Did you know that about one-third of all American adults report not getting enough sleep on a regular basis? Many of these people suffer from a wide range of physical and mental health issues as a result of it. If you want to avoid falling into this category, you should make it your mission to develop healthy sleeping habits. These healthy habits will ensure that you’re able to get more than enough sleep each night. They’ll also increase your chances of getting the kind of high-quality sleep that your body and mind need. Check out some of the top healthy sleep habits that you should put into place to improve your overall wellbeing in no time at all.
Set Up Your Bedroom So That It’s Conducive to Sleeping
One of the very first things you should attempt to do when you’re trying to develop healthy sleeping habits is to rethink the way in which your bedroom is set up. You should be especially mindful of doing this if you suspect that your room might be to blame for your poor sleep habits at the moment.
Some of the things that you can do to make your bedroom more sleep-friendly include:
- Buying a brand-new mattress and boxspring
- Investing in high-quality comforters, sheets, and pillows for your bed
- Hanging up curtains to block out light and noise
- Adjusting the temperature to make it comfortable
- Introducing light scents into the space through the use of essential oils
When you walk into your bedroom at night, it should be all ready to go for you. You’ll start to look forward to heading off to bed when you enjoy everything your bedroom has to offer.
Create a Set Sleep Schedule for Yourself
Almost every other part of your day is scheduled out to some degree. But if you’re not doing it already, why aren’t you scheduling out your sleep, too? Creating a sleep schedule for yourself and sticking to it is one of the best healthy sleeping habits that you can put into place. You won’t have much trouble falling asleep each night when your body and mind know what’s coming.
Here are some of the steps you should take when creating a sleep schedule for yourself:
- Get yourself into the habit of going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day and night
- Maintain your sleep schedule on both weekdays and weekends
- Limit the number of disruptions that you experience to your sleep schedule
It might not be easy to create a sleep schedule at first if you’ve never done it before. But you can gradually train your body to drift off to sleep at night and wake up in the morning at right around the same time each and every day.
Come Up With a Bedtime Routine That Works for You
Raise your hand if you’ve gotten into the routine of finishing off almost all your days by playing on your cell phone in bed at night until you fall asleep. Sadly, far too many people take this approach to bedtime—and they end up paying the price for it since the blue light that a cell phone produces is known to make it challenging for people to fall asleep. Rather than going this route when it comes to your bedtime routine, you should be more intentional about things. You should:
- Start to mentally wind down for the night about 30 minutes before bed
- Plug your devices up to their chargers and abstain from using them
- Turn the lights down low get your body and mind prepared to sleep
You should also think about reading a book in bed instead of watching TV. Although some books might titillate the senses and keep you awake longer than you want, most of them will help to quiet your mind down in preparation for bed.
Prepare Your Body and Mind to Sleep All Day Long
You don’t necessarily want to walk around all day long thinking about sleeping at night. That’s no way to live your life! But some of the steps that you take during the day are going to play a big role in helping you form healthy sleeping habits. For example, not taking too many naps during the day will make it easier to fall asleep at night. There are also lots of other ways you can prepare your body and mind to sleep at night throughout the typical day. You can do it by:
- Getting plenty of natural light
- Making it a point to exercise at least a little bit
- Scaling back how much caffeine you drink
- Limiting how late in the day you choose to eat
Each of these things will make sleep easier to come by at night. You’ll notice a difference in the quality of your sleep when you take these steps.
Talk to Your Doctor If You Still Experience Sleep Problems
People who don’t get enough sleep each night often suffer from a variety of physical and mental health issues. And they don’t always realize that it’s a lack of sleep that’s causing them problems. If you’re not sleeping enough night in and night out, you should see if establishing healthy sleeping habits changes things. It could very well change your life forever by making you feel better than you have in years. Would you like to learn more about the importance of sleep and how to get more sleep? Browse through the articles on our blog to find out what you need to know.
