Fall asleep, feel at ease - How much important is our sleep?

Fall asleep, feel at ease - How much important is our sleep? 

Our sleep schedules do vary from person to person, depending on the environmental cues that we give our bodies.

Sleep is one of the basic key stones or pillars which directly affects your mental and physical health and the quality of our waking life. It is a natural and major method of your body to rest and relax. While we are asleep, our body works to repair and rejuvenate the tissues. Normally, during physiologic nocturnal sleep in humans, the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for 'rest-and-digest' activities, is dominant over the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for stimulating activities. More over sleeping well directly affects your mental and physical health and the quality of your waking life.

Fall short and it can seriously affect your daytime energy, productivity, capability to manage emotions, and even your weight. It plays an equally important role as that of diet when it comes to maintaining health and balance in the body. But, quite often, struggling to get the sleep we need, we regularly toss and turn at night spending sleepless nights leading to sleep imbalance in our body.

There is a solution. Making simple but important changes to your daytime routine and bedtime habits can have a profound impact on how well you sleep, leaving you feeling mentally sharp, emotionally balanced, and full of energy all day long.

How can I get a better night’s sleep?

When you’re wide awake at 3 a.m., you may feel that getting a good night’s sleep is an impossible goal. The cure for sleep difficulties can often be found in your daily routine.

Unhealthy daytime habits and lifestyle choices can leave you tossing and turning at night and adversely affect your mood, brain and heart health, immune system, creativity, vitality, and weight. But by experimenting with the following tips, you can enjoy better sleep at night, improve your mental and physical health, and improve how you think and feel during the day.

Tip 1: Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle

There’s a reason we tend to feel sleepy around the same time each night and wake up same time in the morning. It is circadian rhythm, our biological clock - we set our alarms, when we are most active during the day, when we eat, and when we let ourselves call it a day and hit the pillow. Getting in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, is one of the most important strategies for sleeping better. If you keep a regular sleep-wake schedule, you’ll feel much more refreshed and energized than if you sleep the same number of hours at different times, even if you only alter your sleep schedule by an hour or two. So try to go to sleep and get up at the same time every day. This helps set your body’s internal clock and optimize the quality of your sleep. Choose a bed time when you normally feel tired, so that you don’t toss and turn. If you’re getting enough sleep, you should wake up naturally without an alarm. If you need an alarm clock, you may need an earlier bedtime.

Is it good to take a nap on day time? If you need to make up for a late night, opt for a daytime nap rather than sleeping in. This allows you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep-wake rhythm. Avoid sleeping in—even on weekends. The more your weekend/weekday sleep schedules differ, the worse the jetlag-like symptoms you’ll experience.

Be smart about napping. While napping is a good way to make up for lost sleep, if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, napping can make things worse. Limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon.

Fight after-dinner drowsiness. If you get sleepy way before your bedtime, get off the couch and do something mildly stimulating, such as reading books, washing the dishes, calling a friend, or getting clothes ready for the next day. If you give in to the drowsiness, you may wake up later in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.

Tip 2: Control your exposure to light

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone controlled by light exposure that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark—making you sleepy—and less when it’s light—making you more alert. However, many aspects of modern life can alter your body’s production of melatonin and shift your circadian rhythm.

How to influence your exposure to light?

During the day:

Expose yourself to bright sunlight in the morning. The closer to the time you get up, the better. The light on your face will help you wake up

Spend more time outside during daylight. Take your work breaks outside in sunlight, exercise outside. Let as much natural light into your home or workspace as possible. Keep curtains and blinds open during the day, and try to move your desk closer to the window.

At night:

Avoid bright screens within 1-2 hours of your bedtime. The blue light emitted by your phone, tablet, computer, or TV is especially disruptive. You can minimize the impact by using devices with smaller screens, turning the brightness down, or installing and activating light-altering software such as f.lux.

Say no to late-night television. Not only does the light from a TV suppress melatonin, but many programs are stimulating rather than relaxing. Try listening to soft music or audio books instead.

Don’t read with backlit devices. Tablets that are backlit are more disruptive than e-readers that don’t have their own light source.

When it’s time to sleep, make sure the room is dark. Use heavy curtains or shades to block light from windows, or try a sleep mask. Also consider switching off or covering up electronics that emit light.

Keep the lights down if you get up during the night. If you need some light to move around safely, try installing a dim nightlight in the hall or bathroom or use a small flashlight. This will make it easier for you to fall back to sleep.

Tip 3: Exercise during the day

People who exercise regularly sleep better at night and feel less sleepy during the day. Regular exercise also improves the symptoms of insomnia and sleep apnoea and increases the amount of time you spend in the deep, restorative stages of sleep.

It can take several months of regular activity before you experience the full sleep-promoting effects. So be patient and focus on building an exercise habit that sticks.

For better sleep, time your exercise right

Exercise speeds up your metabolism, elevates body temperature, and stimulates hormones such as cortisol. This isn’t a problem if you’re exercising in the morning or afternoon, but too close to bed and it can interfere with sleep.

Try to finish moderate to vigorous workouts at least three hours before bedtime. If you’re still experiencing sleep difficulties, move your workouts even earlier. Relaxing, low-impact exercises such as yoga or gentle stretching in the evening can help promote sleep.

Tip 4: Be smart about what you eat and drink

Your daytime eating habits play a role in how well you sleep, especially in the hours before bedtime.

Limit caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine can cause sleep problems up to ten to twelve hours after drinking it! Avoid big meals at night. Try to make dinnertime earlier in the evening, and avoid heavy, rich foods within two hours of bed. Spicy or acidic foods can cause stomach trouble and heartburn.

