No better therapy than a good night’s sleep could get one feeling fresh and ready for the next day. A bad night’s sleep has led to major drops in one’s productivity and inability to concentrate properly.
This further leads to high stress at work , among other physical and psychological complications. These complications can form over time when this habit becomes a routine.
For whom insomnia is the one problem , lying in bed, closing your eyes, and sleeping is an ordeal. Even the tiredness of a long day proves insufficient to bring sleep to you.
What solves this dilemma is some pretty straightforward but very effective practices to help you get a good night’s sleep. But first, let’s discuss the way to help your mind clear before you lay your head on the pillow.
Why is it important to empty your mind before sleeping?
While for others, a bit of time in the gym each day is enough to prepare themselves physically to face challenges during life. But have you ever thought that the mind should be prepared too?
Preparing the mind for, say, a long day in the office is a little different. The idea would be to feed your thoughts into an overloaded headpiece just before bedtime, lest you sleep lightly.
Probably, you had a bad night’s sleep, tossing and turning because you worried about something in particular. You should know that apart from losing some time, you also lose quality. When you finally fall asleep, your mind won’t be totally released, and therefore, you won’t get the rest you need. It’s very important to have good mental hygiene before sleeping.
The ability to close your eyes into the dreams depends on how clear the mind is. Sleeping is the way through which the mind readies itself to find solutions to certain activities and to be able to concentrate on those activities. As such, it is very important to pay attention to what you are doing before you go to bed.
Tips for Sleep Hygiene
The same principle is applied on how to maintain our bodies and hair-coffee, shampoo, taking a shower, brushing our teeth, and many more things on a daily basis-similar activities must be performed in caring for our minds. And one of the major things to be performed is the ideal amount and quality of sleep for our well-being and to renew our senses and strength.
Sleep hygiene is basically adopting simple practices to help prepare for one of the most crucial moments of the day: bedtime. Check out the following tips that will help you clear your mind:
1. Create a bedtime routine
Your body gets used to and respects the times you establish in your daily routine. In this sense, try to go to bed at the same time every day, including on weekends. Try to maintain these times for several days, this way your body will adopt these habits.
2. Don’t take work to your place of rest
If you work from home, set aside a specific room in your home to carry out your activities. For studying and reading, try not to do them lying in bed; leave a comfortable chair and a table for this purpose.
By separating your work activities from your resting space, you allow your mind to interpret the bed as a place to relax. In addition, this measure is essential to improve your focus on your tasks. Reading in bed can make you feel tired after the first page.
3. Turn off electronic devices
Today, electronic media and the internet form a huge part of our daily lives. Before we even know, we are checking our emails, social network notifications, and updating interesting content and news. The world is at our fingertips with just one click.
However, this accessibility might spoil our quality of life if not used in moderation, including when resting. So, disconnect when going to bed to clear your mind. Devices, like smartphones or laptops, emanate white light that tends to make the mind more alert. And you do not want to be awake at bedtime, do you?
4. Keep the bedroom environment pleasant
Make your room completely dark and at the ideal temperature so that you feel comfortable, without noise or noise. Another important factor is organization; a room full of clutter makes the environment feel cluttered. Organization allows you to feel more peaceful and comfortable in your room.
Another important factor is that, when you know where your things are, you won’t get nervous thinking about the next day. How many times have you lost sleep when you realized that you had no idea where a piece of clothing or material you needed the next day was? Invest in the quality of your rest by organizing your belongings.
5. Stop eating stimulating and heavy foods
Coffee, soda, chocolate, sweets, fried foods, pasta, and other types of food and drinks that can increase your stimulation are exponentially harmful to sleep hygiene.
It is recommended to have a light snack with healthy ingredients to help you sleep well. Stop eating potentially stimulating foods a few hours before going to bed.
6. Take a relaxing bath
Taking a shower before bed can help to lower your energy levels and also help you relax, taking your mind off of your thoughts. Plus, it can be quite satisfying to slip into your favorite pajamas after you’ve showered. Creating a routine of bedtime habits can help your mind recognize that it’s time to sleep.
Make showering before bed a priority on your to-do list. Your body will sense that it’s time to unwind and just relax the moment you step into the shower.
7. Try to relax at least 2 hours before going to bed
Checking bills, appointments, and discussing an uncomfortable topic with someone are tasks that use up energy. They also increase your stress levels, so do them no more than 2 hours before going to bed. Manage your time better , solve what you need in advance, and leave your mind free and relaxed when it’s time to sleep.
Getting into the habit of solving problems as soon as they arise can even help you become a less anxious person. Reducing anxiety is the secret to becoming a calmer person who can fall asleep easily. When you stop doing something important the moment it arises, you leave room for it to become a bigger problem that will keep you awake at night.
8. Recognize your victories
It is amazing how, if you want to get a good night’s sleep, you have to accept the realization that, although there are things pending for tomorrow, you managed others. Therefore, instead of focusing on what you could not solve, why do you not try reflecting upon what you did succeed in?
Understand that it’s not all possible to do everything on your list in the morning and that is okay, so know that tomorrow is a new day in which you can get your work and other tasks on track.