How to Promote Better Sleep

Blog Category: Health

Are you waking up tired? Do you feel like you start the day on the wrong foot? Does it feel like you have no energy to do what you enjoy? Getting a good night’s sleep can affect so much of our everyday lives, and those same habits can affect how we sleep. Read on to fight this vicious cycle and live a life with better sleep.

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

The necessary hours for sleep change depending on age, though behavioral, genetic, and environmental factors can also affect how much sleep you need. Children up to the age of 17 need 8-10 hours of sleep, adults aged 18-64 years need 7-9 hours of sleep, and adults aged 65 and older need 7-9 hours of sleep. Not getting enough sleep has several negative side effects and even long-term complications:

  • Poor attention span
  • Excessive daytime drowsiness
  • Impaired memory
  • Relationship stress
  • Lower quality of life
  • Increased likelihood of car accidents
  • Premature wrinkles and dark circles under the eyes
  • High blood pressure
  • Diabetes
  • Heart attack or failure
  • Stroke
  • Obesity
  • Depression
  • Lower immune system function

What Negatively Impacts Your Sleep

Ultimately, you’ll know you’re not getting enough sleep if you go about every day feeling tired and unrested. If you’re getting very little sleep but feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning, then you’re probably getting the sleep you need. However, if you wake up after a normal amount of time and feel drained, there might be a problem. Here are some reasons you could be having trouble getting the rest you need, but always talk to your doctor for a professional perspective:

  • Stress overload
  • Producing less melatonin
  • Too much screen time
  • Poor diet, exercise, or routine
  • Alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine before bed
  • Anxiety or other underlying conditions

How to Get Better Sleep

Getting enough sleep is important at every stage of life, but as we get older, we often cut back on sleep due to work obligations or the demands of our family. Consider these simple tips to help you get better regular sleep:

  • Better Diet: People who are regularly sleep-deprived are more likely to increase their food consumption without increasing their energy expenditure and select higher-calorie foods with fewer nutritional benefits. Ultimately, you want to eat food with adequate nutrition or healthy sleep-inducing properties like essential vitamins, melatonin, serotonin, or tryptophan. These foods include beans, eggs, cheese, cherries, kiwis, milk, oily and fatty fish, oysters, poultry, pumpkin seeds, and a diet high in vegetables. Avoid spicy foods, alcohol, and high-fat and high-protein foods before bed for better sleep and overall health. Consider drinks right before bed that naturally have melatonin in them to help make you sleepy, such as chamomile tea, valerian tea, tart cherry juice, and almond milk.
  • More Exercise: Moderate aerobic exercise is directly connected to mood stabilization and increasing the slow-wave sleep you get. Slow-wave sleep is the stage of your sleep cycle where your brain and body have the chance to rejuvenate. Nearly any level of activity affects an individual’s ability to regulate anxiety, which can help you get to sleep faster. Physical activity close to bedtime will keep you up all night since it energizes when it starts your metabolism and releases endorphins, which makes you feel alert and promotes brain activity. Exercise for at least 30 minutes earlier in the day instead of the evening to see a marked difference in sleep habits and quality, as well as overall health.
  • Have a Consistent Sleep Schedule: When you wake up is just as important as when you go to bed. Keeping a regular sleep schedule will help you sleep better. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, and that goes for your weekends, too! This consistency reinforces your body’s wake and sleep cycle, alerting it to be ready for sleep and therefore energized and ready to seize the day.
  • Set the Stage for Bedtime: When following your bedtime routine, prepare your room so your body can experience an easy transition to bedtime. Set the recommended room temperature between 65 and 72 degrees, or whatever you prefer. Experiment with bed linens, sleepwear, and room temperature to determine what combination gives you the best night’s sleep for every season. Get darker curtains, remove unnecessary light sources, turn noises off, and face your alarm clock away so you won’t be tempted to check it and upset yourself! A sleeping mask can also keep additional light out and help prevent you from looking at electronics.
  • Put Away Electronics and Pick Up a Book: Keep your screen time to a minimum while in bed, as the light from electronics is harmful to your eyes for long periods, and you’ll fall down a rabbit hole of scrolling on your device for hours. If you must entertain yourself to wind down for bed, consider reading a chapter or two of a book that’s not a thriller or horror. Consider keeping a notebook or journal by your bed to help you write out anything that’s bothering you and put it to rest or set it aside for the next day.

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At Life Enriching Communities (LEC), we’re committed to ensuring patrons feel well-equipped to plan their future and age how they wish. Explore more resources on senior living or contact us today to learn more about our legacy of services and programs that bring meaning and purpose to every stage of life.