Who doesn’t have sleep problems? Most people deal with them even while getting older. If at 12, teens spend nights chatting with classmates, at 35, adults play at विश्वसनीय ऑनलाइन लाइव कैसीनो or work extra hours. To avoid some negative consequences, ensure your sleep is healthy.
When and How Much Sleep Is Needed
It’s recommended that adults sleep an average of eight hours a day. Of course, everyone’s needs and physiology are different-some people need 10 hours, while others need 7 hours. But an experiment at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School found that people who sleep 6 hours a night already show a significant decrease in cognitive responses after 10 days.
Sleep deprivation increases the risk of catching a viral infection by 250%. If a person sleeps less than 5 hours, they are about 3.5 times more likely to get a viral disease than people who sleep over 7 hours. Another important consequence of not getting enough sleep is a decrease in performance, procrastination, and a decrease in creativity.
It’s often said that one should go to bed strictly before 11 p.m., since an hour of sleep before midnight is supposedly the equivalent of two hours of sleep after 00:00. In fact, there is no scientific proof of this fact. However, most experts still insist on going to bed early: natural biological rhythms are strongly linked to the daylight hours.
Turn off the Light
The hormone of sleep – melatonin – is sensitive to light: in excessive light it will not be released enough, falling asleep is long, and the sleep itself is shallow. Therefore, in the bedroom, there should be complete darkness: you can use special sleep masks and blackout curtains (this is especially useful for those who go to bed in the morning or live in a region with white nights).
During the day, it’s important to stay in bright places – being in semi-darkness also interferes with melatonin production.
Darkness is not the only important condition for a healthy night’s rest. Also consider the temperature at which you go to bed and the position in which you rest.
Temperature makes a big difference, the right interval for most people. Both increases and decreases in temperature can impair sleep quality.
It has been scientifically proven that the position on the back increases mortality for various reasons, on the stomach – the gastrointestinal tract is compressed. The optimal position is on your side, left or right – not so important. Many people think that sleeping on the left side is bad for the heart – it isn’t.
On the Internet, you can find a lot of other tips that supposedly will help you sleep well. So, there is a recommendation to eat cherries, dairy products, and nuts because they contain the amino acid tryptophan – a precursor of melatonin. Or to take a relaxing warm bath. However, everything is individual: for example, people with lactase deficiency can not tolerate milk – because of its consumption the stomach will be turbulent, which will interfere with rest.
Don’t Bring Gadgets With You
Many people are used to falling asleep to a soap opera or flipping through a tape before going to bed, but it’s better to give up these rituals. The point isn’t even that they force you to hold the focus of attention and do not let you relax, but that the blue glow of smartphone, tablet and laptop screens negatively affects the production of melatonin: the brain thinks that it’s daytime, so falling asleep is difficult.
Declare the bedroom a gadget-free territory. But if you cannot immediately give them up, you can install apps that limit the work of the smartphone in a certain period. Before going to bed, listen to music, draw, or read a paper book.
It’s desirable not to use gadgets for waking up – we are talking about alarm clocks in all their variations. Ideally, if you can wake up at the right time on your own.
And the final rule about gadgets: don’t reach for your phone or TV remote if you’re lying in bed and can’t fall asleep. Instead, turn on quiet and calm background music, get up for 15 minutes and do monotonous activities or read a little, but only a paper book and with a dimmed spotlight.
It helps use white noise: the noise of trees, a waterfall, birdsong, and quiet music. For most people white noise – it’s confirmed – synchronizes the work of neurons and starts the process of sleep, allowing them not to concentrate on their own thoughts and worries. Another option is to listen to a monotone program with soft voices without nervous scenes.
Get Comfortable
For a good night’s sleep it’s important to be comfortable, and the right accessories create it.
An orthopedic mattress provides anatomically correct support for the spine. Experts believe that the maximum orthopedic effect provides models with independent springs, supporting every part of the body. And the more springs in the mattress and the smaller they are in diameter, the more effective the support.
A weighted blanket helps to fall asleep more quickly, has a soothing and relaxing effect on the nervous system due to the strong, but soft and even pressure on the body. The weight of the blanket is chosen individually for each person and should be no more than 10% of body weight (plus 0.5-1 kg is allowed).
Orthopedic pillow takes the contours of the neck and head, creating conditions for healthy sleep and preventing headaches and neck muscle pain. When choosing a pillow one should take into account the position: those who are used to sleeping on stomach will choose soft and thin pillows (6-8 cm), on the back – semi-rigid and of medium height (8-10 cm), on the side – rigid and high (10-14 cm).
