World Sleep Day – Tips for better sleep

Sleep is essential to our health. It strongly influences our capacity to recover both mentally and physically, allows us to store memories, influences our mood, and promotes "the growing" in children. It impacts every aspect of our life by affecting the way we think, learns, behaves, feels, and interact with others.

Poor sleep and sleep deprivation have been associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, impaired mental capacity, and poor motor coordination. Here are some of the main points you might want to take into consideration to get a good night’s sleep.

Turn Your Bedroom into a Sleep-Inducing Environment - A quiet, dark, and cool environment can help promote sound slumber. To achieve such an environment, lower the volume of outside noise with earplugs or a "white noise" appliance. Use heavy curtains, blackout shades, or an eye mask to block light, a powerful cue that tells the brain that it's time to wake up. Keep the temperature comfortably cool and the room well ventilated. And make sure your bedroom is equipped with comfortable clothes, mattress and pillows.

Establish a Soothing Pre-Sleep Routine - Ease the transition from wake time to sleep time with a period of relaxing activities an hour or so before bed. Take a bath, read a book, watch television, or practise relaxation exercises. Avoid stressful, stimulating activities—doing work, discussing emotional issues.

Include sports in your daily activity - If exercising right before bed prevents some people from falling asleep because of overstimulation, exercising in the morning or throughout the day increases both the quality and duration of sleep.

Reduce irregular or long daytime naps - While napping is a good way to make up for lost sleep, if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, napping can make things worse. Limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon.

Manage worries - Try to resolve your worries or concerns before bedtime. Jot down what's on your mind and then set it aside for tomorrow. Stress management might help. Start with the basics, such as getting organized, setting priorities and delegating tasks. Meditation also can ease anxiety.

Balance Fluid Intake - Drink enough fluid at night to keep from waking up thirsty—but not so much and so close to bedtime that you will be awakened by the need for a trip to the bathroom.

Don’t eat late in the evening - It seems that the food you eat before bed may affect your sleep. For example, research has shown that high-carb meals may be detrimental to a good night's rest. If you still want to eat a high-carb meal for dinner, you should eat it at least four hours before bed, so you have enough time to digest it.

Turn off all electronics - Using electronic devices late at night is terrible for sleep. Watching TV, playing video games, using a mobile phone and social networking can make it significantly harder for you to fall and stay asleep. It is recommended that you disconnect all electronics and put away computers and mobile phones so you can ensure a quiet place, free of distractions. You will be able to fall asleep much faster.

Follow these tips to get Happy Sleep and Happy Mood!!!