5 Effective Tips to Get Better Sleep at Night

Just the way you value exercise and a diet that is healthy, you need to also value a good night’s sleep. Poor sleep has side effects that are negative which you will experience instantly on your hormones, brain function and exercise performance. It might cause weight gain and other diseases. With good sleep, chances are that it will help you in eating less, exercising better and becoming healthier.

1. During the day, increase the exposure of bright Light:
It is good to know that, your body has timekeeping which is natural that is known as the circadian rhythm. It is the one that affects your body, brain and hormones, helping you to be able to stay awake and signaling your body when it is time to sleep.

Bright light or light from the sun exposure is known to improve sleep duration and quality. It also helps in reducing the time it will take you to fall asleep. Just two hours of exposure to the light might increase the amount of sleep and sleep efficiency. So if you have issues sleeping at night, daily exposure to the sunlight might just improve your sleep quality and the time it will take you to fall asleep.

2. In The Evening Reduce The Exposure to Blue Light:
When you expose yourself to light during the day, it is very important but exposing yourself to nighttime light has a negative effect. This is because of the impact that it has on the circadian rhythm, ending up in tricking the brain into imagining that it is still daytime. It ends up reducing hormones such as melatonin which are responsible for relaxing and making you get to sleep which is deep. Blue light comes from electronic gadgets such as computers and smartphones, which emits in large amounts. To reduce this, you can do the following:

Try wearing glasses which block the blue light

Stop watching the television and turn off any light which is bright two hours before you go to sleep

There are apps which you can download that will help in blocking blue light from your computer or laptop

Install on your smartphone apps which block blue light, which is available for both Androids and iPhone models.

3. You should not consume caffeine late in the day:
Though caffeine has several benefits that make many people take it like enhancing energy, focus, and performance in sport, it might not be good for your sleep. When you consume it late, the caffeine stimulates the nervous system which in the process, stops the body from being able to relax naturally at night. It is believed that, consuming caffeine 6 hours before sleep might not be good.

Caffeine is known to stay in the body for between 6 hours to 8 hours. This means that, if you take a large quantity of coffee after 3 pm especially if you are sensitive to caffeine or have insomnia, it will worsen your sleep quality

4. Reduce Long or Irregular Daytime Naps:
While having short naps might be the best thing to do, getting irregular or long naps in the daytime might affect your sleep negatively. When you sleep during the day, the internal clock is confused which will make you struggle to sleep at night. But if you take regular daytime short naps it is possible that you will still have quality sleep at night.

5. Try to wake and sleep at times which are consistent:
The circadian rhythm of your body tends to function on a loop that is preset that aligns itself with the sunset and sunrise. When you sleep in a consistent manner and wake up at a certain time always, it might just aid you in having long quality sleeping time. Irregular sleep patterns even if it is on weekends alone, might cause poor sleep as it alters the circadian rhythm and the melatonin level, which is what signals the brain to cause you to sleep.

If you are struggling with your sleep, you can try getting into the habit of going to bed and waking up at similar times throughout the week. After forming this pattern for several weeks, you might not even require to have an alarm.