7 meaningful habits for better sleep

Many studies show that sleep really is the key to being physically and mentally healthy. Almost everyone encounters sleep problems in their lifetime for various reasons. In this article, we will introduce you to a few 7 habits that can improve the quality of your sleep.

KEEP YOUR ROOM CHILLED AND DARK

• Make sure your bedroom is completely dark at night because the light coming from outside has a negative influence on producing a sleeping hormone called melatonin.
• Open the window before you go to sleep and keep your room chilled. The ideal bedroom temperature is 20⁰C (70⁰F)

STAY ACTIVE DURING THE DAY

• Get out of bed in the morning. Of course, spending a day in bed could be very romantic and relaxing. However, from a long-term perspective, it makes your sleep at night worse. Try to wake up on your first alarm and get out of bed.
• Move! If you want to sleep better try to do some physical activities during the day. You can run, work out, dance, or just go for a nice walk.
• Get sunlight! Daylight helps stabilize your biorhythm. Spend time outside and expose your skin to the sun if possible. We get vitamin D mainly from the sun, and a lack of it leads to a deficiency of the sleep hormone melatonin. This way you will help your organism set day and night time.

AVOID CAFFEINE AND ALCOHOL

• Don’t drink caffeine before bedtime. A happy medium would be to stop drinking coffee at least 6-8 hours before bedtime, even though Dr. Matt Walker, a sleep specialist from UC Berkeley, would suggest a duration of 12-14 hours.
• Avoid alcohol at least 4 hours before sleep. Although alcohol can help you fall asleep, it negatively affects the quality of your sleep. Four hours is the time it should take to metabolize alcohol. But it also depends on the amount, of course.

TURN YOUR BED INTO YOUR SLEEP KINGDOM

• Dedicate bed only for sleep and intimacy. Don’t spend additional time in there bed by working or watching series, for example. Even when you go to bed and don’t fall asleep within 15 minutes, get up again. This way, your bed will become a special place for sleeping. Your brain will know that, and create a habit, that when you’re in bed, you sleep.

STICK TO YOUR SLEEP ROUTINE

• Go to sleep and wake up the same time every day, if possible. Sticking to a regular sleeping schedule, even on weekends, helps regulate your body's internal clock. Everybody needs a different amount of sleep. Aim to 7-8 hours per night at first, but notice during the time how much you really need.
• Create an evening routine and prepare your mind to easily fall asleep.

DON’T GO TO BED HUNGRY OR FULL

• Eat your dinner a few hours before going to bed, so you won’t feel hungry or full.
• It might also help to include a melatonin-rich snack in the evening, such as tart cherries, goji berries, eggs, milk, fishes or nuts.

AVOID SCREENS BEFORE BEDTIME

• Reduce the blue light by avoiding the screens or downloading a blue light filter. Blue light is a part of a light that makes your brain think it’s day, even though it’s already dark outside.
• Try just being offline in the evening. Smart device screens in general are a huge amount of information for the brain to process, which can be overwhelming in the evening and can cause sleep problems.

VOS wishes you all to find a way to your perfect sleep. Whether you had a good and chilled day or a hard and difficult one, let a good night's sleep bring you bright tomorrow. As it’s written in the book Why we sleep, ‘The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.’

Read the articles we used to learn more:

• Drake, C., Roehrs, T., Shambroom, J., & Roth, T. (2013). Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 9(11), 1195-1200.
• HubermanLab. (no date). Toolkit for sleep. Available on: https://hubermanlab.com/toolkit-for-sleep/
• Romano, F., Muscogiuri, G., Di Benedetto, E., Zhukouskaya, V. V., Barrea, L., Savastano, S., Colao, A., & Di Somma, C. (2020). Vitamin D and Sleep Regulation: Is there a Role for Vitamin D?. Current pharmaceutical design, 26(21), 2492–2496. https://doi.org/10.2174/1381612826666200310145935
• Sleep Center of Middle Tennessee. (January, 25, 2022). Alcohol and Sleep May Not Mix as Well as You Think. Available on: https://sleepcenterinfo.com/blog/alcohol-and-sleep/#:~:text=Stop%20Drinking%20Alcohol%20at%20Least,it%20out%20of%20your%20system.