Do you dream of a good night’s sleep? Here are some tips

Tips to make your dreams come true for a good night’s sleep and a good morning

Being tired from time to time is part of life. New babies, great parties, Bing watching, delayed flights or just old ones can’t sleep. But if you have too many nights like this, or nights where your rest is interrupted, you can become a victim of an even worse long-term consequence: insomnia.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports that lack of sleep is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression. Lack of sleep is also associated with a higher risk of injury in adults, adolescents, and children.

Aside from the medical side, did we mention that not feeling well, being grumpy and bringing a serious spasm into your social life is also a side effect?

Here are 5 (mostly) easy ways to improve your sleep.

Avoid stimulants

Do you love your coffee and smoke? You may want to shorten. While it’s not an easy task, if you’re having trouble falling asleep, giving up cigarettes and coffee may be necessary for a good night’s sleep. Some people see it as making it through the day, but at night both are disastrous as bedtime rolls around. At least try cutting them out after lunch and see if that helps.

Caffeine can stay in the body for up to 14 hours. The Mayo Clinic also says it can increase the number of times you wake up during the night and decrease the amount of good quality sleep you get. Experts advise taking the last sip of coffee at noon at the latest.

Set a bedtime and stick to it

Your body loves routines, eating, exercising and sleeping too. Just like anything else, your body needs to do something enough for it to become a habit. By going to bed at the same time every night, you train your body to reset its sleep pattern. Your circadian rhythm, or biological clock, regulates your body’s day and night processes over a 24-hour period. Waking up and going to bed at the same time every day strengthens your circadian rhythm and helps your body work efficiently. You’ll probably find that you get up even earlier on weekends, but feel more rested.

Train

Adding a good workout or even a long walk to your daily routine will not only help you fall asleep, but will also improve your sleep quality. According to the sleep doctor:

In addition to improving the quality of sleep, exercise can also help increase the length of time you sleep at night. Being physically active requires you to expend energy and helps you feel more tired and ready to rest at the end of the day. Research shows that exercise — especially regular exercise that’s part of a consistent routine — can improve sleep quality as well as sleep duration.

A regular exercise routine can also help reduce stress and anxiety, which are often the cause of some sort of “back and forth” at night. The sleep doctor says: “Just 5 minutes of exercise can trigger anti-anxiety responses in the body. Mind-body exercises like yoga can help calm the parasympathetic nervous system, which can help you relax.”

Medical marijuana

according to dr Tishler, prescription drugs are typically only effective in treating the physiological causes of insomnia, not physical and mental well-being.

The benefits of using medicinal marijuna go well beyond increasing sleep duration, which is just one component of feeling rested, including:

Improved sleep hygiene.

Sleep hygiene relates to the quality of your sleep (and the habits that contribute to it, such as avoiding caffeine). Many medical marijuana users report deeper, more satisfying sleep with fewer interruptions from waking up in the middle of the night.

Decreased sleep latency.

The sleep onset latency (SOL) measures how long it takes for a person to fall asleep from a state of full wakefulness. Marijuana can lower SOL so you fall asleep in minutes instead of hours.

Lack of “hangovers” or impaired memory.

Many insomniacs have experimented with alcoholic “sleeping potions” before bed to help them fall asleep faster. However, this often proves counterproductive, as drinking before bed can leave you feeling light-headed, disoriented, with a headache, and ill-rested. Similarly, many who use conventional sleep aids are prone to morning lightheadedness and even short-term memory loss. Marijuana does not cause unpleasant hangover effects, although patients are advised to stay well hydrated.

Separate

This may seem like a no-brainer, but turning off your electrical devices before bed can help you sleep. The blue glow from an iPhone, laptop or iPad can slow down production of the sleep hormone melatonin. According to a 2015 study, using these devices before bed also decreases alertness the next morning.

Using light-emitting devices immediately before bedtime also increases alertness at that time, which can lead users to delay bedtime at home. Overall, we found that the use of wearable light-emitting devices immediately before bedtime has biological effects that can perpetuate sleep deprivation and disrupt circadian rhythms, which can be detrimental to performance, health, and safety.

So give your device a break so you can finally get some of it.