If you’re feeling fatigued and edgy, you may not be getting enough sleep at night. Even if you can find the time in your day to sleep for more than a few hours, daily stressors, such as work, home duties and finances, can get in the way of falling asleep and staying asleep. To get some quality shut eye, make some basic lifestyle changes and adjust your bedroom so that it’s more sleep-friendly.
Step 1
Exercise for at least 20 minutes at a time three or four days a week. Vigorous cardiovascular exercise, in particular, can help you get to sleep faster and improve the quality of your sleep, according to Discovery Health. However, strenuous workouts within three hours of bedtime may reduce your ability to fall asleep, says Discovery Health.
Step 2
Wake up and go to sleep at the time every day of the week. This regular schedule will teach your body to fall asleep at a set time, says The University of Maryland Medical Center. Time your sleep so that you can get the rest that most healthy adults need--seven to eight hours of sleep a night--but be willing to slightly adjust your bedtime if you don’t feel well-rested with your standard schedule, says the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Step 3
Eat dinner at least two hours before falling asleep, says MayoClinic.com. Skip fatty or spicy dinners if you’re susceptible to heartburn, because they can exacerbate the problem when you’re trying to sleep. Other pre-sleep “no-nos” are stimulants, such as caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.
Step 4
Install sun shades, adjust your bedroom’s temperature and buy comfortable bedding to encourage a peaceful slumber. You may also need earplugs or a white noise generator to block out interruptions, suggests MayoClinic.com.
Step 5
Sleep and have sex in your bedroom, but do other activities elsewhere, suggests the American Academy of Family Physicians. Working, eating, watching television and talking on your phone in the bedroom can cause you to develop non-relaxing associations with your room, which may interfere with your ability to fall asleep.
Step 6
Implement a consistent, relaxing pre-sleep routine. Your routine may involve writing in a journal and doing deep breathing exercises or taking a bath and reading a book prior to sleep. Whatever it is, do the same activity every night so that your body will begin to associate them with sleeping, says the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Step 7
Write in a sleep diary if you continue to experience insomnia. Use it to log: when you go to bed, how long you lie in bed before you fall asleep, each nighttime interruption and your wake-up time, says the American Academy of Family Physicians. Take the diary to your doctor and it may help him assess what is interfering with your sleep.
Things You'll Need
- Sun shades
- Comfortable bedding
- Diary
