Ever wondered why you are unable to focus and feel groggy in the morning while others feel fresh and are ready to go? The answer lies in the quality of sleep attained. Sleep plays a crucial role in our physical and mental wellbeing and affects our productivity levels too. Thus, it is no secret that most successful people and high-performance individuals always get adequate sleep of the highest quality. The urban populace often sacrifices sleep at the alters of work, hectic schedules and bad habits formed over a long time. While a busy schedule is probably the most common reason for poor sleeping habits, most people find it hard to incorporate adequate sleep in their everyday lifestyle because of hectic schedules. Here are five things you can do to improve your sleep quality instantly and wake up fresh every day:
Room Design – Before getting to the habits, let’s start with the environment. The environment has an impact on the quality of sleep you get. Hence, designing your room to be sleep-friendly is necessary for experiencing good sleep. Below are some changes you can make to your room to drastically improve your quality of sleep.
● Pick the right mattress, pillows and blankets to get maximum comfort.
● Install blackout curtains so that your room is pitch dark.
● Keep all electronic appliances outside the room to eliminate distractions.
● Before you sleep, reduce exposure to white light. You can use yellow light.
● Try your best to remove any form of noise from your room.
● Maintain your room temperature between 16-19 degrees Celsius.
2. Sleeping and waking up at the same time- Now that we have got the environment covered, let’s get into the habits. The first and most crucial habit of getting good quality sleep is sleeping and waking up early or at least at the same time every day. Sleeping and waking up at fixed times is healthy as it helps your body set its circadian rhythm and also improves the body’s wakefulness. A body’s circadian rhythm is the internal clock that regulates periods of activity and inactivity. A regulated circadian rhythm helps you stay active and alert throughout most of the day. It is better to have early timings because it is easily adaptable to your day’s schedule. It may be difficult to sleep early every night, but it is highly recommended you wake up at the same time every day and catch up on the lost hours of sleep through an afternoon nap. Waking up early also gives you more time in the morning to start your day in a relaxed manner. If you are in the habit of hitting the snooze button, it’s time to stop. The extra 5-10 minutes of sleep, which you think improves your sleep quality, actually degrades it as it disrupts your REM sleep and may cause a fight or flight response in your body which increases blood pressure and heartbeat.
3. Stay Active- The next hack to experience good quality sleep is to stay active. A keen observation you can make from your own life is how easily you fall asleep when you are exhausted as opposed to when you are full of energy. Apart from work, you could indulge in some physical activity which will tire you and improve your quality of sleep significantly. You could also use this tip if you have trouble sleeping. Instead of staying awake in bed, leave the room, indulge in physical activity for a brief period and then go to sleep. You’ll find it much easier to fall asleep.
4. Make more time for yourself in a day- We often get caught up in our social lives with very little time to spend with ourselves. Hence, we see sleep as the only time we get to ourselves and take time off it to do things we don’t have time for in the day like watching a show or scrolling through Instagram. Make it a point to accommodate time for yourself in your daily schedule. This way, you can get things done and also have healthy sleep habits.
5. Adequate hours- The last tip is to get enough sleep. We all need a minimum number of hours of sleep to function. Sleep experts recommend at least 7 hours for adults and 9 hours for children a day. Try your best to get the required hours of sleep every night. If you find it difficult, try to squeeze in an hour of sleep in the afternoon.
In conclusion, good quality sleep is an essential aspect of a healthy life. The tips above can help you significantly improve your quality of sleep instantly. Good sleeping habits, in turn, will help you have more time in a day, improve your productivity, physical and mental wellbeing too.
