How to Improve Your Sleep

5 Tips in Creating Healthy Sleep Habits

Sleep is essential to everyone, especially busy students. Getting a good night's rest affects our physical and mental health, our immunity, and our metabolism. Sleep promotes a healthier and happier lifestyle. Falling asleep can be hassle for many, including myself. Once you create a strict nighttime routine, your sleep schedule will improve immensely. 

1.   Cool Temperatures

Cooler temperatures are required to drift off and remain asleep. The brain and body need to drop about one degree Celsius (two to three degrees Fahrenheit) in their core temperature. It is recommended that the bedroom's temperature should be about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Lower temperatures increase melatonin production, a hormone that helps with sleep. Cooler temperatures also help improve sleep quality. You will sleep much better in a colder room than a warmer room. 

2.   Create a Wind Down Routine

Sleep is a process that take times to do. We cannot go to bed and automatically fall asleep. During the 20-30 minute period before bed, disconnect from your devices and do something that relaxes you. For me, I like to do my skincare routine and read a chapter or two of the book I am currently reading. After creating your wind down routine, make sure you stick to it. By creating and committing to your bedtime routine, you create a new healthy sleep habit. 

3.   Darken the Room

Darkness, like cool temperatures, triggers the production of melatonin. Melatonin helps with the healthy timing of our sleep. Creating a dark environment not only includes turning off lights, but also powering off devices such as laptops and phones. During the last hour before bedtime, try dimming the lights and muting your electronics. You could also purchase opaque curtains or a sleeping mask to create a darker room. Darkening the bedroom is the best way to regulate melatonin. 

4.   Regularity

Regularity is essential when it comes to creating healthy sleep habits. It is recommended that we go to bed and wake up at the same times everyday, including the weekend. Our brains function on a circadian rhythm, a 24 hour clock or cycle. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a structure in the brain, is the pacemaker of the circadian rhythm, controlling the timing of our sleep-wake cycle. It thrives off regularity. The majority of students use an alarm to wake up in the mornings but try using an alarm for your bedtime as well. Apple's Health app has a feature where you can create a sleep schedule and the app will filter out notifications and calls during your set bedtime. Regularity anchors your sleep and will improve the quantity and quality of it. 

5.   Occupy Yourself

We all have those moments where we lay in bed and just can't seem to fall asleep. The brain is an associative device. It associates the bed as a trigger of wakefulness. To break that association you can get up of out of bed and find something else to do, like walking. When you begin to feel sleepy you should then return to bed. Doing this every time that you are sleepless will create the association that the bed is a site for consistent sleep. 

What Do You Think?

Have you tried one of these techniques before? If not, do you think you will?

Sources:

https://sph.umich.edu/pursuit/2020posts/why-sleep-is-so-important-to-your-health.html

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18032104/#:~:text=In%20the%20brain%2C%20a%20small,tissues%20to%20enhance%20behavioral%20adaptation.

https://www.sleepadvisor.org/sleeping-in-a-cold-room/#:~:text=A%20cold%20sleeping%20environment%20helps,production%20and%20better%20sleep%20quality.