Things Look Better After a Good Night’s Sleep
This month, we’ll be talking about topics related to wellness, and getting enough sleep is one of the best practices we can follow to improve our self-health.
But I get it. When there never seems to be enough time in the day to take care of all our responsibilities and take some time for ourselves, we may find it hard to get enough quality sleep time. That’s when practicing good sleep hygiene can help. Sleep hygiene is a series of steps you can take to ensure that your body and brain have time to rest and recharge.
For help, check out these 17 Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night from Healthline. Here are five of our favorites, inspired by the article:
CREATE A SLEEP RITUAL. Play your favorite meditation app. Listen to soft music. Stretch or do yoga. Take a bath or shower. Journal – empty your brain of all your extra thoughts. Write down three things you were grateful for today.
CREATE YOUR IDEAL BEDROOM ENVIRONMENT. The environment where you sleep – including noise, light, smells, or temperature – can make a huge difference! From the article: “Make sure your bedroom is a quiet, relaxing, clean, and enjoyable place.”
CONSIDER YOUR TIMING. Try to keep your wake-up time and bedtime the same every day. Yes, even on the weekends! Your body’s natural circadian rhythm functions and melatonin levels are essential signals that tell your brain when it’s time to sleep. Keeping them consistent can aid long-term sleep quality.
CONTROL YOUR LIGHT EXPOSURE. Be sure you get enough natural sunlight exposure in the daytime, and avoid blue light exposure in the evening.
CUT DOWN ON CAFFEINE AND FOOD AT NIGHT. Watch your caffeine intake six hours before bedtime. Eating too close to bedtime can affect your sleep and digestion. Avoid alcohol, too, because it can lead to disruptive sleep.
And although this article, Your Sleep Tonight Changes How You React to Stress Tomorrow, was written at the end of 2020, it certainly still applies now. The article cites a sleep survey that found: “When participants got more sleep, they had higher levels of positive emotions and lower levels of negative emotions the next day. Moreover, sleep impacted how the events of the day affected them. On days when participants had a stressful event, their positive emotions took less of a hit if they’d gotten a good night’s sleep beforehand. And, on days when good things happened, participants experienced an even greater boost in positive emotions if they were well-rested.”
In other words, if anyone ever said to you, “Everything will look better in the morning,” they may have been right! Get a good night’s sleep tonight … and see how things look to YOU in the morning.