Tips for a Great Night’s Sleep
By Jessica, September 5, 2011
Sleep is essential to a healthy body and healthy skin. Our nightly resting periods are when we restore energy and rebuild cells – missing out on it results in dark puffy circles and more pronounced fine lines and wrinkles. If you’re having difficulty getting your eight hours a night, try these simple tips for promoting more restful and rejuvenating beauty sleep.
Environmental Issues
It is essential that you create an environment conducive to sleep in your bedroom. Remove all sources of noise and light as you possibly can to avoid disturbance during the night. Try black-out blinds, eye covers and ear plugs if these factors are beyond your control. The room itself should also be neither too warm nor too cold, as this will interfere with the body’s own regulation of the optimum temperature for sleeping.
Diet for Dozing
Try to keep stimulants in the diet to a minimum, especially in the hours before bed. Caffeine and nicotine both have a detrimental effect on sleep, increasing your heart rate when it should be slowing down. Avoid eating heavy meals late in the day, as going to bed on a full stomach leaves the body working on digestion while you’re trying to switch off. Lastly, avoid alcohol. While a night cap may help the initial dozing off, it causes sudden awakening later on in the night.
Effective Exercise
Many people believe exercising before bed will help tire you out, when actually it leaves the body in a state of alertness for a significant amount of time. Regular exercise is an excellent way to improve sleep patterns, but do so early in the day. Thirty minutes or so of light daily cardio will encourage deeper sleep. Anything later in the evening should be limited to some gentle stretching or yoga to allow your body to wind down.
Banish the Buzzer
Brightly lit alarm clocks that keep you watching the minutes tick by then startle you out of sleep with a loud ringing in the morning are not a good idea. Clocks which beam the time at you during the night will only distress you with how many hours you have until getting up. And, if you can, change the tone of your alarm clock to a gentle one that will wake you gradually. Loud, sudden noises are not a healthy way to wake up.
Restful Routines
Healthy sleepers tend to fall sleep at the same time every night and wake at the same time each morning without an alarm. Get into the pattern of going to bed and getting up at the same times each day, even on weekends, and you can expect greatly improved quality of sleep. This will take some time to adjust to and dramatic changes will be more difficult, try gradually changing your current times to the desired times by 10 or 15 minutes each day.
