5 Steps To Make Sleep Better For You
We spend 1/3rd of our life sleeping. If you have to spend 1/3rd of your life doing just one thing, let’s find out when happens inside your body when you’re sleeping, First thing that happens is energy restoration, which means your battery is charged. Just like you recharge your phone, you recharge your body with sleep. If you’re not getting good sleep, that means your body is not properly charged. So when you wake up in the morning, how much energy your body has, how productive your day is, it depends on how you sleep at night.
While you sleep, even your skin is regenerating. Old skin cells are replaced with new skin cells. So if you want to look young whole life, then deep sleep is really necessary for it. Today several studies are linking deep sleep to anti-aging. Not just this, deep sleep is very important for healing too. I know many have some or the other health problems. When you’re in deep sleep, your body doesn’t have to problem many different functions, so your energy is diverted towards healing. So if you’re trying to heal from any disease, deep sleep is really important for that too. Not just this, even if some external inflection has invaded your body, your immune system can fight if effectively only in the deep sleep state.
On the other hand, if you don’t get deep sleep at night, naturally, you’re not going to feel energetic after waking up in the morning. You’ll start aging faster, healing will slow down, and your immunity will start weakening. We were never taught about the importance of sleep. But our health and productivity depends a great deal on the quality of our sleep.
Sleep In The Pitch Dark
Which means you should sleep in total darkness. During the times of our ancestors, when we had no electricity, there used to be total darkness in the night it used to be pitch dark. But now there’s some or the other artificial light that sneaks into our rooms. The city and traffic lights outside, or the light from gadgets inside, when this light falls on our eyelids, our brain gets a signal- “Stay awake!” There’s still light outside. So your body’s biological clock can’t function properly. Make sure room is totally dark when you go to sleep.
If there are curtains in your room, then close them fully and go to sleep, so that the city lights don’t reach inside. And by chance if it’s not possible, if you have to sleep with someone else, you can wear an eye mask too. The more darkness you sleep in, the deeper your sleep will be. Not just while sleeping, but even an hour before sleeping, dim you room lights. If there are really bright lights, shut them off. Keep a small lamp on instead. You’ll see that you automatically start feeling sleepy after doing that.
Disconnect from Technology 1 Hour Before Sleep
Now I know it sounds really difficult to do, but don’t worry we’ll tell you exactly how to do it. If you keep your mind engaged with WhatsApp messages, work e-mails, Instagram or FB feeds, watching all kinds of news on TV, movies on Netflix, or any kind of content overload before you sleep. Your body goes to sleep, but your mind is still active. The last visuals and audio that went into your brain before you slept, the same thoughts will keep playing in your mind.
So your mind can’t get proper rest. So if you want a peaceful mind, then deep sleep is really necessary. And to get deep sleep, you have to disconnect from technology at least one hour before you sleep. Set a cut off time in the evening after which you won’t use any kind of gadgets. We recommend disconnecting from technology by 9 PM and sleeping 10 PM. Instead of working late night, you can wake up early and work. You can do your work at double the speed early in the morning. So your productivity won’t decrease with this shift, but increase.
Hot Foot Baths
You know each foot has more than 7000 nerve endings. So when you sleep after dipping your feet in hot water, your whole nervous system gets relaxed through your feet. I’ve noticed that when I sleep after a hot foot bath, I feel absolutely calm and I get deep sleep too. Take a bucket or tub and fill it with hot water till about 10-12 inches. The water should be as warm as you can comfortably bear. Dip you feet in it for about 15 minutes and then wipe your feet and go to sleep. If you want, you can take a shower with slightly water before going to sleep too. It has a similar effect.
Keep 2-3 Hour Gap Between Dinner & Sleep
If you’re eating dinner just before sleeping, then your body spends most of its time digesting it. And when the body is digesting, it doesn’t get a chance of experience proper rest. So if you go to sleep at 10 Pm after eating dinner at 9 PM forget about getting deep sleep, you body isn’t even able to repair itself properly. Have you dinner by 7 PM so that you have 2-3 hours to digest it. And when you sleep, don’t take heavy digestion work with you while going to sleep so that you can easily get deep sleep. If by chance it’s not possible for you to eat dinner early then at least avoid protein, pulses or any other heavy grains at night for dinner. Have more vegetables.
Never Sleep Without Resolving Your Conflicts
Do we ever wear our coat, tie, or jewelry before going to sleep. No, we take off all the uncomfortable things before sleeping. But sometimes, we forget to remove the most uncomfortable thing and that is our anger or stress. If you go to sleep after a fight or with tension in your head, your mind can’t find peace. And if the mind can’t find peace, you can’t get good deep sleep. So never go to bed without resolving your fight. If you fight with anyone in the day., forgive them before going to sleep or apologize to them so that your mind is at peace before going to sleep and you can get deep sleep.