Science-Backed Tips for Deep Sleep

Good quality sleep equals good health and a happy frame of mind. On the other hand, turning and tossing throughout the night can take a toll on the quality of your life, resulting in weight gain, restlessness, and chronic illnesses such as heart problems.

A good sleep at night is just as important as a healthy diet and regular exercise for proper metabolic health. Research has proved that low-quality sleep has significant adverse effects on an individual's exercise performance, brain function, metabolic health, and hormones. Conversely, good quality sleep helps people eat less, be healthier and exercise better.

1. Understand the Meaning of a Good Sleep at Night

Getting at least 7 to 9 hours of good quality sleep is crucial for good health, and you might require slightly more than the mentioned period based on your age. For instance, teenagers require 8 to 10 hours of sleep while newborns are good with 14 to 17 hours of sleep.

Sleeping less than the recommended amount per your age can impair your cognitive function, making it tough to lose weight. Lack of adequate sleep can also make you susceptible to different infections because of poor metabolic health.

2. Create the Ideal Environment for Deep Sleep

The ideal environment for deep sleep is a dark and cool room, and experts believe that the right temperature for proper sleep is between 60 and 67 degrees. Studies by the National Sleep Foundation revealed that 73% of US citizens sleep in dark rooms for better sleep. Then, 67% of individuals use curtains, blinds, and shades to block unwanted light in the rooms they sleep in.

Further studies show that silence is vital for 74% of individuals to get deep sleep. Quiet makes for perfect bedroom bliss and thus induces good quality sleep at night. Many individuals use soothing music to mask disruptive noises like highway traffic and cat horns.The main idea is to create an environment conducive to a deep and restful sleep at night.

3. Address All Distractions

If your bedroom has several distractions that you can control to create a sleep-conducive environment, you must work fast. This again comes down to using ambient noise like white noise for diffusing background noise or using earplugs for blocking out noise entirely. Ensure complete darkness in your bedroom by using eye masks or adding blackout windows and shades. Remember, you will never be able to get deep sleep if your bedroom is not dark enough because our bodies are geared towards remaining active in light.

4. Always Sleep on Your Back

You can mitigate the strain on your joints and spine from sitting or standing by lying down on your back most of the day. Since your spine and joints are likely to get strained from supporting your body weight throughout the day, it offers relief to sleep on your back. Furthermore, sleeping on your back will open up the pectoral muscles allowing them to relax completely. Do you work in an office? Then lying down on your back can relieve the toll on your body from slouching on a desk every day.

However, in certain medical conditions, individuals need to sleep on their sides. Conditions such as acid reflux call for side sleeping because this relaxes the esophageal sphincter muscles. This further helps in preventing flare-ups at night, thus improving sleep quality. Pregnant women and individuals with lumbar stenosis and back pain should always sleep on their sides.

5. Avoid Spending the Entire Day in Bed

As per experts, if you want to improve your sleep quality at night, you must sleep less during the day. This also entails spending time in bed, which should be limited during the day. When you avoid hanging out in bed all day, your brain will learn to associate bed with proper sleep, simultaneously improving your sleep habit.

6. Watch What You Eat Before Bedtime and Even in the Evening

Part of the winding down during the night starts in the evening and even early morning. Early exercising and limiting the intake of soda, caffeine, and tea after lunch and in the evening are essential steps you must take to induce better and deep sleep at night. At the same time, you must also avoid foods that risk causing stomach issues that will lead you to skip those happy hours of sleep

7. Set and Follow a Bedtime Routine

The human body operates on an internal clock known as the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm regulates the functioning of the different organs in the human body. Going to bed and leaving bed simultaneously every day, even during the weekends, can help your body synchronize the circadian rhythm, so you will desire to sleep at the same time every day. Setting a proper bedtime routine and following it is helpful. It allows you to fall asleep quickly when your bedtime rolls around. On the other hand, if you keep changing your sleep pattern and schedule, your body does not get into the habit of sleeping at the same time every day, resulting in poor sleep and other medical and health conditions.

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Bottomline

Having a deep sleep is a good way of practicing self-care. Just put a bit of effort into your sleep regimen, and you can wake up happy and remain active throughout the day. Once you successfully achieve deep sleep at night, "good morning" can have an entirely new meaning for you. So, follow the tips above and have a better sleep every day.