Sleeping is easy – or so we thought. Close your eyes and just let yourself get carried away into blissful slumber. And yet you’d be surprised how many of us are ruled by our sleeping mistakes. The numbers of people suffering from insomnia or other sleep disorders are simply staggering. Nearly a third of the UK population report suffering insomnia, while over two-thirds have said they experience disrupted sleep during the night. Whatever we’re doing, it might not always be right.
Here are 7 common sleeping mistakes we make and what we can do to get a better night’s sleep.
Bad sleep routines
Going to bed and waking up at different times constantly throws your body’s internal clock into chaos. One of the best ways to improve sleeping is to get into a stricter sleep pattern. This doesn’t mean that you need to become a boring, predictable person but the simple act of going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day will do great things for your sleeping.
The glowing screens
We’re all guilty of this from time to time, but it is a significant sleeping mistake. You get into bed and feel the need to check just one more thing on your phone. Half an hour later you suddenly realise you’re still staring at your phone, but you are now miles from what you were originally checking.
Melatonin, often referred to as the sleep hormone, is released when it is dark, but a glowing screen a short distance from your eyes can trick the brain into thinking that it is day time – and the melatonin release will slow down. While we’re talking about screens – try not to look at a phone or TV for an hour before going to bed, it gives the brain time to calm down, and prepare for a good night’s sleep.
Excessive naps
Notice how we’ve used the word excessive there. Short power naps have been shown to increase productivity, but they need to be done in the right way – which might actually take away from the slightly devilish feeling you get from napping during the daytime. Napping for too long during the day can typically do two things to you.
Firstly, it can leave you groggy when you wake up – an effect that sometimes takes people hours to recover from. Secondly, long naps can seriously knock your sleeping patterns. If you have an hour nap at 4 or 5 pm, chances are you are going to struggle to sleep at 11 pm. A feeling of tiredness during the day might not be down to your energy levels. Try drinking plenty of water as tired is often simply dehydration rather than fatigue. Or get up and go for a walk or do some exercise. If you do need a nap try to limit it to just 20 mins earlier in the day.
What is going into the body before bed
Caffeine, alcohol, drugs – even food – can have a major impact on how well we sleep at night. Caffeine and energy drinks are obvious, and yet you’d be surprised how many people don’t connect the dots. It’s easy to feel that you need just one more coffee at 3 pm to get you through those last hours of work. Yes, it might help for a few hours, but that caffeine is still very much in your system come the time you want to go to bed. Caffeine has a half-life of around 5 hours, meaning that the quantity has halved in that time – the rest can stay in your system for days.
Food is another one to focus on. Some people sleep perfectly fine after a big meal, but many do not. If your body is working overtime to digest a large meal rich in processed food, it’s only natural that might cause you issues that might be significant enough to wake you during the night. If possible, try to eat your final meal of the day earlier, so when you get into bed your body has already digested most of it.
Drugs and alcohol have the places in our lives, there’s no denying that. But anybody who has woken in the middle of the night sweating profusely after a heavy night drinking must be fully aware of the damage it can do to the body. Whether it is psychological or physical, drugs and alcohol remain one of the biggest obstacles we have to a good night’s sleep. Many people assume that a drink might help them sleep, and while it may help you fall asleep, it is likely to cause problems later in the night – not to mention the next day.
Tossing and Turning
If you realise that you’ve been in bed for thirty minutes and aren’t feeling remotely tired, then it’s obviously not the right time to be sleeping. One major sleeping mistake is to toss and turn in the hope that eventually you will fall asleep. Get out of bed and try to do an activity that will focus the mind, such as reading or doing a jigsaw. Stay away from screens, don’t turn on that television, and try to keep the lights dim if possible. Keep the mind occupied and try not to worry about the fact you aren’t sleeping, this will likely make everything so much worse.
That snooze button
Whoever designed the first snooze button should be tried for time-wasting. OK, maybe that’s a little strong, but hear me out. That snooze button on an alarm clock or your phone is gloriously tempting, but also a horrible sleeping mistake. It’s easy to tell yourself that just by hitting that button everything will be OK, and you can once again return to your never-ending, blissful sleep. You might think that the extra 10, 20 or 30 minutes is beneficial, but it is, in fact, quite the opposite.
Research shows that interrupted sleep often makes us more tired and provides us with very little extra energy. When you add in the stress that we often feel because we are now running later, it’s not a great way to start your day. Set a time you want to wake up at, and stick with it.
Thoughts
Wouldn’t it be just great if we had a button that we could push to place the brain in standby mode until morning? Why do we need to try and decide on the colour of the paint for the new office at midnight? Why is this the best time to start examining what you are really doing with your life? Our brain is the most astonishing, complex and frustrating organ we have, but if we let it control us it can lead to many a sleepless night.
There is no quick fix here. Our brain often leads us down paths that deep in our consciousness we know are already there, so it is up to us to address these thoughts and fears. If you find yourself constantly worrying about the same thing when you go to bed, ask yourself one thing; are you doing enough during the daytime to reduce that stress? Meditation or breathing techniques can be an excellent way to calm the mind, as can writing your thoughts down in a journal before bedtime. Here on this link, we have debunked several sleep lies.
