What are 3 things you can do to help improve your sleep?
Sleeping better can improve your physical and mental health, giving you more energy and desire to do things. But there are so many sleep tips that it can be hard to filter through the noise.
This article covers the three best things you can do to sleep better, whether you a young, old, pregnant, sleeping with pain, or anything else.
Let’s jump in!
Buy the best mattress you can afford
Regarding mattresses, you pay for what you get, but you don’t have to spend a thousand pounds for a ludicrously good sleep. You can find adequate comfort and support for £300 from known brands like Silentnight.
The Sleepeezee Jessica offers outstanding value, priced at £699 for a double with 3cm of cooling memory gel and 1,600 pocket springs.
We recommend choosing a pocket spring mattress (hybrid or otherwise), with a minimum 800 spring count for basic support and 1,500 for advanced support.
Firmness is also critical. The conventional advice is to buy a mattress based on your favourite sleeping position, with medium-feel mattresses best for side sleepers, medium-firm best for back sleepers, and firm best for front sleepers.
However, choosing a mattress based on your body weight is a better way to specify a perfect mattress because it ensures an optimal blend of cushioning and support so that you are comfortable in every sleeping position.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Under 140lbs – soft-medium
- Under 180lbs – medium
- Under 210lbs – medium-firm
- Over 220lbs – firm
Stick to these rules, and you’ll be fine.
Regulate your bedroom and bed temperature
Temperature and sleep quality are closely linked, with too low and high a temperature detrimental to sleep quality and duration.
A Sleep Foundation poll found that people sleep best when the bedroom thermostat is set to 18.3 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit).
Sweltering and cold rooms impact deep and REM sleep – deep sleep is responsible for more than three-quarters of nocturnal metabolic activity.
If your thermostat drops below this in the night (it will in winter), you can stay warm with a heated mattress topper set to low.
However, research shows that increases in core temperature during sleep promote waking, so you need to strike a balance.
A temperature range between 15.6 and 19.4 degrees Celsius (60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit) is optimal for sleep every season.
Additionally, high humidity levels promote wakefulness, making it more likely that you will wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to sleep.
We recommend buying a thermostat for your bedroom to monitor the temperature. If you need more heat, check out these gadgets.
Create a sleep schedule and be consistent
What is a sleep schedule? A sleep schedule is a set time that you go to bed and a set time that you wake up. Together, these can fix your body clock and circadian rhythms, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up at a reasonable time.
Creating a sleep schedule is as easy as deciding on sleep and wake times and setting alarms but sticking to it and being consistent is challenging.
The trick is to get up at the same time every day – no matter what! This will make you tired at night and slowly bring your sleep schedule on track.
How much sleep do you need? Adults should aim for between seven and nine hours every night. We recommend aiming for eight hours.
Eight hours of sleep is reasonable if you like to stay up a little – go to bed at 11 pm, and you will wake up at 7 am every morning with eight hours of sleep.
Don’t worry if you struggle to sleep the first few nights and drift off at 1 am or later – it is more important to get up consistently to bring things in line.
If you found this article helpful, check out these 10 tips for better sleep.