Of course we would all love to sleep peacefully every evening for 7-8 hours but how many people actually pull it off? There are things to be done, thoughts to distract us and late night TV to catch up on. The old cliche ” there just aren’t enough hours in the day” well I happen to think many people would still find an excuse to sleep poorly if there were one hundred hours in a day. The problem for most people who have trouble sleeping properly isn’t usually poor time management skills, it’s generally a product of bad nighttime habits. Of course we are excluding people with chronic diseases that directly affect sleeping behavior, but even those folks might want to think twice about getting off the CPAP machine they’re using to control sleep apnea. One of the biggest habits people fall into is watching television up until they go to bed or in some cases actually falling asleep with the TV on. Although television can create a feeling of relaxation, it is not conducive to productive sleep patterns and in many cases stimulates the nervous system to keep insomniacs awake. Late night eating can also lead to digestive issues and therefore tend to wake people up during the night due to problems with indigestion or needing to go to the bathroom.
Sleep is essential to good health and can affect nearly all aspects of your mental and physical health, leading to chronic disease and a generally poor quality of life. It is recommended that individuals begin a pattern of winding down for at least one hour prior to bedtime. This usually includes dimming the lights, avoiding food or drink and turning off the TV. Engage in activities which create a sense of calm and relaxation while avoiding any activity which stimulates the mind or body. taking a measured approach to your nighttime sleeping ritual will pay tremendous dividends over your lifetime.
