Sleep hygiene
Every person wants to live a healthy and happy life, but most of us are careless in many useful things which helps us to improve our health and daily life. Apart from healthy eating habits, proper sleep is one of the most important things to be healthy, fresh and happy.
Sleep hygiene is a practice or habit which follows a proper schedule for sleep which is necessary for the daytime alertness. It also includes the behaviors and rituals towards the sleep or in a simple way it is your approach towards the sleep.
In modern day life sleep, hygiene education must be given to the students, not at school levels but also at college and university levels as sleep education is the important section in the cognitive-behavioral therapy used to treat insomnia.
Effect of environment on sleeping hygiene:
Role of the environment is very important in every person’s life as a person feels comfortable in a stable and friendly environment so in the same sleeping environment is also very important for the peaceful and sound sleep. Soo you should develop such a comfortable environment which improves your sleeping time and sleeping hygiene.
You can make a pleasant sleeping environment by:
- Getting blackout in the room by switching off all the lights and covering the curtains to ensure proper darkness in the room at bedtime you can also use sleeping masks as well.
- Use good quality mattress and pillows which provide ultimate comfort to you.
- The temperature of the room should be maintained according to the season, the optimal temperatures for sleeping are between 15 to 19C.
- Use earplugs to avoid any type of noise.
Effect of eating and drinking on sleep hygiene:
Sleep hygiene is also affected by your eating and drinking habits. Much research shows that sleeping with an empty stomach is very difficult for some persons but you should have to eat at least 3 hours before going to sleep and also and drink less water at night.
Other eating and drinking habits can be discussed as:
Eating heavy, fired and fatty meals, spicy dishes, citrus fruits can cause serious problems like indigestion, acidity, heartburn at bedtime and ultimately disrupt sleep and also increases the temperature of your body. Large and heavy meals make you sleepy but cause sleep disruption after some time as they cause late-night bathroom trip. You should avoid too sugary and fatty foods in the dinner in order to promote sleep hygiene. Heavy or spicy foods can keep you up by increasing your body temperature, making your stomach feel uncomfortable, or cause a late-night bathroom trip. The most dangerous condition one can face after eating a heavy meal and then sleeping early is acid reflux.
So you should improve your eating habits in order to improve sleep hygiene and try to include light and healthy foods for your dinner which also support sleep hygiene. Foods which promote good sleep are bananas, milk, cherries, oats, yogurt, etc.
You should control some of the drinking habits as well for better sleep like you should avoid drinking too much of water at night which then interferes with your sleep late at night when you have to wake up for bathroom.
Stimulants like nicotine and caffeine which stimulate or activate your nervous system should be avoided before going to bed as they disrupt sleep badly which leads to poor sleeping hygiene.
Also, avoid sugary drinks and soda drinks before going to bed.
It is a common observation that alcohol promotes sleep, or helps to sleep faster which is quite right but only in the case of moderate consumption of alcohol. Drinking too much of alcohol disrupt sleep in the second half of the night or causes hangovers or toilet needs etc.
Sleep hygiene and drugs:
Use of marijuana or any other drug causes disruption of sleep, so try to limit their use in order to have sound sleep. They should be stopped almost 6-7 hours before going to bed.
Narcotics and tranquilizers must be used with caution in all ages as they have many side effects like daytime sleepiness, blurred vision most importantly physical and psychological dependence. In a moderate amount, they promote sleeping but ultimately causes rebound effects and tolerance.
Increased blood pressure and increases heart rate with cigarette smoking or use of nicotine interferes with the sleeping pattern and keep you awake for a longer period of time.
Effect of Your room on Sleep hygiene:
The appearance, setting, color, and environment of your room do affect your sleep.
As your room is the place to relax and to sleep so do not put unnecessary stuff in the room or do not make a mess in the room which also affects you mentally and interferes with sleep.
Just keep necessary things in your room and try to remove unnecessary electronic appliances like phone, TV, Radio, Computer which can affect the sleep in any way this also keep your room quiet and provide you a relaxing and pleasant feelings.
Maintain the cold or pleasant temperature of the room so that you sleep better in a comfortable environment.
Color also effects the sleeping pattern as they are linked with the mind, different colors have different effects on your mind some causes relaxation and calmness while others make you alert or boring, etc. So you should paint your rooms with lighter colors which have a pleasing effect on your mind and sleep as well.
The spectrum, colors such as purple, brown, and grey can potentially destroy the amount of sleep you get. Average hours for these colors are 6 hours 12 minutes for grey, 6 hours 5 minutes for brown, and 5 hours 56 minutes for purple.
Effect of Hormones on sleep hygiene:
Hormones like adrenaline, make you feel alert and alarming to prepared for action. This then makes it difficult for us to go to sleep. To stop this effect, it’s best to do relaxing activities before bedtime, rather than stressful work tasks or intense exercise.
Cortisol and melatonin are the two prominent hormones that regulate the pattern of your sleep.
It elevates your blood sugar levels and blood pressure in preparation for physical activity. As part of your circadian rhythm, there is usually a cortisol spike in the early hours of the morning that helps you to wake up feeling refreshed.
Melatonin is the main sleep hormone, it is released by your pineal gland and works with cortisol. When your optic nerves detect natural light diminishing, they will send a message to your hypothalamus, which will trigger the release of melatonin to help you relax and feel drowsy in preparation for sleep.
Growth hormone (GH) and cortisol release play a major role in appetite regulation, such as leptin and ghrelin, is partly dependent on sleep timing, duration, and quality. The sleep-wake cycle is also depending on glucose tolerance and insulin secretion.
Sleep propensity and sleep architecture are in turn controlled by the interaction of two time-keeping mechanisms in the central nervous system, circadian rhythmicity.
Another number of hormones can also affect the sleep and health in any way like Oestrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone, Insulin, Cortisol & melatonin.
How You Can Help
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