Ask yourself the following questions:
How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Do you wake up tired? Sore? Do you need an entire pot of coffee to function? How do you feel for the rest of the day when you get a bad night's sleep?
Sleep is one of the most important things you can do(check out our Sleep Resources section if you need to be convinced). Sleep is more important than eating. If you gave up eating and sleeping, you would die of lack of sleep far sooner than you would starve to death. This Scientific American article explains it. Even a little bit of sleep deprivation can have serious consequences for your health. According to Harvard, sleep deprivation can lead to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Here are some tips to help you get a better night's sleep.
- Go to bed at the same time each night, and wake up at the same time each morning. Our bodies have a circadian rhythm (circadian, meaning "about a day"). Our bodies naturally try to fall into a daily sleep pattern that, for some reason, we often try to fight. But if you get into a daily routine, you'll fall asleep easier, and waking up minutes before the alarm will wake you anyway.
- Avoid caffeine late in the day. Studies have shown that consuming caffeine 6 hours before bedtime or later leads to disrupted sleep if you go to bed at 11 pm and no caffeine after 5 pm.
- Avoid bright lights, including electronics, at bedtime. Your body partly bases its circadian rhythm around the light entering your eyes. If you keep your room constantly bright (or have the bright light of your cell phone pumping directly into your eye), that signals your brain that it's not time to sleep yet. That means you'll lie awake fighting yourself, trying to sleep. Avoid bright lights at night. Keep your room dark, and don't bring your cell phone to bed. Studies have shown that blue light is the worst for disrupting sleep. (Read here for a cheap way to block the blue light from your eyes at night)
- Evaluate your mattress. If you find yourself tossing or turning all night, unable to get comfortable, or you wake up with a backache, your partner bounces you out of bed when they change positions, or you wake up with pins and needles in your hand, you might need a new mattress. A mattress's proper support and comfort are important to how well you sleep. If you need a new mattress, please visit our showroom at Texan Mattress so we can custom-fit you for a proper sleep system.
