5 Ways to Improve Your Sleep

Facing the problems while sleeping? Do you spend nights twisting and turning on the mattress while waiting for sleep? Do you feel drowsy and lethargic throughout the day? Are you often late for work? Do you face headaches, body pain, and mood swings the whole day due to less sleep at night? Do you often feel like napping during work hours whenever you get the opportunity?

Many of us face one or all of the above problems at least once or regularly in life due to various reasons like chronic disorders, lifestyles, bad habits, emotional trauma, stress, etc.

When we face these problems, we are advised to seek medical help. However, medical help is not the solution we require all the time. Because it can have unforeseen side effects, it’s insufficient and requires other supportive aids to improve sleep quality without creating or enhancing other health issues.

Thus, here are five ways to improve sleep quality

1. Eat enough nutrients

Since ancient times, we have been taught about the nutrients that have various effects on our body and its mechanism, including improvement of sleep quality.

Thus, here are some essential nutritional foods and drinks we must add to our daily diet to improve sleep without relying much on medical help.

The nutrients, hormones, and minerals that help us get better sleep include tryptophan, melatonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), calcium, potassium, magnesium, pyridoxine, L-ornithine, serotonin, histamine, acetylcholine, folate, antioxidants, vitamin D, B vitamins, zinc, and Copper.

Many food items are naturally rich and complete with the above nutrients that help boost your sleep-inducing hormones and improve sleep quality.

For example,

Nuts and dry fruits walnuts, pistachios, almonds
Vegetables like spinach, lettuce
Dairy products like milk, cheese
Rice white, brown
Poultry products like chicken, eggs, turkey
Drinks like chamomile tea, almond milk, Ashwagandha tea

2. Do regular exercise

Exercises have proven their worth in the well-being of our overall health, whether it’s emotional, physical, or social, including sleep, a long time ago. However, many of us fail to exercise regularly for various reasons like no time, illnesses, or just laziness.

Regular exercises for 30 to 60 minutes have plenty of benefits like improved metabolism, flexibility, strength, mental health, reduced health risks, reduced chronic diseases and disabilities, and improved sleep quality.

The exercises that can help improve sleep quality, such as,

Yoga practices like Yog Nidra or Yoga sleep, Bhramari Pranayam or Humming Bee, Anulom Vilom (Alternate nostril breathing), Child’s Pose or Balasana, Makarasana or Crocodile Pose
Resistance exercises like Lifting weights, Working out using resistance bands, push-ups, sit-ups, and other resistance exercises
Aerobics like cardio, or cardiovascular exercises like swimming, walking, cycling, running, rowing

3. Discipline yourself

We often hear from our elders that self-discipline is the key to achieving impossible goals in life, and they are right. If we follow specific rules in our life, it not only becomes less complicated but also better, healthier, and happier.

Self-discipline is the daily routine that makes us more productive, active, and energetic, gives us ample time to complete different chores, and improves our health, mental state, and sleep.

Fix sleep and wake time as our brain gets habitual and eventually sends signals to sleep on time.
Eating proper meals on time and in adequate proportion as nutrients help us improve health and sleep, but overconsumption of it may cause other health issues which ultimately affect sleep.
Avoid eating just before bedtime since we need to digest food to avoid problems like acidity and indigestions, which further impact sleep quality.
Avoid naps during the daytime to make your body exhausted enough to need sleep at night and help you fall asleep quicker.
Adjust the work schedule to make yourself sleep on time and not delay it to avoid any trouble with circadian rhythm
Use the bedroom only for sleeping so that our brain will associate it with sleep and make sure that sleep comes naturally when entered in the bedroom or laying down on the mattress.

4. Maintain bedroom

To achieve the goal of improved sleep quality, we are not only required to attain the best body by eating a proper meal and exercising, but we also need to take better care of our surroundings, i.e., our bedroom or bed.

To make our bedroom sleep worthy, we can

Buy mattress online or offline, which will give you proper support and comfort for your back and body.
Lower room temperature, since our body temperature naturally drops and to adjust to surroundings, we need the temperature that is in tandem with our body.
Keep it clean since hygiene is essential for overall health and avoiding sickness.
A properly ventilated room is prominent as our brain requires oxygen, and if the room is not ventilated, we may find it difficult to breathe and sleep. Also, make sure that the sleeping mattress has breathable material. Many mattress brands online sell breathable mattresses for better sleep quality.
Darkness is essential for sleep as it sends a crucial signal to our body that it’s time to sleep, while light exposure at the wrong time disrupts the body clock.

5. Other relaxing things

Our ancestors learned a long time ago that having a pre-sleep routine helps your brain to get ready for sleep.

Such as,

Reading books for at least 20 minutes before bed helps you relax and make your brain chuck out other thoughts that disrupt your sleep.
Listening to music which is from your childhood improves sleep quality as our brain associates it with relaxing and happy memories and releases sleep-inducing hormones.
Relax time or my time before sleeping is vital to think about the whole day’s activity so that our brain won’t exhaust itself during sleep by overthinking
No to screen light as blue lights emitted from the screens of laptops, mobiles, and television block sleep-inducing hormones release and delay sleep

Bottom Line:

Improving sleep quality is a process that requires time. Thus, for more significant and longer-lasting outcomes, it is critical to be patient and persistent when adopting the ideas given above in your life.