Are you among the one in three people who struggle with poor sleep? Not getting enough sleep isn’t something you can cure with a cup of coffee in the morning. If you consistently don’t get good sleep night after night, you’re actually doing long-lasting damage to your body. This can lead to accidents, depression, faster aging, and even heart disease. It’s time to change those unhealthy sleep habits and get some solid rest.
Staying Up Late
Are you a natural-born night owl? Do you continuously find yourself staying up late, watching a movie, playing a game or messing around on one of your devices? You know you can survive on a little less sleep because you’ve done it before, but when the morning comes around you’re exhausted and moving slowly which only makes the day take even longer. You end up staying up late again to have some down time, and the dangerous cycle repeats.
You’ve got to break that bad habit by forming a new one. Set an alarm to go to sleep the same way you set an alarm to wake up in the morning. Program the alarm to go off so that you will get a healthy amount of sleep (at least 7 hours, but optimally 8), and obey the alarm the same way you obey your morning alarm. Which means, you know, don’t hit the “snooze” button more than once.
Put Down the Device
Do you look at your tablet, laptop or smartphone right up until the minute you close your eyes to go to sleep? Lots of people do, but that means lots of people have the same bad habit. You should actually avoid all screens for one hour before you go to bed. But if that’s too challenging, commit to turning off all screens 30 minutes before sleep. You’ll have much better sleep with less disturbing dreams, and fewer symptoms of insomnia.
Stick to Your Schedule
Create a sleep schedule, and follow it! This is really the only way to develop healthy sleeping habits. Be strict about following your schedule to ensure that you’re getting the sleep you need. Because the alternative is sickness, sleepiness and even a shorter life. Doesn’t sleep sound a lot better than that?