One of the biggest problems that young adults are facing in this day and age is a severe lack of sleep.
It’s one of the most vital processes that our bodies need to undergo every night, yet longer work hours see more and more people getting the adequate number of hours of sleep that the body naturally requires.
We’re also starting to see a higher rate of burnout for many working adults, as well as a higher prevalent of mental health problems – much of which can be attributed to sleep problems.
If you’re battling to sleep well at night, use these tips to improve your sleep cycles without turning to powerful, prescription drugs.
1. Try and Develop a Routine
This is perhaps the most important step a person can take to getting better sleep consistently.
Our brains are machines of habit, and teaching them when it’s time to start releasing the chemicals required to fall asleep at a certain time is the best way of getting in more hours every night.
Try and have a nightly ritual, perhaps with a cup of herbal tea, or a game of Aristocrat pokies, and within a few weeks, the ritual will begin to work in tandem with falling asleep.
2. Avoid Smoking
Smoking is bad in so many ways, but there have been studies that show that smokers feel four times more likely to wake up feeling tired.
This is because of the withdrawal that we feel in the morning from not having nicotine in our system, making us lethargic, tired, and quick to anger first thing in the mornings.
3. Exercising For Improved Sleep
Researchers have found that sedentary adults were far more likely to have negative sleep cycles, whereas adults who exercised four times a week saw vastly improved overall sleep.
Not only did they attain better sleep, but exercising adults report better vitality, less tiredness during the daytime, and far fewer symptoms of depression.
4. Kill The Lights
Our bodies are not designed to fall asleep when there are lights around, which can become a problem when we’re constantly surrounded by blinking lights from all the technology that has become so important in our lives.
If possible, making your room as dark as possible is a good way of getting better sleep. It applies to sound as well – we need it as quiet as possible, so having a running computer in the background producing sound can severely impact how well we sleep during the night.
5. Use The Bed For Sleeping Only
As mentioned earlier, the brain is a machine of habit, and it can quickly learn that using the bed for eating or watching something on television will make your brain much more active when getting on your bed, causing it to make you restless.
Try and ensure that you only use your bed for sleeping, allowing your brain to associate it with that one act for better sleep.