By Emma Pearson
Sleep, we all love it, and nothing feels better than waking up knowing you’ve had your full 8 hours. Not only is a good night’s sleep desirable, it is also imperative when it comes to your general health and well-being. Sleep deprivation can cause everything from tiredness and vulnerability to full blown depression and the inability to carry out the simplest of tasks.
Follow these 10 tips and you will be knocking the Z’s out without counting the sheep.
- Stick to a schedule: This allows your body to set its internal rhythm so that you can get up consistently at the time you want.
- Sleep only at night: Resist sleeping during the day no matter how tired you feel. Daytime naps steal hours from the night time slumber and make it harder to drift off on an evening.
- Exercise: It had been proven that exercise helps you have a better quality sleep. Your body uses the sleep period to recover its muscles and joints that have been exercised.
- Bathe: A hot shower or bath helps to bring on sleep by relaxing tense muscles.
- Avoid late eating: At least two hours before bed. Any later than this and your body will be churning away at digesting your food, rather than relaxing.
- Avoid Caffeine: This might sound obvious but it is amazing the amount of people who take a cup of tea up to bed with them and are surprised when they can’t sleep.
- Light a candle: Yankee candles and woodwick candles are available in a range of scents which can help you sleep.
- Sleep in silence: Sleep with no distractions is best for a clearer mind. Avoid falling asleep to music or the TV as you will have to get back out of bed to turn them off.
- Avoid alcohol before bed: Although it may help you to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night.
- Don’t lounge: Avoid lounging in your bed during the day. Keep the bed as a place solely for sleep, this way your mind will automatically set itself to sleep mode when you get into bed.
