The truth is that you need to sleep because your physical and mental health depends on you getting a good night’s sleep. If you don’t, then you will end up dealing with adverse long-term effects such as depression, weight gain, anxiety, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more.
Your body is working all day and you need that shut-eye for a good seven to eight hours a night in order for it to repair itself and to regenerate itself.
However, many people cannot get a good night’s sleep because they are making costly mistakes that they think can help them sleep. Let’s talk about eight common things to never do when you are trying to get some good sleep and what to do instead.
Using Night Mode On Devices
The belief with turning your devices to night mode is to reduce the blue light emitted as that can interfere with melatonin production. However, any light emitted at all can still interfere with melatonin production which is needed for sleep. Turning your devices to night mode does not eliminate the blue lights completely. The only solution is to put screens away two hours before bed and to sleep in a dark room.
Falling Asleep To Music
If you listen to soft music that relaxes you, that is fine if you find it helps you slow your heart rate and makes you drowsy. But if the music is playing as you fall asleep, it can prevent you from falling into a deep sleep. You will want to put a timer on if you want to fall asleep to music so it turns off as you sleep.
Exercising At Night
Exercise does help you fall asleep but you have to exercise earlier in the day for it to take effect. You may be tired out after exercising but your body is still working even after exercising which means the heart rate will be up for some time. This is why exercising before bed is not a good idea as you will not be able to fall asleep soon after exercising.
Writing Things Down For Head-Clearing
It is a good idea to write things down such as making your to-do list or stressful thoughts you want to journal out. However, doing those things right before bed is not a good idea as it keeps your mind awake and processing. Therefore, you will want to do those tasks early on in the evening, at least three hours before going to bed.
Using Sleep Tracking And Relaxing Apps Before Bed
If you struggle with getting a good night’s sleep, you will be likely to invest in sleep-tracking and relaxing apps. However, they are not good to use at night if you are learning how to meditate and if you end up wanting to track your sleep, you may be unhappy with how much sleep you really are getting. Therefore, this can bring on unneeded anxiety. If you want to learn to meditate, use the relaxing apps during the day or earlier in the evening. The truth is these apps are not really worth it and there are other ways to learn how to meditate – and do that during the day.
Preparing Yourself For Bed Right Before Going To Sleep
It is tempting to get ready right before bed such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, and changing the sheets. However, you will not have any time to relax if you do that right before going to bed. You should do these things about an hour before going to bed so you have that hour to relax so you get drowsy enough to sleep.
Worrying About How Many Hours Of Sleep You Are Getting
You are told that getting seven to eight hours of sleep is what you need, and it is ideal, but if you get fewer hours than that even if your quality of sleep was good, you are doing well too. Even if you get five straight hours of unbroken and good quality sleep, you are better off than getting poor-quality broken sleep for eight hours. If you don’t worry about how many hours of sleep you are getting, you will get good sleep.
Napping For More Than One Hour During The Day
If you nap for longer than one hour during the day, you will struggle to sleep properly at night. It is okay to take a short nap for less than one hour in the day if you really need it, but don’t sleep past that, or else your quality of sleep at night when it is more important will suffer.
These mistakes you are making could be due to you being misinformed with what to do in order to get good sleep. However, if you take these suggestions and use them, then you will be able to get a much better quality of sleep!
