Natural Ways To Improve Your Quality Of Sleep
It’s not easy to get a solid, quality night of sleep every night. If you’ve ever struggled with getting a good night’s rest or even just some quality sleep, you need to check out these awesome and natural ways to improve your quality of sleep! They’re simple and easy and you can incorporate them into your nightly routine to help you get a better night of sleep. Sleep is so important for many different reasons, and it’s important to make sure we’re getting the best sleep we can to stay healthy. Try one or two of these natural ways to improve your sleep and see if they help!
1. Develop A Routine
If you don’t already have a bedtime routine, you should try to develop one. They’re really helpful and once they’re developed, beginning your routine lets your body and mind know that it’s time to start shifting into sleep mode. Your routine should become like a trigger that sets you up for a good sleep!
Everyone’s nighttime routine looks different. Some ideas for a routine can be brushing your teeth, washing your face, putting on your favorite pajamas, applying lotion, taking a shower, whatever it is that you like to do that gets you ready for bed. Once you have your routine made up, try to keep doing each thing in the same order. If you wash your face before brushing your teeth, try doing that every night. Once you have made a habit of your routine, you may find yourself falling asleep easier!
2. Set The Scene
Just as important as developing a bedtime routine is setting the scene. There are a few different ways you could go about doing this, but why you should do it is because it may help you to fall asleep easier and to get better sleep. If you try to sleep in a bright room or a messy bed, odds are it may take you longer to get comfortable and to fall asleep, which may lead you to scrolling on your phone or turning to Netflix until you pass out from exhaustion.
Instead, try making your bed in the morning or even right before you get in it (trust me, it’s much more comfortable getting into a made bed). Make sure you are blocking out any streetlights or extra light that might keep you up. If you like to sleep with sound like a fan or white noise machine, fire it up! If you can help it, make sure the temperature in the room isn’t too hot. Setting the scene like this can really make a difference in your sleep!
3. Consider What You Eat
It may not seem like it, but what you eat throughout your day can affect how you sleep and the quality of your sleep! If you eat too much junk food or sugary sweets, especially as a dessert after dinner, that sugar can make it more difficult for your brain to power off and your body to relax the way they should before bed. Additionally, caffeine is another big factor that can affect how you sleep!
Try to avoid drinking caffeine after dinner or even earlier than that. I like to limit my coffee to the morning/early afternoon, but I know sometimes we need more throughout the day. If you make efforts to be aware of what you’re eating throughout the day and are willing to make changes if necessary, you may notice a positive change in your ability to fall asleep and the quality of the sleep you get at night!
4. Consider When You Eat
Not only should we be aware of what we are eating, but also when we are eating. It’s not only the types of foods or drinks we consume that affect our sleep, but when we are consuming them! For instance, it’s recommended that you don’t eat an hour before bed, at least. I know I personally get snack cravings really bad later in the evening, so I struggle with this one. It can be difficult, but eating at the proper times can really make a positive impact on your quality of sleep!
If you often find yourself eating in bed late at night, that’s going to make it harder for your body to understand that it needs to get ready for sleep. Our bodies work to break down and process the foods we eat, which is fine while we’re awake but can sometimes make it harder for us to fall asleep or to stay asleep and get the quality rest we need. As a guide, make a rule to not eat past a certain time of night. This can be really helpful to your bedtime routine and lets your body prepare for sleep easier.
5. Take A Shower
Taking a nice relaxing shower or bath before bed can be a really effective way to get your mind and body prepared for sleep. If you’re someone who prefers to shower in the morning at the start of your day, try just rinsing your body before bed. You don’t have to cleanse or wash your hair or anything like that if you prefer to do it in the morning, but just being in the warm steam and water for a few minutes before getting into bed can help relax you.
I know it always helps me fall asleep better when I get into bed feeling fresh and clean, but that may not be for everyone. Just try a quick rinse before bed and see if it helps relax you at all! It may help you feel calmer and more ready to fall asleep.
6. Exercise During The Day
If you can find the time, I suggest trying to do some form of exercise during the day to ensure you’re feeling tired at night when you need to be. For myself, I like to run when I can, and when I don’t get a run in during the day, I can really feel all the extra energy I have built up at night, and that can make it harder for me to fall asleep at night.
Also, if you know you have a big day ahead of you the next day and want to get to bed early, making a point to exercise the day before can really help to make sure you feel tired at night and are able to fall asleep! Making your body do some work is a great trick for making sure you get some quality sleep that night.
7. Think About Lighting
It can be easy to forget about the importance of lighting and how it affects our quality of sleep. Using technology while in bed seems so commonplace today that a lot of people don’t think about how the devices we use are, in many cases, actually keeping us awake and disrupting our quality of sleep.
Laying in bed on your phone, laptop, gaming console, or other devices (especially without any other lights on in the room), is actually bad for our eyes and can disrupt our bodies in the sense that they won’t understand when it’s time to start relaxing and preparing for sleep. The blue light from devices is not good in the dark, and staring at screens is not a great way to let your brain know it’s almost time to sleep. Instead, try reading a book with white light, or at the very least use your device with a lamp on.
8. Try Some Meditation
Another great option instead of using your device in bed is to try some meditation! While it may not seem as enticing as scrolling mindlessly through social media until you fall asleep, it’s much better for your mind and body and can really help to improve how quickly you fall asleep and your quality of sleep.
Meditation can look different for everybody. You can try it while you’re lying in bed trying to fall asleep, or you can sit and try some before starting your bedtime routine, whatever works best for you! Try to simply focus on the feel and sound of your own breathing and to clear your mind. Doing this before bed instead of flooding your eyes with blue light can really make a difference in your sleep quality!
