10 Worst and Best Sleeping Habits you need to know
A good night Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining overall health and for the proper functioning of your body. Getting a good quality sleep at the right times and with right sleeping positions can protect your brain health, mental health and physical health. Sleep helps your brain work efficiently and effectively. It helps your brain to get prepared for the next day. Additionally, sleep will create new ways to help you learn, remember, think and react.
There are many proven studies which claim that a good night sleep improves your learning, problem-solving ability, creativeness and the right way to make decisions. It may be learning math, knowing new things, how to drive a car, how to do things creatively, and many more.
The strange truth is, how you feel like when you’re awake depends on your sleeping patterns. If you don’t follow the right sleeping patterns, though you sleep for 8 hours a day yet you will feel lethargic throughout the day.
Did you know the effects of sleep deprivation?
Unfortunately, due to the stress full life, most people are sleep-deprived. Studies have also shown that sleep deprivation can wreak havoc on the proper functioning of the body. It leads to tiredness, low productivity, alters activity in some parts of the brain, and can also cause some chronic diseases. If you are sleep deprived you may also have trouble making decisions, cannot control your emotions, and can’t solve problems effectively.
The bad effects of sleep deprivation can show up on you throughout the day in many instances like while driving a car, talking with someone, and while thinking of being patient. Sleep deficiency can not only increase the risk of chronic diseases but also affects the way you think, work, learn and react.
So, let’s find out the worst and best sleeping habits you must follow for a healthy life a well-being state.
10 Worst and Best Sleeping Habits you need to know
Worst Sleeping Habits
The worst sleeping habits or poor sleep is linked to weight gain, the risk of heart diseases, depression, affect blood sugar levels and reduces insulin. Remarkably, along with proper diet plan and exercises, good sleep is also one of the pillars of health. Let’s check out what are the worst sleeping habits you need to avoid.
1. Irregular Sleep Timings
Irregular sleep timings greatly disturb the internal clock in our body. The internal clock is a mechanism that controls the periodicity of functions like sleep. Due to this, they may be many adverse health problems such as the improper functioning of the body parts, overeating, heart problems, mood swings and the difficulty to sleep. You if you don’t set a proper sleep time then your body clocks internal cannot adjust to your sleep timings and therefore you will be sleep deprived. If you’re sleep deprived then your body is certainly prone to many health issues.
So, always try to maintain a proper sleep time. You must sleep and wake up at the same time every day. The best time to sleep is between 10 pm to 5 am. If you’re unable to wake up soon set an alarm if possible.
Also, try not to sleep in the afternoon or just take short naps for 30 minutes. Because too much in the afternoon can cause insomnia at nights.
2. Consumption of Caffeine or Alcohol
Drinking a cup of Coffee or tea keeps you awake for long hours. That’s because it affects your body’s internal clock and messes up with your sleep in different ways.
There were studies which showed that, when caffeine was consumed 3 hours before the bedtime, it causes a disruption of your sleep. If it’s consumed 6 hours before bedtime, there are probably no negatives effects on your sleep quality. So, try to drink caffeine at least 5-6 hours before the bedtime as its likely to disturb your normal sleep rhythms.
On the other hand, drinking alcohol may make you sleep instantly. but it would keep you awake in the midnight. The sudden awakening from sleep may disturb your mental health.
3. Eating or Drinking too much before bedtime
Many experts say that you shouldn’t eat too much 0-3 hours before bedtime. Eating or drinking too much can disturb your normal sleep rhythms since it normally takes 3 hours for the stomach to break down the food and pass it to the lower intestine. While this process is happening, you cannot sleep and you may also face digestion problems. The very next day you might feel tired and dazed without knowing what actually happened. So, don’t go for heavy meals instead munch on a small snack like bananas, whole grains, kiwi and eggs. Most importantly, don’t consume the foods like chocolates, acidic and fatty foods before bedtime.
Note: Exercising will help you sleep well but not before bedtime. Your mind and body get excited after a workout session thereby causing difficulty to sleep. Maintain a gap of 3 hours before bedtime.
4. Using Electronic Gadgets
Nowadays nobody can resist by staying away from all the electronic gadgets. It’s like an uphill battle. We totally forget the negative impacts they have on our health and just stick to those devices. Studies have shown that a chemical called Melatonin that regulates sleep patterns is reduced by 50% while using electronic gadgets before bedtime. Also, the blue light emitted from the screens of laptops, mobile phones or televisions will show up adverse effects on your health. They excite your brain and makes you less probable to sleep. So, it always advisable to stay away from such gadgets at least an hour before the sleep time.
5. Sleeping in Wrong Positions
Generally, most of the people tend to sleep in their comfortable postures without knowing the effects such postures have on their health. Sleeping in the wrong positions may aggravate health conditions. Though you have a good quality 8 hours sleep yet you feel lethargic when you wake up that indicates wrong sleeping positions.
If you sleep on your stomach, it may ease snoring but it may lead to other health problems. Your neck and spine will not be in a neutral position. This may lead to neck and back pain. Likewise, avoid sleeping on fetal postures that put a lot of pressure on your shoulders and neck area. The ideal position to sleep is on your back which keeps your spine straight and the left sideways posture as it helps with many body functions such as blood circulation.
Best Sleeping Habits
Needless to say, the best sleeping habits will not only improve your sleep but also will enhance your overall health conditions. So, ensure to follow these 5 best sleeping habits.
6. Following a Proper Bedtime Routine
A proper bedtime routine is very essential in improving sleep quality. Prepare your mind to sleep in 60 seconds. Set a sleep timing and follow that every day. Don’t wear stuff in which you can hardly breathe instead wear free flowy comfortable clothing. You can simply read a book or just meditate before an hour of sleep. Meditation calms down your mind and makes you sleep faster. Wash your face and like said, don’t touch electronic gadgets before an hour of sleep.
7. Try Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises or meditation will greatly help you to fall asleep very soon. Meditation relieves you from stress by calming down your mind. Similarly, breath in and breath out for several seconds while meditating. Breathing exercises are the yogic discipline followed from archaic times for the impressive health benefits they provide. Deep breathing exercises have innumerable benefits such as it slows down your heart rate, reduces anxiety and makes you sleep faster.
[ Read: Kapalbhati Pranayama – The breathing exercise]
8. Make the best Sleeping Environment
A right sleeping environment is all that you need for improving your sleep. Set an optimal room temperature which is neither too cold nor too hot. Keep your room dark, quiet and clean as usual which is feasible to get better sleep. Don’t forget to change your mattresses once in a week or two. Spray a nice perfume that calms your soul and body. Else lit a candle to spread the aroma throughout your room.
9. What to eat and drink before bedtime?
Don’t go for heavy meals rather stick to light meals. Too much eating or drinking will not let you sleep very soon. It also may create some of the health problems like digestion. So snack on the foods like banana, kiwi, eggs or whole grains. Also, drink a glass of Milk which really soothes your body promoting good sleep.
10. Do a Foot Massage
This technique helps you sleep faster. Firstly, wash your feet then take a few drops of your favourite oil and start rubbing your feet. Else simply take a moisturizer, massage your feet gently by applying pressure on the acupressure points and then cover your feet with a pair of socks. Doing so, helps your brain to relax because there are many pressure points in your feet that are connected to the brain.
So, after all the walkthrough of the worst and best sleeping habits, we hope that you’re well-versed in what to do? and what not to do? for better and quality sleep. Try to inculcate all the best sleeping habits and ensure to avoid all the worst sleeping habits.
Stay happy! Stay healthy!
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