Getting enough and good-quality sleep is one of the most frustrating challenges of modern life. This is because sleep affects the brain, and those who experience insomnia can suffer from mood swings, appetite changes, and memory lapses.
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According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, around one-third of American adults do not get the quality of sleep they need, with 35% of people who have insomnia at some stage of their lives. For those who find their sleep disturbed for any longer, it is important to address the root cause in the first place. Experts suggest that the first point of call is to improve a person's sleep hygiene.
What is Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is a general term that describes all the good habits that can be adopted to help maximize the chances of getting the required sleep quality. Those who experience difficulty sleeping usually do not pay attention to their sleep hygiene, which means they fail to create the conditions needed for the best possible sleep.
Good sleep hygiene involves establishing the perfect conditions to ensure a person gives themselves the best chance of uninterrupted rest. It is more than just buying nice-looking beds or good-quality pillows. Instead, it is about creating healthy habits during the day and making a sleep schedule that is both practical and realistic.
Sleep is regulated by the hypothalamus, a small region of the brain controlled by light. This structure helps a person set their own personal body clock, and for it to work efficiently, it requires the right messages to be sent at the right times of the day.
According to experts, sleep-supporting behavior is much more impactful when a person is aware of what is going on in their mind and body. For instance, our body thrives on routine and a regular sleep-wake pattern to function smoothly. This includes releasing hormones, regulating body temperature, and awareness of the proper time to be alert or tired.
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Getting Better Sleep Hygiene
There are a range of easily adopted measures that can be practiced to get a person's sleep back on track. First, it is important to load a person's morning with daylight. Morning light helps anchor and strengthen the circadian rhythm. Inside our eyes, there are light-sensitive cells that relay surrounding light signals to the brain, triggering a physiological chain reaction.
Ensuring a restful environment is another key to good sleep hygiene. To achieve this, the bedroom needs to be filled with sleep-promoting cues like a comfortable bed and blackout blinds. It also means clearing the bedroom of sleep-sabotaging cues like the blue-white lights of mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic devices. The light from these gadgets has been proven to negatively influence a person's natural sleep process.
One suitable form of sleep is sleep fragmentation, or waking at night. This condition can be caused by various factors, like alcohol, caffeine, and high levels of stress hormone cortisol. To make sleep less fragmented and more restorative, a person is advised to learn the optimum caffeine cut-off point and take alcohol in moderation.
Lastly, people need to move away from a state of fight-or-flight as they go about their day. This involves reframing emotions and changing mindsets in favor of sleep.
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