Simple Ways To Improve Sleep

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By Joe Fier | December 3, 2007

What are your pre-bedtime rituals?

Are you finding yourself surfing the net or watching some late night TV?

As these activities seem to feel like they calm you down, they may actually stealing some of your much needed sleep from you. Studies have shown that when people spend nearly 2 hours of casually checking out online websites or sitting and watching television, over a third has had more problems with their sleep than those that avoided these. These activities definitely feel like they are calming to the body, but they actually stimulate various brain functions that prove detrimental to one’s sleep. Television and computers exposes us to a light that seems to completely mess up sleep cycles and rhythms. This light causes many of us to spend extra time trying to fall asleep because of the added stimulation to parts of the brain, such as the pineal gland.

Try a few of these ideas to help the quality of your sleep:

Find a routine. Just as anything else, routines help to get you in the habit of doing something. Pick a time to hit the sack and stick with it. Getting your 6 to 8 hours per night is key.
Relax to music. Pick out some music that is very easy to listen to, such as white noise or soothing natural sounds. There are even programs for your computer that provide these sounds specifically for sleep.
Do some stretching. Each night before bed and when you wake in the morning, do some light stretching. Loosen up any parts of your body that may seem tight; when you hit the bed you’ll fall asleep like a baby.
Keep the temperature low. Any room temperature over 70 degrees heats the body too much and makes it more difficult to fall asleep. Watch those heaters this winter!
Avoid alcohol. It may seem like a good way to get to sleep really quick, but once the effect wears off on the body, many people wake up in the middle of the night with difficulty trying to fall back asleep.
Watch your snacking. It’s never good to go to sleep feeling hungry, but watch how much you eat. Blood sugar levels are raised after eating but then drops during sleep, which causes many to wake up.
Move the clock. If you are having trouble falling asleep and a clock is in view, move it! It will only cause more worry about trying to fall asleep.
Don’t make up sleep. If you happen to lose some sleep during the week, don’t try and make it up by sleeping extra hours on the weekend. Doing this will throw off any kind of rhythm you have with sleeping.
Keep the bed for sleeping. The bed needs to be thought of as a place to calm down and relax. If you are watching television or playing on a computer on, or even near the bed, it will always be on your mind when you try to go to sleep.
Move the TV and computer. Along the lines as the previous tip, remove any television and computers from the bed room if they become a distraction. Having these in the room could feed the urge watch TV or use a computer in bed.