How A Bedtime Routine Can Help You Sleep Better
Numerous people out there have sleeping issues. Would you be surprised if we told you something as simple as a bedtime routine can help? Here’s how:
Bedtime Routines: The Quickest Escape from Insomnia
A consistent bedtime routine can help you with earlier bedtimes, better sleep outcomes, reduced night waking, shorter sleep onset latency, and increased sleep duration.
Sleep problems are one of the most common problems faced by people, which can negatively impact the health of an individual. Inadequate sleep quality and quantity have shown numerous negative consequences, which may include:
Cognitive and behavioural deficits that can hamper your daily activities.
May give rise to mental consequences like psychiatric disorder, stress and anxiety.
Risk individuals to metabolic disorders like obesity, diabetes and CVD.
Also, it can cause hunger spikes during the night, and lower your immunity while increasing your blood pressure.
How Setting up a Bedtime Routine can Help You Sleep Better?
Human beings believe in making rules and abide by those rules to live happily. We tend to live better with a habit, and a bedtime routine does the same by promoting health and wellness through structure and organization. Some benefits are mentioned as follows:
Helps fight stress – When you set up a routine of sleeping on time, it provides more time to relax. Relaxation improves your mental health by decreasing the levels of cortisol in the brain resulting in less anxiety and stress.
Promotes good sleep – Your daily routine influences your sleeping habit and improves your quality of rest. Maintaining a consistent time for waking and going to bed will promote good sleep, mental sharpness, emotional-well being, performance, and energy level.
Boosts overall health– “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. This quote says it all! If you sleep early, you tend to wake up early and you’ll have time to exercise and eat your breakfast properly, that can fuel up your body and will help you perform better throughout the day
How can I Set Up A Bedtime Routine?
The important part to remember is to have a fixed time for your routine. This will ensure you sleep on time and help you get your circadian rhythm in order. You may consider making one or more of the following activities part of your routine.
Keep all your electronic gadgets aside: Perhaps the most important point on the list, and a rather essential one. Electronic gadgets like computers, tablets, mobiles can distract you from your sleep. Eliminating all such distractions can calm your mind and bring closer to your sleep.
A glass of warm milk – Have you ever noticed infants going to sleep as soon as they are fed by their mother? This is because milk contains a natural sleep-inducing hormone called tryptophan. A glass of warm milk before bed can help relax your brain and put you into a good sleep.
Meditation- 10-20 minutes of meditation before going to bed can help you sleep better by relaxing your brain and helping your muscles release tension. This way you can have a good night’s sleep.
Dim the lights – Dimming the lights 30 minutes before going to bed sets up your circadian clock to produce melatonin. A hormone that induces sleep.
Following the same bedtime routine: When you set a specific and consistent bedtime each night, your body will start to adapt to the schedule. Forming a habit can naturally help your body relax and put you to good sleep as your bedtime approaches. To follow your bedtime routine more appropriately you can also set a bedtime alarm.
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