It’s the end of a long day and you just can’t wait to hit the sack. Come bedtime, and you set the alarm and slip under the sheets. Without further ado, you shut your eyes, expecting to drift off into dreamland instantly…only to find, to your utter annoyance, that the sandman has decided to give you a miss tonight. Endless hours of tossing and turning later, you slide into a vague oblivion, only to be rudely awakened by the alarm. What! Morning already?
If this is your regular bed-time story, you might just have a case of mild insomnia. While there is no need to hit the panic button yet, it may be an indication that your body is not getting enough rest. About one third of our life is spent asleep, and the number of hours required to rejuvenate fully varies individually.
So how do you make sure you get a good night’s sleep?
It’s all about ambiance!
Choose soothing shades of colour for your bedroom. Decorate it with soft cushions, thick drapes and other sleep-inducing elements. Banish the TV, ipod, and laptop to the living room, and install sound-proof windows if you are particularly sensitive to noise. Trade in those harsh tubelights for adjustable lampshades. Keep a set of ear plugs and a sleep mask in your bedside drawer. Clear the room of eatables and other distractions. If you sleep beside another person, ask him/her to co-operate with your efforts. Having another person in the room is also useful in detecting bigger problems like snoring or sleep-walking.
Set a fixed bed-time and stick to it
While “early to bed and early to rise” is the thumb rule, most folks do just fine with a sufficient number of hours of sleep. Find out if you are an owl (late sleeper - late riser) or a lark (early sleeper - early riser). Just like a diet, irregular sleep timings will cause you to binge on weekends to make up for the loss. While eight hours is the accepted average, make sure you get at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Anything lesser than that will make you cranky and inefficient, and can even be dangerous if you are driving.
Avoid bringing your work to bed
Eating, playing games, and other daytime activities in the bedroom will deter you from sleep. Condition your body to believe that the bedroom is for sleeping. Once in bed, the only activity that may induce sleep is some light reading.
Eat early
Make sure there is a gap of at least a couple of hours between dinner and bed-time. Eat a light meal that is less likely to keep you up with digestive problems. Strictly avoid alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes; they are major sleep killers.
Take any prescribed medication regularly
Take your usual meds, but do not self-medicate with sleeping pills and other drugs without consulting a doctor. However, grandma’s well-meaning home remedies might just have a grain of truth in them!
Skip the nap
If you are in the habit of snoozing in the afternoons or taking a power nap at work, skipping it may increase the duration and quality of your night’s sleep.
Create a personal bed-time routine
Try to perform a fixed set of activities just before you sleep. These may include going to the washroom, changing into pajamas or putting on night-cream. After a while, your body and mind will start preparing for sleep as soon as you begin your nightly chores.
Reducing stress and exercising regularly are other ways to ensure a good night’s sleep. While there is no substitute for a doctor’s intervention if you suffer from major disorders, a few precautions may well stave off the sleep bogeyman for most.
Tags: health, insomnia, sleep-disorder
Tweet This
