14 DAY TRIAL // Rest is essential not only for your wellbeing but also for your health, as countless studies have shown already. Not being able to fall or stay asleep, or tossing a lot around at night can be caused by several factors, which means eliminating them is the perfect way to get a good night’s sleep, Shape magazine says in its latest online issue.
The hour when you sit down for dinner may be just one of the many factors that prevent you from resting properly during the night. With many of us coming home late from work, dinner is occasionally followed by sleep, but the result is far from what we’d expect in terms of rest. To prevent this, we should do our best to have our last meal of the day at least two hours before heading for the bedroom, if we want to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed.
“If you’re hungry and are craving a light snack, foods with tryptophan, like whole-grain, low-sugar cereal or a small peanut butter sandwich, release serotonin into the brain, making you relaxed. According to The Mayo Clinic, there is little evidence to prove that warm milk before bedtime has any sleep-enhancing effects, so you can skip this old tip.” Shape further says. Still, if we’re also watching our figure, snacks before bedtime are not a good idea, so we should perhaps try to skip these as well.
Another common-sense piece of advice as regards a good night’s sleep has to do with skipping late-afternoon naps. Short naps are ideal for recharging our batteries and helping us concentrate on the task at hand (they’re usually called power naps and last no longer than a few minutes), but they can disrupt our sleeping patterns. If we notice we have problems sleeping at night, we’re to avoid napping altogether for a while and see how that works for us, Shape recommends.
Routine is also an essential aspect when it comes to sleeping well at night. “It’s important that you get your body on a sleep schedule-even on weekends. Maintaining a consistent sleep-wake cycle should help you fall asleep more regularly. To help you craft a habit of sleep-preparation activities, try reading a book (not in bed), or relaxing stretch poses.” the aforementioned magazine says.
Last but not least, in order to get the rest we deserve, we must always remember to make a clear distinction between relaxation and work – that is, bear in mind that we’re never to take stuff from work to bed. As we also noted on a previous occasion, the bed in the bedroom is for sleep only and any kind of work-related activity taking place in it will only make it that much harder for us to fall asleep or, at best, get a good night’s rest.