How to Improve Your Sleep Quick & Easy - Step 1
How to make your sleep better? Easy to implement tips.
Those posts are fragments from my book “Short Practical Guide to Mental Health“, therefore they're, exceptionally, behind the paywall. You can purchase the book here.
“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep.” - E. Joseph Cossman
Whenever I hear someone say they only get 5 hours of sleep each night, I can't help but wonder how they are able to do it. I either get a good night's rest or I’m half dead until I hit the bed. My body and mind seem to crave the full restorative power of a proper night's sleep, and anything less leaves me feeling sluggish and drained the next day.
I have the dubious advantage of not being affected by caffeine, so I have to go through life without a midday energy boost. The only effect there is after a cup of strong coffee is the rapid urge to visit the restroom for a longer stay. While this is not convenient at all, and there were countless situations when a quick pick-me-up would have been welcome, it works in my favor at the end of the day.
Sleep is unquestionably one of life's treasures worth investing in. Buying a better mattress is not the first thing that comes to mind after getting some extra cash (unless your back starts to hurt), but it definitely should be. Given that we spend roughly half our lives asleep, few things deserve a higher priority than ensuring a good night's rest.
How you sleep directly mirrors your daily life when you are awake. Staying up late, while it may feel good at the moment, is nothing more than self sabotage. You probably know this well but manage to ignore it anyway. Staring at your phones’ screen for an extra hour is very tempting; you don’t want to start another day and go through your daily chores again just for the time when you can rest again; you want it now. Even at the expense of an exhausted version of yourself in the morning.
Sleep is definitely not something to be ignored. Even if you can function on 4 hours of sleep just fine now, it will affect you in the long run, and it is already affecting your memory, emotional resilience, cognitive abilities, focus, even your insulin levels are abnormal when you lack sleep.
Let’s say you are working on something significant. Don’t fall into the trap that many do because it feels more intuitive and logical. More time awake = more work done. Right? Well, not exactly. Getting a few more hours of sleep and, therefore, performing much better in what you have to do is a far wiser choice than staying up late, feeling exhausted, easily irritable and having a much greater chance of making mistakes. Sometimes getting a good night's rest is akin to switching your life's difficulty level from “hard” to “easy”, (or at least “normal”).
When your alarm clock shows eight hours while you are putting away the phone, how long will you sleep? Eight hours, right? Wrong!
Remember - time spent in bed is not equal to time spent sleeping. For me, it takes about 40 minutes to fall asleep. I know it may sound crazy, but time flies while you lay down in a comfortable bed making fake scenarios in your mind (also, don’t do that).
I recommend getting some kind of sleep tracker. If you are using a smartwatch, get more sleep insights from it. Alternatively, you can try some apps, although they may not be as accurate.
There are some ways to improve your sleep with very little effort. If you are a night owl like me, you may be interested in getting an eye mask or blackout curtains. I prefer a mask because I like when the sun hits me in the eyes right after I take it off, without even getting out of bed, but pretty much anything that makes your room dark will work. Creating a dark sleeping environment has been shown to improve the quality of your sleep by regulating melatonin production, ensuring a deeper and more restful slumber.
Another easy improvement is to make sure that your room is cold, not freezing cold, but about 18 °C (60-68 °F). Not going any deeper, this is just an optimal temperature for sleep.
How about screens? Obviously, it would be perfect if you turned off all your screens a few hours before bed, but we all know how reality is. If you can’t
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