Sleep Mistakes You Might Be Making
It should be pretty simple, right? Going to bed and falling asleep? Well what if I told you that it's not actually as simple as you might have thought. There are some things that most of us are in the habit of doing, usually right before bed, that can have an effect on both the amount of sleep we get and its quality. So what should you NOT do right before hitting the hay?
Drinking caffeine
This is a pretty basic rule that most of us abide by, unless you're a student wanting to pull an all-nighter to get that assignment done (we've all been there). But when most of us go to bed, we want to actually get some shut eye, not just lie down and look at the ceiling for eight hours. So what should we do to battle self-induced insomnia? Cut out the caffeine.
Stay away from drinking coffee, Coca Cola, Red Bull, energy drinks of any kind and even tea (unless it's a specific type of tea that's supposed to be consumed before bed). If you're wanting a hot beverage before getting your head down, make a delicious cup of hot chocolate or have a mug of warm milk. Oh, and refrain from drinking alcohol as well - sorry!
Attempting to catch up on sleep
Napping might seem like a good idea when you're feeling particularly tired throughout the day, but it can actually hinder the quality and the amount of sleep you'll get that night. What you should look to do instead is, as impossible as it sounds, just get through the day and get an early night. You should try and treat it like jet lag - wait until it's actually time for bed before turning in for the night. If you're feeling your eyes are getting tired, blink more regularly (trust me, it works).
Sleeping with pets in the bed
There isn't really one specific reason for this, so if you love to go to bed with your dogs or cats then that's fine; I'm not judging. It's just not the best thing to do if you're feeling like you aren't getting the right amount of sleep or if you feel like the quality isn't great. Animals tend to move around a lot even when they're supposed to be sleeping and this can actually cause us to stir from our slumber.
Buy your pets their own bed and train them to stay there rather than in the bed with you. It's also better from a health point of view as you won't be in and around the hair they've been shedding or the slobber they've been expelling, haha.
Hitting snooze
Turning the alarm off, going back to sleep and waiting for the next alarm is not something you want to be doing. You'll find that, when you do nod back off, the sleep quality will be rubbish and you'll wake up for that second alarm feeling far more groggy than you did when you turned off the first one.
When your alarm goes off, turn it off and get out of bed, ready to start the day. I know how hard this can be, especially if you're tired, but trust me, you'll thank yourself later on in the day and when you come to go to sleep again that night.
Drinking alcohol before bedtime
I've already touched on this point a bit further up where I talked about avoiding caffeine before bed, but you really should stay away from alcohol before bedtime. Not only could it keep you awake (surprisingly) but it could also cause you to wake up the next morning feeling tired, groggy and possible even a little bit hungover.
Also, the sleep quality can be impacted so you might find that you aren't getting through the right sleep stages, spending most of it in light sleep rather than deep or REM sleep, which is needed by the body to help with memory retention and other things.
Using your phone
The bright light of your phone doesn't do you any good when it comes to sleep quality. You'll find that it'll take you longer to fall asleep and it'll also be more difficult for you to wake up in the morning. The best thing you can do here is to stop using it an hour before you get tucked up and you should be alright!
Leaving the television on
Much like sleeping with pets in the bed, a television is distracting. It emits bright lights and it's noisy. Turn it off and try and fall asleep in silence. If you nod off with the telly on, you'll end up waking up at some point in the night (because it's woken you up), searching for the remote in and amongst the duvet and turning that racket.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments what your nighttime ritual is and how you like to fall asleep and I'll see you again very soon with another blog post :)
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