Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Tips for Getting More Sleep

Food and Drink
This may seem like an obvious tip, but avoid caffeine later in the day.  Many people don’t realize that their afternoon mocha or coke with dinner can affect their sleep.  Caffeine can last in our bodies for 8 hours or longer.  If you love your coffee, try to keep it limited to the morning time.  Also, foods that seem like they are morning foods, like oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, and bananas actually can help you fall asleep.  Avoid any sort of big meal before bed because if the body is busy digesting a large meal, that can keep you awake.

Exercise
Not everyone loves going for a morning run, and that’s okay, you can exercise later in the day as long as it is not before bedtime.  Exercise is a great way to tire yourself and make yourself sleepy, just don’t do it in the hours before bed.  Exercising gets the heart rate up, and that is the exact opposite of what you want when you are trying to relax and fall asleep.

Light
Our bodies all have an internal biological clock called our circadian rhythm.  The circadian rhythm regulates when we are sleepy and when we are awake.  Our circadian rhythm responds to light and dark signals.  It’s a complex process, but to put it simply, light cues can alter our biological clock, causing us to feel awake when we should be feeling sleepy.  The best way to help ourselves get more sleep is to be aware that the light coming from our computer screens, phone screens, TV screens, etc. is affecting how sleepy we feel.  About an hour before you plan to go to bed, start turning the screens off, or lowering their brightness.  Then about a half-hour before you plan to go to bed, lower the overhead lights in your bedroom, or turn them off completely and just have on a low-lit table lamp.  This lowering of the lights helps to mimic a sunset and helps you to feel sleepy.  (There are alarm clocks that you can buy that will slowly dim the light as you approach your sleep time, and then slowly light up at the time you set the alarm to wake up.  This makes it easier to wake up, and is much less jarring than a loud alarm noise in the dark.  I highly recommend them, I have one and I love it!)

Room Temperature
It’s tempting to pile on the blankets and want our beds to feel super cozy, but we actually sleep better when the temperature is cool. This doesn’t mean that the room should be freezing, because being too cold will wake you up, but when things are on the cool side we tend to have less disrupted sleep.

Thoughts
One way to guarantee that you won’t fall asleep is to put your head on the pillow while thinking of everything you have to do the next day.  If you need to do this, do it before getting into bed.  For many people, it is helpful to read for a few minutes before turning out the light.  Read something for fun that is entertaining, but not so engrossing that you won’t want to put it down.  After you finish reading, lie down and close your eyes, continuing to think about the characters and the story that you just read.  Let your thoughts drift there, until you drift off to sleep. 

Next time I will share some tips on what to do if you have a hard time staying asleep.