Tips for better sleep

Do you have trouble going to sleep or staying asleep? Do you wake up tired and feel like you have to nap during the day? Even with a top-of-the-line memory foam or latex mattress, sleep can still be difficult for a number of reasons such as stress and poor day-to-day habits. Whatever it is, bad sleep does more than just make you tired; it aversely affects your health and cognitive capacity.

Fortunately, there are numerous methods to improve your sleep that are simple, easy, and do not involve a prescription.

Try out these suggestions and start experiencing a deeper, more fulfilling nights sleep.

• Try to keep a regular sleep pattern by habitually going to bed and waking at the same time every day‚ even on weekends and vacations. After some time, your body will naturally get accustomed to your sleep cycle and it will become easier to have a good nights rest.
• Avoid consuming caffeine and alcohol in the late afternoon and evening. Coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, and medications that contain caffeine stimulate your body and mind and can keep you from falling asleep and sleeping soundly. Even though alcohol can make you feel sleepy, drinking around bedtime can also disturb sleep.
• Regular daytime exercise can improve nighttime sleep, but since it too can be stimulating and keep you up, avoid exercising within 3 hours of bedtime.
• Avoid daytime naps, which can skew your body’s notion of sleep and thus interfere with nighttime sleep. If you feel you cannot get by without a nap, set an alarm for 1 hour or less and get up immediately when it goes off.
• Reserve your bed for sleeping. Your body and mind need to associate your bed with healthy sleep, and watching late news, reading a suspense novel, or working on your laptop in bed can keep you up later than expected and stimulate your mind, making it hard to fall asleep. If you want to perform late night activities in bed, try utilizing a backrest or leg rest to put your body in an optimal position for comfort and health.
• Keep your bedroom dark, quiet, and cool. There are specialized mattresses available, such as our Healthy Back Pure Latex line, which are designed to cool your body a crucial few degrees if you get too hot during the night.
• Sleep with a ‘Hot Water Bottle’. This method, popular in the United Kingdom and Europe, provides comfort and warmth in your bed, and can help alleviate sore joints and muscles. The Hotties Micro Hottie is the market leader for hot water bottle type products, and is available at the Healthy Back Store.
• Avoid liquids and spicy meals before bed. Heartburn and late night trips to the bathroom are not conducive to good sleep.
• Instead of working right up to bedtime, try performing relaxing activities such as listening to soft music or taking a warm bath to get you ready to sleep. These processes help your body and mind wind down from a hectic day, and a warm bath also may soothe aching muscles.