Avoid alcohol before bed. Melatonin, the regulator of sleep-wake cycles, is a chemical produced by your brain that trigger sleepiness when you've been awake for a long time, and subside once you've had enough sleep. Alcohol is highly effective at suppressing melatonin. Research indicates that a moderate dose of alcohol up to an hour before bedtime can reduce melatonin production by nearly 20 percent. While you may fall asleep quickly after drinking, it's also common to wake up in the middle of the night and contributes to poor quality sleep later.

Avoid drinking too many liquids in the evening. Drinking lots of fluids may result in frequent bathroom trips throughout the night.

Cut back on sugary foods and refined carbs. Eating lots of sugar and refined carbs such as white bread, white rice, and pasta during the day can trigger wakefulness at night and pull you out of the deep, restorative stages of sleep.

For some people, a light snack before bed can help promote sleep. For others, eating before bed leads to indigestion and make sleeping more difficult. If you need a bedtime snack, try:

A small bowl of whole-grain, low-sugar cereal

Lukewarm Milk

Yogurt

Almonds

Walnuts

Kiwi

Tart cherry juice

A banana

Tip 5: Wind down and clear your head

Do you find yourself unable to sleep or waking up night after night? Residual stress, worry, and anger from your day can make it very difficult to sleep well.

If anxiety or chronic worrying dominates your thoughts at night, there are steps you can take to

learn how to stop worrying and look at life from a more positive perspective.

If the stress of work, family, or school is keeping you awake, you may need help with self-management. By learning how to manage your time effectively and maintain a calm, positive outlook, you’ll be able to sleep better at night.

When it comes to getting to sleep at night, your brain won’t be accustomed to seeking fresh stimulation and you’ll be better able to unwind. The more overstimulated your brain becomes during the day, the harder it can be slow down and unwind at night. During the day, many of us overstress our brains by constantly interrupting tasks to check our phones, emails, or social media. Try to set aside specific times for these things, and focus on one task at a time.

Relaxation techniques for better sleep

You have to find ways to wind down, calm the mind and relax to prepare for sleep. Practicing relaxation techniques like Santi asana (please refer posture no. 2 in yogasana section) before bed is a great method.

Also please try:

Deep breathing - Calm your mind, close your eyes and take deep, slow breaths, making each breath feeling even deeper than the last.

Progressive muscle relaxation - Starting with your toes, tense all the muscles as tightly as you can, then completely relax. Work your way, part by part, up to the top of your head.

Visualization - Close your eyes and imagine a place like a garden or a lonely sea shore that's calming and peaceful. Concentrate on how relaxed this place makes you feel. And fall asleep.

Bedtime rituals to help you relax and sleep

Identity a "toolbox" of unwinding, bedtime relaxation rituals to help you unwind before sleep. examples:

Reading a book or magazine makes people sleep. Read it in soft light.

Take a warm bath half an hour before you go to bed.

Play a soft music/ an audio book in the bedroom.

Few hours before you go to bed do some easy stretches.

Relax and unwind with your favourite hobby.

Make simple preparations for the next day.

Dim the light in bedroom as you go into your bed.

Tip 6: Improve your sleep environment

A peaceful bedtime routine sends a powerful signal to your brain that it’s time to wind down and let go of the day’s stresses. Sometimes even small changes to your environment can make a big difference to your quality of sleep.

Keep your room dark, cool, and quiet

Keep noise down. If you can’t avoid or eliminate noise from neighbours, traffic, or other people in your household, try masking it with a fan or earplugs. Keep your room cool. Most people sleep best in a slightly cool room (around 21° C) with adequate ventilation. A bedroom that is too hot or too cold can interfere with quality sleep.

Make sure your bed is comfortable. Your bed covers should leave you enough room to stretch and turn comfortably without becoming tangled. If you often wake up with a sore back or an aching neck, you may need to experiment with different levels of mattress firmness, foam toppers, and pillows that provide more or less support.

Reserve your bed for sleep and sex. By not working, watching TV, or using your computer in bed, your brain will associate the bedroom with just sleep and sex, which makes it easier to wind down at night.

Tip 7: Learn ways to get back to sleep

Yes, what if the problem faced by you is not falling asleep, but after waking up at the middle of your sleep, and not falling back asleep

These tips may help you to return to deep sleep:

It’s normal to wake briefly during the night.

Keep it out of your head

Sometimes it is not easy, but try not to stress over your inability to fall asleep again. Stress will trigger your body to stay awake. Stop thinking and start to focus either on the feelings in your body or breathing. Repeat the word "santi" or peace in your mind

Understand that your goal is relaxation, not sleep

 If you find it hard to fall back asleep, try a relaxation technique such as visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, or santi asana. which you can do in the bed itself, without getting up.  Relaxation can help to rejuvenate your body.

Do a quiet, non-stimulating activity

If you’ve been awake for more than 15 minutes, get out of bed and do a quiet, non-stimulating activity, such as reading a book. Keep the lights dim and avoid screens so as not to cue your body that it’s time to wake up.

Postpone worrying and brainstorming

 If you wake during the night feeling anxious about something, make a brief note of it on paper and postpone worrying about it until the next day when it will be easier to resolve. If a great idea is keeping you awake, make a note of it on paper and fall back to sleep knowing you’ll be much more productive after a good night’s rest.

Read more Articles from here

"Don’t get upset with yourself, because it just makes the problem worse.”

“Be positive, know that sleep will always come eventually.”