There’s no worse feeling than getting a poor night’s rest. It makes you irritable and almost ensures that you have a bad day. Poor sleep also has terrible effects on your health. For example, it can cause weight gain, harm hormone levels, and decrease cognitive function.
A quality night’s sleep, on the other hand, improves overall health, boosts the immune system, and helps to regulate the nervous system.
If you want to optimize your 2022 resolutions, great sleep is one of the best tools to help you do so. Here are five simple ways to improve your sleep in 2022.
1. Put Away Your Devices One Hour Before Bedtime
What’s the last thing you do before going to bed? Probably check your smartphone or scroll online, right? It seems innocent enough, but scrolling close to bedtime is bad for your brain.
The blue light emitted from your smartphone suppresses melatonin in the body, a hormone that activates your sleep and wake times. This is because the blue light that your phone emits is perceived as daylight by your eyes, brain, and body.
As a result, your body thinks that it is still daytime even though it’s dark outside. Your circadian rhythm is thrown off, which usually makes you feel tired once the sun is down and alert when the morning light enters your room.
In turn, you’ll feel less rested and more irritable throughout the day, and it will be harder to fall (and stay) asleep.
To avoid this issue, steer clear of devices at least one hour before bedtime so that your body’s natural rhythms aren’t disrupted.
2. Don’t Exercise Right Before Bed
Exercise has been proven to improve your health and sleep quality. In fact, it has been shown to cut the amount of time it takes to fall asleep in half in older adults.
That said, exercising too late in the day can have the opposite effect. Exercise increases hormones such as adrenaline and epinephrine. These increase alertness and stimulate the body and mind, making it harder to relax for the evening.
Exercise earlier in the day to reap all of the benefits of a workout and ensure that you don’t hinder sleep quality.
3. Maintain Consistent Sleep/Wake Times
When the weekend hits and we have nowhere else to be the next morning, we’re all likely to stay up a bit longer to watch another episode on Netflix or enjoy the evening off.
This throws off your body’s natural rhythm. Your internal clock thrives on consistency, so pushing past your normal sleep time will throw off the rest of your week, making it harder to get back on track.
Try to wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day, even during the weekend. Choose a wake time that you can follow on all seven days of the week, as well as a sleep time that allows you to get seven to nine hours in each night.
Once you’ve got your sleep-wake routine down, you might be tempted to reach for an afternoon cup of joe to give you a boost. This will end up making you more tired in the long run.
4. Avoid Consuming Caffeine Late in the Day
Caffeine is a stimulant that has been proven to help us focus and perform. But when you drink coffee or consume any form of caffeine late in the day, it puts your nervous system into overdrive and prevents you from relaxing.
Caffeine stays in the blood for six to eight hours and can worsen your sleep quality if you consume it within six to eight hours of bedtime. For this reason, avoid caffeine in the afternoon or evening.
If you do want coffee to enjoy the taste, opt for decaf instead of regular coffee after 2 or 3 PM.
5. Use SomniFix Strips for Better Sleep and More Daytime Energy
Nasal breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for rest and relaxation. As a result, this helps the body to balance hormones, restore tissues, fight anxiety and stress, and feel refreshed upon waking up.
Mouth breathing, on the other hand, harms the body and leads to sore throat, congestion, brain fog, snoring, and more. Nasal breathing helps us to lead a healthier life both while we’re awake and during sleep.
You can focus on your breath during the day to ensure you’re nasal breathing, but what about at night? Enter mouth tape strips. SomniFix mouth tape strips are a practical, hypoallergenic solution to mouth breathing during sleep.
@somnifix To promote ##nasalbreathing during sleep, ##mouthtape is a secret weapon. Here’s how to use and apply it! 🌬 ##airwayhealth ##sleephygiene ##sleephacks
♬ Buttercup - Jack Stauber
Once you get the rest you deserve via nasal breathing, you’ll not only sleep better but you’ll feel more energized throughout the day. Furthermore, you’ll be at your best to tackle all of your 2022 goals!
