Having a good night’s sleep is just as important for your health as doing regular exercise and eating a balanced diet. However, if you find it hard to get to sleep sometimes, establishing a good night-time routine can help your brain recognize when it’s time to sleep and make it easier for you to get better rest. Try these four ways to start a bedtime routine and improve your health.
Decide a set bedtime
Having a consistent sleep routine is an easy way to train your brain to get tired. Researchers suggest that “between 10 pm and 11 pm” is the optimal time to sleep, however, scheduling a time to begin your night-time routine every night will also help your brain learn when to begin unwinding. For best results, start your routine anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours before you get into bed.
Put down your phone
The strong blue light from electronic devices like your smartphone, computer, television, and tablet tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime and encourages it to work to stay awake. Putting your phone away at the start of your night-time routine will signal to your brain that it’s almost time to go to sleep, and will improve your sleep pattern and overall health.
Get ready for bed
Making sure that your body is prepped and ready for bed will help you unwind for the evening and help you associate certain routines with going to sleep. As well as establishing a good night-time skincare routine, making sure you don’t go to bed with contact lenses in will ensure your eyes can properly rest overnight.
Roshni Patel, BSC (Hons) MCOptom, expert optometrist from Lenstore describes how sleeping with contact lenses can cause damage to your eyes since the lenses dry out and reduce the amount of oxygen reaching your corneas. So remembering to remove your contact lenses reduces the risk of infection and other complications, and should be an essential part of prepping your face for nighttime.
Try meditating
Using meditation as a relaxation technique to curb the stress that might be keeping you awake, helps both send you to sleep, as well as improve your sleep quality. Among deep breathing, visualisation, and also yoga, meditating before sleep allows you to manage your thoughts and emotions, and will quiet the body and the mind after a stressful day.
The next time you struggle to get to sleep, try these simple ways to establish a good night-time routine, and improve not just your overall sleep health, but your general physical and mental health as well.
