Struggling to Sleep? 10 Habits to Boost Your Energy and Improve Your Sleep

Hey everyone, and welcome to our new article. Today, we will learn 10 habits to sleep better at night. Now let’s begin.

Everyone needs a good night’s rest. But sometimes it can be hard to come by. Each of us deals with daily stressors, erratic schedules, overstimulation, or less-restful environments, all of which can contribute to tossing and turning. Regular sleep deprivation can build into something called “sleep debt.” The hours add up and begin to impact you more and more over time. Rather than waking up bleary-eyed, you can try adjusting some of your daily habits to build a healthier sleep routine.

Most adults need about seven to nine hours of sleep—some more, some less, depending on their age, gender, physical health, lifestyle, and other factors. And sleep can do wonders for your wellbeing. Sleep is when your brain processes and stores new information, not to mention when it rests.

10 Habits to Boost Your Energy and Improve Your Sleep

So without further ado, here are ten habits to help you sleep better at night.

1. Create a Restful Environment

First, you must make sure that you are laying down your head in an environment that supports and encourages rest. A quiet, cool, and dark bedroom is best. Choose bedding in calm, simple colors in fabrics that are breathable but lush. Make sure your mattress is good quality and supportive so that your body can fully relax without pain. Any additional or excessive exposure to light at night can signal to your brain that it’s time to be “on.”

Blackout curtains can help block extra light getting in from outdoors beyond your control. A fan can help you ensure you stay cool and provide calming, steady background noise. A white noise machine or soothing instrumental music on streaming can also give your brain something to focus on other than your worries.

Your sleeping environment also includes your activities. Right before you go to bed, stick to calming activities like reading, taking a bath, or even doing breathing exercises to slow down your heartrate and quiet your mind.

2. Limit Electronics

If you’re trying to build a restful, stress-free environment, one of the first things you’ll need to ditch is your phone. Our lives are dominated by electronics] smartphones, tablets, computers, televisions, and more. And not only does their content tend to cause stress, but so does their light. Blue light causes eye strain and even interrupts your circadian rhythms, making you think that it’s daytime when it’s not and signaling.

Your body and brain to stay awake. Experts suggest putting away any electronics about an hour before bedtime to promote rest and relaxation for your brain and your eyes. If possible, keep your phone out of the bedroom altogether to avoid the temptation. If you need an alarm to wake up, consider buying an analog clock or an old-school clock radio instead.

3. Exercise Regularly

We often have trouble sleeping at night because we are not actually physically tired enough to sleep. Getting the daily recommended amount of exercise can help prime your body for rest. The Mayo Clinic suggests at least 30 minutes of moderate activity per day. The elevated heartrate you experience when you exercise encourages the other metabolic processes that allow your body to slip naturally into rest.

That said, try not to exercise immediately before bedtime as it initially wakes your body and brain up. Rather than vigorous workouts before bed, gentle stretching and yoga routines can help you calm down and avoid waking up in the morning with aches and pains. The yoga will briefly elevate your body temperature. Then, as it falls back to normal, this cooling effect can also help make you sleepy.

4. Limit Your Naps

If you’re living a hectic lifestyle and not getting enough sleep at night, it might be tempting to grab a nap during the day. But be carefultoo much rest during the daytime can throw off your body clock and make it harder to go to sleep at night. This can create a vicious cycle. If you work at night, a brief nap in the late afternoon before you start work can help you pay down your sleep debt.

Keep naps to about 20 minutes if possible – no longer than one hour. A short nap is enough to let your body experience some of the essential restorative benefits of sleep and get a boost in awareness without having so much rest that you can’t get back to sleep later. Early afternoon, right after lunch, is the best time to do it.

5. Adjust Your Diet

There are certain foods you can incorporate into your diet to encourage better sleep hygiene. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains contain the vitamins and nutrients that promote overall bodily function – including sleep. Specifically, kiwis, tart cherries, rice, malted milk, nuts, and fatty fish have all been shown in studies to aid in sleep and relaxation. And there are also some substances to avoid – caffeine, sugar, and heavy meals.

Each of these can impede your ability to rest properly. Sugar can fluctuate energy levels. Caffeine, of course, is a well-known stimulant that keeps you awake. Try to avoid it any time from the afternoon onward lest it impact your ability to get to sleep—or stay asleep. And eating heavy meals, especially too late at night, can mean you are still digesting when you are trying to rest, leading to acid reflux and general discomfort.

6. Maintain a Sleep Schedule

Consistency is key to getting a good night’s rest. Once you’ve developed a healthy, workable sleep schedule, you must try your best to stick to it. Go to bed at the same time every day and try to wake up at the same time too. You might think this only applies to weekdays, but even on weekends, or at least on days you are not working, you should still try to go to bed and get up at the same time.

Your body doesn’t know the difference between Tuesday and Saturday, and any deviation from the schedule can break your pattern and throw you off. Having a bedtime ritual incorporating other factors discussed here, such as putting the phone away, reading, and bathing, can also signal to your brain that it’s time to rest. Just beginning your sleep routine can actually start to make you sleepy.

7. Limit Activities in Bed

Part of a healthy sleep routine is making sure that the bed is a sacred space exclusively for bedtime activities. Try to limit what happens in your bed. Reading, for example, is a good activity if that’s what helps you fall asleep. Especially as more and more people work from home, the lines between different rooms in your house can get blurred.

Work starts creeping into every part of your home, and the bedroom is certainly not safe from it. Working from bed can make you associate that space with your job. So when you get into bed, you may inadvertently start recalling or reliving the stress, emotions, and physicality of your working life. For most of us, that is anything but restful.

8. Manage Stress

For many of us with sleeping troubles, it’s our worries that keep us up at night. Stress is a huge contributing factor to sleep deprivation. Do your best to manage your stress and anxiety during the day so that you are able to go to sleep with a light heart and a calm, clear mind. Stress management needs to happen during your waking hours so that by the time you hit the hay, you are no longer plagued by worry.

You might start journaling as a form of emotional release and to organize your thoughts. A daily meditation practice can also help regulate your nervous system and release troubling thoughts. Making sure that work or household tasks aren’t weighing you down can also aid sleep. Be sure to delegate as much as possible, maintain to-do lists, and keep your thoughts and physical space organized to prevent being overwhelmed.

9. Get Outside

Your body’s internal clock, also known as your circadian rhythm, is part of what signals to you that it’s time to sleep. And that clock is dictated, in part, by your exposure to natural light. So be sure to get outside each day to keep your clock in working order and remind your body when “waking hours” are—then, in turn, it will innately remind you when waking hours are over. Doctors suggest at least 30 minutes per day of natural light.

Keep light streaming in through your windows, and if that is not possible, you can even buy a light to mimic sunlight indoors. Daily walks outside also help you get that fresh air while also getting in some light exercise.

10. Keep a Sleep Diary

If you’re still having trouble sleeping, consider starting a sleep diary. This should track not only what time you go to bed, what time you get up, and what times you may wake up during the night, but also what else happens during your day. You don’t have to use flowery language, but make sure you keep a detailed record of what you were up to. This can include stressful conversations, hours spent watching TV, what you ate, and how much exercise you did.

You may begin to notice patterns and correlations. For example, you might find that on nights you couldn’t go to sleep, you were also eating meals after 7 PM. Or you kept waking up in the middle of the night after a day when you didn’t exercise. Your sleep diary can offer you insight into where you can improve your daily habits in order to get a satisfying night’s rest.

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