So 2020 was a bit of a restless year, now that we’re in 2021 it’s time to sleep it off and move on with life. But if you’re still struggling to sleep, maybe it wasn’t the stress of living in 2020 that kept you awake, but something wrong with your routine or bedroom.
To help you get the sleep you need to be a happy and healthy individual, we’ve scoured the net for some of the best tips on how to improve your sleep, so that 2021 can be a delightful year of good rest and sweet dreams. So without further ado, let’s get into the details!
Put Your Phone Down
Starting off with something we’re all guilty of, playing on our phones and other electronic devices before bed. While this sounds like an innocent enough activity to do before bed (after all emails don’t read themselves), the screens of electronic devices emit something called ‘blue light’ which plays havoc with our brains at night.
This essentially means that when using your phone, watching TV or playing on your iPad, your body is being tricked by the screen’s light into thinking it’s day time, which will stop your body’s natural sleep process. Because of this, you’ll want to put down your electronics about an hour before bedtime to stop yourself from being kept up.
Remove Light Pollution
One thing that could be keeping you up at night is light pollution, our body’s require darkness to sleep and intrusive light leaking through your windows from streetlamps or passing cars can keep you up at night or even wake you in the middle of the night.
Luckily, there’s an easy fix to this problem, all you need to do is find somewhere to buy curtains online that produce blackout curtains or blackout blinds. With these installed you’ll block out leaking light into your bedroom and create the ideal dark environment to help you get a good night’s sleep.
Get Some Exercise
Next up on our list, exercise. You may be struggling to sleep just because your body hasn’t used enough energy that day and you’re still ready for action. So working some exercise into your schedule will help you burn through that energy so that your body needs rest come bedtime.
Your exercise doesn’t need to be crazy or full on, just relative to your usual activity, if you’re a couch potato having a walk around the black a few hours before bed should help burn some of your energy and have your body ready for rest.
No More Late Dinners
Late dinners, whilst being ‘very European’ probably aren’t the best choice for you if you struggle to sleep. When your body digests food it needs muscles and organs to be active, so if you eat late at night, your body will still need to be active to digest your food, which could be keeping you awake.
Because of this, it’s probably best to avoid having your dinner too late in the evening. It’s recommended to have your last meal at least 2 hours before bedtime for most people or 4 hours before bed if you suffer heartburn. Having time to digest your food before bed will allow you to dose off to sleep a lot easier.
Cut Out Coffee
Finally we move onto one of the biggest offenders for keeping people up at night… caffeine. While some of us always proclaim that coffee doesn’t have a big effect on us, it most certainly does, caffeine while common is strong and effects even the most macho of us. While we certainly don’t think you should cut out caffeine all together, it’s good to limit your intake to stop you staring at the ceiling all night.
So to keep caffeine wiring us up at night, it’s good to have a cut-off for caffeinated drinks, according to the Independent the effects of caffeine will last for about 7 hours from your last cup, so it’s a good idea to cut off the caffeine around 2pm-4pm depending when you want to sleep. Holding off on the coffee after this time will have noticeable positive impacts on your sleeping.