1. Keep A Consistent Sleep Schedule
One of the best things you can do to improve your sleep is to ensure that you maintain consistency with it. You want to avoid trying to “make up” any lost sleep. The weekends aren’t a time for staying up late and sleeping longer. Instead, you want to maintain your normal sleep schedule on the weekends just like you do during the week.
This is commonly referred to as “social Jet Lag” according to Dr. Drerup. You will find that your body has to constantly get used to new time differences because you are staying up later and waking up later than normal. It’s best to maintain consistency throughout the week instead.
When you go to sleep early or when you attempt to catch up on sleep by sleeping late, you end up putting yourself in a position to get poor-quality sleep. A lot of times when you go to bed too early, you will find yourself waking up way too early.
2. Get Distracted
You want to try to add some quiet time to the mix before you go to sleep. This would be a great way to prep your body for sleep. Try to give yourself a good half to a full hour of relaxation and quiet before you go to sleep. Try to get rid of screens before bed too. Try to replace screens with a book. Or, you could listen to music or even have a relaxing bath. Anything that you can do to zone out and relax.
3. Get Out Of Bed
If you cannot go to sleep and you’ve been trying for a good 15 minutes or so, don’t lay there and keep trying. Instead, you’ll want to get out of bed and do something else. If you can’t fall asleep try to get up and do something to distract yourself. It could be something as simple as reading a book or doing some coloring. Regardless, you want to take your mind off being unable to fall asleep because that could give you anxiety and worsen the problem. Try to avoid doing anything that is going to activate your senses or stimulate you.
At this point, you may be tempted to grab your phone or tablet and start scrolling through your social media accounts. It would be best to avoid this. Not only is exposure to blue light emitting devices going to be counterproductive, but seeing things on social media could stimulate you and make it even more difficult to go to sleep.
4. Learn How To Relax Better
There are plenty of things that you can do to improve your relaxation. You can incorporate a lot of things into the mix including meditating, yoga, or even getting a massage. All of these things can prime your body and mind for improved sleep. You can visit a sleep specialist for help if you need to figure out effective relaxation techniques that work for you. If you are suffering from too much stress, you are going to want to figure out a healthy way to deal with it. This is not only important for your sleep but your general health too. Finding high rated mattresses can be difficult, but if you get it right you will be on your way to a restful nights sleep.
5. Keep Logs
Believe it or not, keeping a sleep journal is one of the best things you can do to improve your sleep. You want to track everything that can help. For instance, you can track when you get tired, when you fell asleep, how long you slept, and what you did before going to sleep. All of these things can give you pertinent information that you can use to develop a consistent bedtime routine.
If you don’t want to write things down, you can always download a sleep app. The Sleep Foundation offers a sample sleep log that you can print out. You don’t have to make it more complicated than it has to be. Track your nighttime routine and sleep and you can mix things up and see what works.
