Sleep is one of the more important activities that we must partake in daily. You might miss the occasional daily rest, but it is essential that you repay your sleep debt for optimal body functioning. When you do not rest properly, specific changes occur to your mental and physical states that impact you on a larger scale. Take a look at who’s, why’s and what’s of a good nights rest and what to do if you aren’t getting one.
Three main Signs you are not getting a good night’s rest
You feel sleep deprived and tired
As the phrase suggests, a good night’s rest should give your body the chance to REST and REJUVENATE. Some good old fashioned Rand R is essential to repair your body and prepare you for the next day’s tasks. When you sleep properly, your body enters a state of deep sleep, known for its influence in the overall repair of the body. Once you achieve deep sleep, your body is at its slowest and essential functions such as memory consolidation, metabolic balancing or physical repair. Insufficient sleep plays a role in interrupting your time in a deep sleep state, and you cannot recover physically, or mentally. No wonder you wake up tired.
Sleep fact: While adults are recommended 8-9 hours of sleep, they need about 1.8 hours of deep sleep, roughly 20% of the daily required sleep duration. Children spend more hours in deep sleep states than adults.
Cranky monster
Often when you haven’t slept properly, you become more susceptible to irritability, sadness, anger and a bunch of other negative emotions. You might try your best to combat these but moodiness induced by a bad nights rest can only be combated with enough rest. Resting appropriately for the whole night should help lower stress level and balance out your hormones to help you keep your emotional
Reduced brain power
When you do not sleep properly, your cognitive capabilities begin to slow down, and you have issues learning new concepts or remembering information. This is especially dangerous for young adults and children who need their cognitive abilities in top shape, so they can learn concepts in school or develop their problem-solving abilities further. A good night’s rest is essential to reinforce concepts into memory and prepare the brain for the following day. You may want to reconsider your sleep quality if you find yourself in an exhausted mental state regularly.
Reasons why you may be sleeping poorly
Stress
We’ve all encountered stress in our daily lives. It is only natural for the body to react to its environment. However, when the stress becomes overbearing, it begins to affect different aspects of your life including your sleep. It may be in insignificant ways such as occasional nightmares or in unbearable ways like full-blown insomnia. Either way, stress critically influences your sleep partner and should be kept in check to avoid damage to ones sleep health.
Bad sleeping habits
There are things we do knowingly or unknowingly that influence the quality of sleep we are getting. Behaviors such as carrying our devices to bed or sleeping on 20 unnecessary pillows do more harm to our sleep quality that many of us realize. When you change your habits to favor sleep, then you will begin to experience good night’s sleep consistently.
Poor life choices
Sure you might enjoy the occasional mega extra super duper large cheese pizza with extra cheese and toppings, but poor eating habits and other life choices play an important role in influencing how well we sleep through the night. The amount of caffeine you consume of the frequency with which you drink alcohol may play a role in how well you sleep through the night.
Tips to get a good night’s sleep
Tweak your lifestyle
You don’t have to quit eating pizza or drinking sugary drinks. However, adjusting your diet to accommodate healthier choices will help reduce the amount of ‘sleep-robbing foods’ in your diet. Good eating habits research suggest that changing how much you eat and when you eat it also plays a role in sound sleep. Make sure to keep away from foods that inhibit or interfere with sleep and incorporate sleep promoting meals into your new diet.
An important aspect of lifestyle change is regular exercise. When you exercise often, you put your body and mind in a healthier state and therefore improve how easily you fall asleep. A healthy body means healthy sleep habits. You will no longer experience sleep-related issues brought on by excess weight or effectively minimize the effect of some conditions by reducing the amount of body fat that you may carry.
Sleep tip: set up your exercise times several hours before bed. Because of the hormones produced from your workout sesh, you may find it difficult to fall asleep. Well, timed exercise times allow you to tire out naturally, without pumping you up full of energy or adrenaline at inappropriate hours.
Change your mattress
Your lifestyle changes are pointless if you do not provide an environment to support you throughout the night. The mattress is a primary determinant of how surrounding factors will influence your night’s sleep. A good mattress provides comfort and above all else support for your various sleep habits. An ideal option will accommodate many of your sleep-related behaviors for an uninterrupted nights rest. Appropriate duration of uninterrupted sleep is a sign of a good night’s rest. If you do not already have the ideal mattress, it may be about time that you went shopping. Sleep number bed, for example, are among the recommendable options for quality and innovative mattress options.
Meditate often
Meditation may help you deal with stress, one of the major factors that interfere with your ability to fall asleep and maintain that state. When your mind is filled with stresses and concerns, you find it difficult to fall asleep and end up waking at odd hours and staying awake. Sure you have an important pitch tomorrow or final exams in a few days, but the stress of daily life should not be so intense that it cripples your ability to rest. When in your sleep sanctuary, let go of all the issues surrounding your life and give your body enough time to rejuvenate itself so you may take on tomorrow’s tasks.
Take a hot bath
Nothing gets me ready for bed quite like a hot steamy shower or an occasional soak in the tub. These are helpful to relax the mind and revive the exhaustion and stress from the day’s work. You will be able to fall asleep easily and remain in that state throughout the recommended sleep time.
Final word
Evidently, a good nights sleep is an essential part of proper functioning. Without it, you begin to notice the negative change in your mental and physical health. These simple guides should help reduce your poor sleep quality and help you achieve the coveted good night’s rest.