Ensure a Good Nights Rest (How to sleep better, faster, stronger!)

I thought it would be nice to share tips that help me sleep like a king since there are so many people who constantly say they have trouble sleeping.

The way your bed feels against your skin plays a powerful role in helping you sleep better.

When was the last time you washed your sheets? Isn’t there something special about slipping into your bed when the sheets are freshly laundered?  I love that feeling and love going into my bed knowing it’s nice and clean.

As time goes on without washing them, the sheets accumulate dirt and everything starts feeling rough.  Wash your bed sheets, covers and pillowcases every week to promote comfort and get rid of naturally flaking skin, sweat and body oils.  This is very important for those with respiratory issues as well.

Your bed sheets need to be taut and wrinkle free.  I’ve noticed that if the sheets are wrinkled and bunched up underneath my back, it’s not comfortable lying on that subtly uneven surface for 8 hours. Take a minute to stretch the sheets out taut around the corners to make them completely smooth.

What if it’s time to buy new sheets? You spend a third of your life sleeping, so don’t you think you deserve to be spending that time on the material you love most?

The quality of sheets are often conveyed by the thread count but the best sheets are not necessarily the ones with the highest thread count, but the ones that you think look and feel good against your own skin.  If two sheets have the same thread count, but their weave and the way their cotton has been treated is different, one may feel like silk while the other may feel super cozy and warm to you.  The best thing you can do is physically touch the sheets before buying them and choose the one that feels the best to you.

Make your room DARK and cover ALL electronic lights!

In this day and age with all the electronics we have surrounding us, I think this is the most important thing we can correct:

• I have really dark curtains to help me black out the room like a hotel room.
• I use electrical tape to cover my router lights and any other electronics that have standby lights.
• That LED alarm clock next to my bed? I turn it face down or throw a towel over it at night.
• Even a simple LED that indicates something is charging or plugged in will mess with me so I will cover it or remove it!

How’s your mattress doing? Flip it!  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

The springs tend to sag and create an impression overtime on the area you always sleep on, reducing the amount of precious back support the bed provides.  Have someone help you flip your mattress around every few months as it’s quite challenging to do it alone.  Alternate flipping it upside down and switching the feet-side with the head-side.

Eventually, after about a decade, after you have flipped your mattress in every combination possible and feel that your mattress is contributing to your back pain or stiffness, then it’s time to buy a new mattress.  Again, you spend a third of your life sleeping, so don’t neglect this call to search for new mattresses.  They don’t cost as much as you think.  I mean, seriously? $379 for a queen-sized memory foam mattress on Amazon with a solid 5-star review rating?  Yeah, sign me up.  And in regards to mattresses where you have a choice in firmness, I would recommend you consider a mattress that is on the firmer side if you tend to sleep on your back.  The support is nice.

Sleep is not an instant switch you simply turn on and off: Treat yourself like a dimmer.

You need to relax gradually and prepare your body for sleep so that when you do finally go into bed, you will fall sound asleep.

Refrain from using the TV, computer and phone at least 15 minutes before going to bed.  The bright projection screen of a monitor in your eyes tricks your body to think it’s still day time.

Treat your bed as your sleeping sanctuary.  Don’t watch TV in bed.  Don’t bring your laptop in with you.  Don’t pay your bills in bed.  Get the idea?  Reserve your bed only for sleeping (and sex) so your mind and body know that when you slip into bed, it’s time to go to sleep.

Create a consistent sleeping pattern and get your beauty sleep.  Try to sleep and wake up at the same time every night and have that schedule consist of a full 8 hours of sleep.  Several people (including myself at one point) like to boast that they function fine on 6 hours of sleep, but the reality is that even though we operate OK on 6 hours of sleep, we are not operating to the best of our ability.  The gene that allows you to truly function perfectly with only 6 hours of sleep or less is found in less than 3% of the population.  So getting your “beauty sleep” is very important for 97% of the population.

Take a warm shower before going to bed. Having some hot water running against your back to loosen your back muscles feels amazing.  Then, after the shower when my body cools back down and I get ready to get into bed, I feel like it helps me fall asleep and I wake up feeling like I got a higher quality sleep.

And last but not least…

The same way it feels good to have clean sheets, the rest of your bedroom should follow suit and be uncluttered to put your mind at ease. Some people with insomnia have incredibly dirty and cluttered bedrooms and to those I say, well, I would too if I had to sleep there!

If you got any tips that help you sleep better I would love to hear them!