Tips for improving sleep quality

“When will I finally get enough sleep?!” If such a thought appears in your head every day — stay on this page!

Quality sleep is an indispensable basis of health. We all know that an adult needs 7–8 hours of it per day. However, most of us experience insomnia from time to time.

How to improve sleeping and create comfortable conditions to get a full rest? Read on to get recommendations which will help you have a healthy sleep every day.

Is it true that the best time to go to bed is at 10pm?

Doing it at the same time every day is a good habit which helps you establish a sleep pattern and fall asleep quickly.

However, it is a myth that everyone needs to go to bed at 10:00 PM and wake up at 6:00 AM. After all, each person has their own need for sleep and circadian rhythm duration. Somnologist Daria Pylypenko recommends going to bed when a person really wants to slumber.

Tips for healthy sleeping are easy to find and read, but not always easy to follow. In the video, somnologist Daria Pylypenko told more about how to sleep to get enough of it. We recommend viewing it.

If you didn’t get enough rest at night, slumber 1 hour longer the next one. Or, as an emergency, when you didn’t rest well at night, you may take a nap during the day.

However, the somnologist warns: daytime slumber should last 15–20 minutes, no more. If you do it any longer, you will enter a deep phase of sleep, and after it will be difficult to wake up, or disorientation will occur, resembling a state of alcohol intoxication. But the most important thing is: a long daytime nap might lead to difficulty falling asleep in the evening, disrupt sleep architecture and provoke insomnia.

How to improve sleeping today? There are the following rules of healthy sleep:

1. Do not use gadgets, watch TV or read the news 1 hour before bedtime.
2. Ventilate the bedroom before going to bed. The temperature in the room should be 18–21°С, and the optimal air humidity should be at the level of 40–60%.
3. A healthy sleeping is one which takes place in complete darkness and complete silence. Blackout curtains and/or a mask to create darkness will help, and if noise bothers you, try earplugs.

You can also install an application on your phone that tracks sleep phases and tells you when to go to bed.

What to do if you aren’t able to fall asleep for a long time?

When a person cannot fall asleep for more than 15–20 minutes, you should not stay there waiting. The somnologist advises in this case to do the following: get out of bed, leave the room and engage in a monotonous activity (for example, reading a book) and don’t get back until the desire to slumber appears.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep, start tossing and turning, or have intrusive thoughts, you need to do the same! Not spending time in bed, but getting up and doing other activities.

If a person cannot fall asleep, wakes up several times during the night, or has difficulty waking up in the morning, this may indicate a sleeping disorder.

When these problems are repeated more than 3 times a week, and it lasts more than 3 months, this is already a sign of chronic insomnia. To get rid of insomnia, the first line of treatment is used, namely, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A recent study at Harvard Medical School found that CBT is more effective than prescription drugs in treating chronic insomnia.

What methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy to cure insomnia might help you?

• Establish a strict sleeping schedule to restore the routine.
• Use the bed in the room only to sleep! Do not sit or lie or work there during the day.
• Avoid excessive stimulation of the brain (we already wrote about this above): do not get “stuck” in the news, emotional series or television programs before going to bed.

In addition, you can try relaxation techniques, such as meditation or exercises, to relieve tension. More about it later.

How to fall asleep quickly at night?

There are several techniques that can be done quickly, maybe even in 5 minutes 🙂

1. Relax your face, relax your shoulders and lower your arms along your body. Exhale, relax your chest, legs, hips, and calves. Think about something calm and comfortable for 10 seconds.
2. On the contrary: tense all the muscles and hold this position as long as possible. And then sharply relax the whole body. You can try to tense and relax all parts of the body in turn, with a pause of 10 seconds.
3. If you convince yourself that you don’t want to slumber, and you need to stay awake, your body will definitely do the opposite.

Do not use any pills without first consulting a doctor! If you are worried about frequent sleeping interruptions at night, you cannot fall asleep for a long time, and then you wake up in a “broken” state, we advise you to consult a somnologist, a psychiatrist or your family doctor.