5 steps to a better night’s sleep

Collaborative Post¦ Modern life can be exhausting, so it’s important that we get a good night’s sleep. It isn’t just the quantity, either. The quality of your sleep is just as important, if not more. Sleep can have a real impact on your physical and mental wellbeing. Therefore, it’s worthwhile trying to be mindful of it and try to get the best sleep possible! These tips will help you to achieve that.

1. Be careful with food and drink

Many people rightly avoid caffeinated drinks of an evening. However, caffeine can actually cause you problems up to 12 hours after you have that cup of coffee! If you find that you’re particularly sensitive to its effects, you may want to lay off of it earlier in the day. Likewise, a large meal or rich foods close to bed time won’t do you any favours.

Avoid coffee near bed time as it will disrupt sleep

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2. Exercise

Exercising during the day can be fantastic for helping you to sleep better. It’ll also make you feel less sleepy during the day. Vigorous exercise is particularly beneficial, as long as it’s not too close to bed time. It’s best to keep things more gentle if you need to exercise in the evening. Anything more vigorous should ideally be avoided for 2-3 hours before sleep.

Evening exercise can affect sleep

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3. Wind down

Try to wind down before bed. If you tend to lay in bed and worry about things you need to do, make a list beforehand to set your mind more at rest. Gentle, relaxing activities such as reading, drawing or taking a bath can do wonders for helping you to get a good sleep.

Candlelit relaxing bath to help with sleep

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4. Consider light exposure

Blue light close to bed time is a huge no-no, as it disrupts your circadian rhythm. Alongside this, many TV programmes and games are too stimulating. As such, try to avoid screens for an hour or two before you go to bed. When you do go to bed, make sure that the room is as dark as possible. Meanwhile, during the day time, spend as much time in natural daylight as possible. The more time spent outside, the better.

Blue screen computer tv bed sleep

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5. Have a good sleeping environment

As well as making sure that your room is as dark as possible, you’ll need to be comfortable.  Firstly, make sure that your room is at a good temperature. Secondly, having a comfortable mattress will make all the difference to your sleep quality. Each person has a different preference, but Bedguru.co.uk have a wide range to satisfy even the fussiest person’s mattress needs! Last, but not least, make sure that your brain only associates bed with sleep and sex. It’ll make it easier to get to sleep if your brain doesn’t associate your bed with other activities such as working on your laptop.

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Disclosure: This is a collaborative post with Bed Guru for which I have received compensation. As always, all views and opinions are honest and my own.

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