Did you feel well rested this morning?
I slept great. I spent the morning thinking about how important that great night of sleep was to my energy levels for the day. I’ve learned a few things about getting the perfect night sleep and I thought I’d tell you a few of my secrets.
When I think of the perfect night sleep, I think about laying down in bed and not thinking about any of the problems I’m having. Then I wake up the next morning ready to start a new day. That perfect night sleep usually starts within 15 minutes of relaxation and isn’t interrupted by worries that I might have been having for the rest of the day.
Another useful thing to consider in your quest for a good night’s sleep is how you felt about the dreams you had. Bad dreams are a clear sign of not getting restful sleep. You’ll be tossing and turning throughout the night and not maximizing stress relief and relaxation.
Your body needs a great night sleep every single night. That’s the time that your body is able to recover from the stresses it faced throughout the day.
It’s the only part of the day that everything can be repaired. Your body and mind stresses itself throughout the waking hours. Getting a good night sleep is needed to bring yourself back up to par for the next day. Waking up multiple times and not being able to get comfortable are not a good form of sleep. My research center actually recently received an article that showed people that snore aren’t getting as powerful a night sleep. Many actually interrupt their own sleep up hundreds of different times through snoring every night. That’s definitely not what we’re looking for. It may be best to think about it this way. If you’ve been particularly stressed, or you can’t fall asleep on your mattress, or if sleep has been interrupted for any other reason, your brain and body cannot repair itself.
You’re body will end up a little worse off every single morning Your metabolism will be suffering more and more every single day.
Catching up on that sleep doesn’t work. Many people say that they catch up on their sleep during the weekends because they don’t have time during the week. That is nothing but a myth. At no point has it been proven to work. The sleeping pattern you use needs to be on a consistent, daily basis to help the body repair itself. Catching up is still hurting your mind everyday of the week and extra sleep on the weekends doesn’t do any good.
How much sleep is enough for health?
The classic number is still the best. 8 hours of sleep every night is the goal. There are ways you can reduce that need for sleep by a couple of hours. You’ll need to eat great. You’ll need to work out regularly. On top of that, every hour of sleep needs to be completely restful. That can work to lower the need to around 6 hours per night but not much lower.
More people are on the opposite end of that spectrum though. People that go through lots of stress throughout the day need more than 8 hours sleep. A bodybuilder, for example, need significantly more time asleep to recover from the excess stresses put on the body. They require more time for recovery then the average person for complete stress relief. While bodybuilders might be an obvious example, anyone can require more sleep if they stress themselves out enough throughout the day.
How can you make sure that you and those around you get the perfect night sleep every night?
10 Ways To Get The Perfect Night Sleep
- 1. Write down everything that you have planned for the next day. That will give your body the chance to clear everything off its mind. It can help prevent long nights of planning for the next day. It also releases a lot of stress from the brains memory.
- 2. Shut the television off earlier. Same goes for the radio. The news can be particularly bad for a good night sleep. Keep them off while you’re sleeping or trying to sleep.
- 3. Staying positive before bed can help the body release the stresses that keep you up. Looking over inspirational or positive thinking material for a half hour can do the trick. Too many people sleep thinking about the problems they need to worry about. It’s much better to think about the good things in life. That clears the body of stress when it needs it most.
- 4. Keep the lights out and aim for complete darkness. Darkness is the brains natural signal that it’s time to sleep. The darker the room is, the more the body will release the hormones for great sleep.
- 5. Silence is golden when looking for the perfect night sleep. The brain is meant to listen for noises that could be danger. The less noise the better.
- 6. Eating before bed can cause digestive problems. Sleep is meant to help the body recover itself. If there is still food in the body then it needs to focus on digestion instead. Sleep can be interrupted when digestion is taking place. On top of that, digestion is intended to be done in an upright position. A laying position is more difficult for the body to digest in.
- 7. Ayurvedic medicine suggests that the best time for sleeping is around 10 in the evening until 6 in the morning. That is considered the natural cycle for sleep for the human body. That means that the best sleep will come from that period of time throughout the night.
- 8. Supplements and drugs that say they can help you sleep will only hurt your sleep in the long run. Unless a doctor tells you to take them, avoid them. The drugs don’t help you get a typical night sleep. They help your body shut down for the night. It even helps shut down the mechanisms that make sleep so powerful in recovering the body for the next day. Instead of recovering during that sleep, you’re going to just be out of it.
- 9. The air inside of someones house is some of the most toxic air around. Getting circulation throughout the house can help. During periods of sleep there is only so much air in the room that you’re in. Opening a window a little bit can provide a fresh supply of clean air through the whole night. The better the air that your body breaths, the better your body is going to be able to repair itself and provide full stress relief.
- 10. Working out for an hour a day can help the body fall asleep during relaxation at night. If you don’t have a full hour then split it into multiple shorter sessions throughout the day. Getting that full 60 minutes can do great things for your body. It helps with everything having to do with health including getting the perfect night sleep every night.
With these tips you can have the perfect night sleep tonight (and then repeat every night after.)
Tsvetan Petrov is a health writer and regular contributor to his website Get Holistic Health.