We all reduce and even skip our sleep to get some more time to complete our work but you’ll never know how much you’re spoiling your health until you know the importance of sleep and improve the sleep quality.
You need not need just sleep, you need quality sleep so that you won’t feel lethargy or tired feeling.
So let’s understand how to improve your sleep quality to improve your health and also yourself.
Table of Contents
Why Sleep Is Important?
Sleep is very crucial for the mental and physical growth of the body. We can live without sleep but as we live without sleep our efficiency of mind decreases. It leads to mental stress and physical strength becomes low. Our decision-making power decreases and overall we become unhealthy.
Quality Sleep is necessary to maintain the mind and body to its maximum potential level. Our physical growth and mental development happen when we sleep. This is why sleep is necessary and without which we can’t survive.
Benefits of Quality Sleep
- Improved Memory Levels
- Become Active
- No Lethargy
- Reduced Stress
- Better Mood
- Improved Focus and Concentration
- Better Mental Health
- Reduced Health Problems
- Maintains Healthy Heart
- Makes You Feel Better
Science Behind Sleep
Sleeping is just not about closing your eyes and taking a rest. Its benefits are more than you think. There are four stages of sleep:
Stage 1 NREM Sleep
NREM Stands for Non-Rapid Eye Moment. This is the stage where you’re conscious with your brain and body and this is the stage where your heartbeat rate slows down. NREM stands for Non-Rapid Eye Moment.
Stage 2 NREM Sleep
This is the stage where you’ll sleep deeper and your brain functioning stops working and you’re unconscious with your brain.
Stage 3 NREM Sleep
This is the deepest sleep stage where the majority of benefits you’ll be getting. Your growth and resting occur in this stage and also memory development happens in this stage. This sleep stage is necessary for an active awakening in the morning.
Stage 4 REM Sleep
REM(Rapid Eye Moment) is the sleep stage where your brain starts working at a normal rate and your heartbeat rate increases and your eyes move side by side while you’re eyelids are closed, this is the stage where dreaming occurs.
This is the science behind sleeping and you need to know this for a healthy quality sleep and active waking in the morning.
How Many Hours To Sleep?
This may vary from person to person. Everyone doesn’t need the same amount of sleep, they need according to their age and the work they do. And by observing your sleeping patterns you can calculate how much sleep is required for you. Generally, an average adult should sleep 7 to 8 hours for the healthy functioning of the brain and body.
Reasons For Poor Quality Sleep
There are mainly five reasons for having poor quality sleep:
- Sticking to screens till late nights
- Overthinking
- Sleeping soon after eating
- Stress and Anxiety
- Irregular Sleep Patterns
If you succeed in overcoming these problems then you can have quality sleep.
21 Hacks That’ll Improve Your Sleep Quality
1: Maintain a Sleep Schedule
Try to sleep at the same time every day and try to wake up at the same time every day. Fix a timetable for your sleep such that it doesn’t affect your working schedule. This will improve your sleep quality.
2: Avoid Using Electronic Gadgets
If you use electronic gadgets before you sleep, the blue light emitted by the phones or your laptops damages your eyes and gives stress to your eyes. This will decrease your quality of sleep causing disturbed sleep at night.
3: Sleep In The Dark
The more darker you sleep in, the better quality of sleep you get. Darkness gives a sign to your brain that it’s time to sleep. So naturally your brain will make you sleep. This will improve your sleep quality.
4: Use a Physical Alarm
Avoid using your phone as your alarm. It will make you use it when you wake up. Use a physical alarm and avoid using your phones for at least 3 hours.
5: Be Hydrated
Drinking water gives you a cooling effect in your stomach and makes you relaxed and this feeling makes you fall asleep faster. This will improve your sleep quality.
6: Practice Meditation
We all feel stress and anxiety every day, to avoid the effect of stress and anxiety on our sleep we need to practice meditation on a daily basis.
7: Get Into The Zero-Thought Stage
While sleeping, if you think about anything that you went through, the whole thought process in your mind will make will stay awake. This will decrease the quality of sleep and a lethargic sleep. Get into a zero thought stage so that your brain feels that you should sleep now. This will improve your sleep quality.
8: Maintain a Gap
Don’t sleep soon after eating your dinner. Have at least a gap of three to four hours between your dinner and your sleep. And before sleep, you can take warm milk so that it will get digested throughout the night and makes you feel full stomach.
9: Take Afternoon Naps
Sometimes afternoon naps are just fortune. You sleep deeper in your afternoon naps than sleeping in the night hours. So take afternoon naps if necessary.
10: Listen To Affirmations
If you are unable to get into a zero thought stage you can play Affirmations in the background so that it makes you fall asleep. This will improve your sleep quality.
11: Always Work In Light
If you are working you need to work in a well-conditioned lighting room and if you are sleeping you need to sleep in a dark room. This is the pattern you should follow for proper work and sleep schedule. This will improve your sleep quality.
12: Massage Your Eyes
After a whole day of your work spending hours on your laptops and your phone screens, your eye feels a burning effect or stress. Massaging it with oil makes your eyes relaxed and putting a cucumber makes your eyes cool and helps in falling asleep faster.
13: Take a Shower
If you are unable to sleep at night try to take a shower it will make you feel relaxed and also improves your sleep quality.
14: Drink Warm Milk
Warm milk is a slow digestion food and it keeps your stomach full the entire night improving your sleep quality. This will improve your sleep quality.
15: Exercise Regularly
The most recommended self-improvement habit by everyone is nothing but to do regular exercise. So you can imagine the power and benefits of exercising regularly. At least spend 10-15 minutes to improve your physical health.
16: Read Books
Have a habit of reading books before you sleep. Because sometimes reading makes you fall asleep and you can also have the satisfaction that you have read something. This will improve your sleep quality.
17: Play Music
Whenever I feel hard to sleep at night, I play background music that makes me feel soothing and fall asleep.
18: Sleep Comfortably
Sleep in a clean, dark, and calm environment which will make you comfortable and improves the quality of sleep. This will improve your sleep quality.
19: Never Skip/Reduce Sleep
Once you start skipping and reducing your sleep, gradually you’ll notice a decrease in your quality of sleep. To avoid that you need to never skip your sleep at any cost. Because if your sleep is good then the efficiency of your brain increases and it leads to an increase in productivity.
20: Avoid Overthinking
Stop everything about others. What will you get by overthinking others?
Nothing Right!
So stop overthinking and mold your mindset that everyone has their own battles to fight.
21: Adapt To Your Sleep Patterns
Once you know about your sleep patterns try to sleep in that scheduled slot to maximize your sleep and improve your sleep quality over time. This will improve your sleep quality.
Conclusion
You know the importance of sleep when you experience the benefits of it. But you can experience those benefits only when you follow a correct sleep schedule and the given tips above. You can improve your sleep quality by just sleeping at the right time and in fixed time intervals. This will improve your sleep quality.
