sleep? CBD enhances calmness and induces sleepiness through its interaction with the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the body. The ECS regulates various physiological processes, including sleep, mood, and stress. It also increases adenosine, a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep and relaxation, by inhibiting its reuptake, leading to a buildup of adenosine in the brain.
