The 4 Areas To Focus On To Improve Your Quality Of Sleep
All moms know that sleep is a precious commodity. We don’t get nearly
enough of it, and that means that when we
do settle down for the night, we need to make sure that the sleep we are able
to manage is of the highest quality to get us through the next day.
There are four areas of life to focus on if you want to improve how well
you sleep at night – health, environment, attitude, and lifestyle.
Making some small adjustments in each of these areas can have a major
impact on the quality of your sleep – and here is how.
Health
If you’ve ever tried to get to sleep with a headache or a blocked nose,
then you’ll know that physical health problems can be a nightmare at bedtime.
Seeking treatment for these problems whether it be through natural
remedies for migraines or cold and flu tablets can help you sleep at
night.
Far more of a problem is mental health. Depression and anxiety can cause
sleeplessness while a lack of sleep can bring on both conditions in a vicious
circle that can be hard to break. In these cases, a combined effort to tackle
both causes and effects can be the best method of treatment – we’ll deal with
ways to achieve good mental wellbeing in the “attitude” and “lifestyle” sections
shortly.
Environment
The bedroom should be the one room in the house we associate with rest
more than any other. To that end, you should be creating the most peaceful
environment possible in the bedroom. You can do that by removing distractions,
such as televisions, phones, and tablets.
All these electronic devices emit blue
light which suppresses the production of the hormone melatonin which
helps us to sleep.
Other important factors to consider when it comes to environment are noise and temperature. Use a
blanket or open a window to control how hot or cold you are depending on the season and if you live in a noisy area then
consider investing in some earplugs.
Attitude
Your attitude towards life can
have a huge bearing on how you sleep. If you are lying awake in bed at night
worrying, then you aren’t going to be getting quality sleep. Try emptying your
mind before heading for the covers through mindfulness techniques, meditation
or breathing exercises. A hot bath with lots of bubbles can also wash away the
problems from your mind as well as the dirt from the working day.
If all that fails, then a hot drink such as warm milk can make you feel
sleepier and help to take your mind off things.
Lifestyle
There are a number of lifestyle adjustments you can
make
to improve your quality of sleep. You might think that alcohol helps you drift
off, but it actually lowers the quality of the sleep you are getting. Cut out
that glass of wine or two before bed, and
you’ll find yourself sleeping much better. If you don’t think you can, then it
may be sign of possible alcohol
dependency. If that is the case, then you may
want to consider seeking addiction
treatment.
Avoiding caffeine in the hours before bedtime is one obvious way to
ensure you are more tired while foods such as rice, oats and dairy products can
help our bodies produce chemicals that increase our desire to sleep.
