6 Things That Are Messing with Your Sleep & What To Do About It
A good night’s sleep is the ultimate recharge. But if you spend the night tossing and turning, you can wake up feeling frustrated rather than refreshed.
And it’s not just the next-day drowsiness that is a problem. Over time, sleep deprivation can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
Prioritizing good, restorative sleep is a crucial component of overall health. So, let’s dive into what could be stopping you from getting a good night’s sleep and the appropriate steps to take to fix it.
What’s messing with your sleep quality.
Even if you are tucking yourself in with plenty of time to hit the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep, you might be making some crucial mistakes that leave you buzzing instead of just zzz’ing. Here are some of the top offenders that might be getting between you and some sweet (restorative) dreams:
1. Using your phone right before bedtime.
If your idea of a winding down before bed is scrolling through Instagram, you may want to rethink your strategy.
All electronics, including your cellphone, TV, and laptop, emit what’s called blue light. Exposure to this shortwave light suppresses melatonin production—a hormone that helps you fall asleep. While all artificial light suppresses melatonin production to some degree, blue light may be especially detrimental if you’re exposed to it for at least two hours.
It’s not just the blue light that can cause issues, though; how you’re using technology matters too. One study found that checking social media within 30 minutes of bedtime can negatively affect sleep. So log off, completely, for a better night’s rest.
2. Napping during the day.
Daytime naps are tempting, especially when you’re not getting enough quality sleep every night. But while a nap may give you some immediate gratification, the longer-term negative effects may not be worth it. One study found that taking daytime naps not only reduces the duration and quality of nighttime sleep, but it can also lead to increased sleepiness during the day and overall fatigue.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t ever take a nap, but if you do decide you need a midday snooze, keep it short. Research shows that short, 10-minute naps can improve alertness and productivity, while longer naps can increase sleep inertia, or that groggy feeling you get when you first wake up.
3. Working in your bed.
If you work remotely, it’s extremely tempting to grab your laptop and work from bed, but experts from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School don’t recommend it.
This habit can blur the lines between work and downtime. If you’re working on particularly stressful projects from your bed, it makes it hard to associate your bed with relaxation. Instead, you may start to feel work tension and stress when you crawl under those covers. If you’re a student, this also applies to studying and other schoolwork.
On the other hand, limiting your bed to bedtime activities, like sleep and sex, can boost the association between your bedroom and sleep and make it easier for you to catch those Zzz’s.
4. Lying in bed when you can’t fall asleep.
While it may seem counterintuitive to get up when you’re trying to sleep, experts actually recommend getting out of bed if you can’t fall asleep. If you’ve been in bed for about 20 minutes and you’re still awake, leave your bedroom and engage in a relaxing activity, like listening to calming music or reading a book.
Pay attention to the lighting, though. If you decide to read, make sure the lights are warm and dim. If they’re too bright, it can work against you and wake you up instead of making you sleepy. It’s also best to avoid sleep-disrupting activities, like watching TV or scrolling through social media.
Once you feel your eyelids start to get heavy, head back to bed and try again.
5. Drinking caffeine and alcohol.
If you are having trouble getting good sleep, Stephen Amira, Ph.D., a psychologist with the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, recommends limiting both caffeine and alcohol.
Caffeine is a stimulant that helps wake you up. While that can be beneficial in the morning, it can significantly disrupt nighttime sleep, especially if you’re not careful about your timing.
That afternoon cup of coffee may be tempting, but it’s best to ditch the caffeine at least six hours before you’re ready to call it a night. Keep in mind that while coffee is a major contributor of caffeine, it’s not the only source. Tea, chocolate, soda, and some pain relievers also contain amounts that can interfere with a good night’s sleep.
Alcohol is classified as a depressant, and while it may help you fall asleep initially, it can inhibit sleep after a few hours of being in your system, waking you up at night and decreasing your quality of sleep.
If you choose to consume alcohol, stick to one to two drinks per day, and avoid it completely within three hours of bedtime.
6. Eating a big dinner.
You may have heard the advice that it’s best to avoid late-night snacking for the sake of your waistline, but the benefits go beyond that. While researchers from one study were looking at how eating later in the day could contribute to weight gain, they found something interesting about sleep.
Participants in the study who ate after 8 p.m. not only had higher BMIs, but they also didn’t sleep as long as those who ate earlier in the day. Some foods, like pepperoni pizza, can also cause indigestion and discomfort that can wake you up in the middle of the night and negatively affect your sleep quality.
This goes for fluids, too. If you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, it’s harder to fall back to sleep, and waking up in the middle of the night, even for a few minutes, can make you feel sleepier the next day.
While there’s no official cutoff time, try to do most of your eating and drinking before 8 p.m.
How to sleep better.
Once you’ve cut the sleep-disrupting habits, there are a few things you can do throughout the day to help you sleep soundly at night. Most of these remedies are small lifestyle changes that add up to big results (and don’t cost a fortune).
Get outside during the day.
You may not realize it, but light actually plays a huge role in how well you sleep. Your body operates on a 24-hour biological cycle called the circadian rhythm. Without getting too deep into it, your circadian “clock” uses light to tell you when it’s time to wake up and when you should hit the hay.
Studies show that timing, intensity, duration, and wavelength of light can affect your circadian rhythm, both positively and negatively.
When you’re not exposed to sunlight during the day, it disrupts your internal clock and can make it difficult to fall asleep naturally at night. A lack of sunlight or irregular light environments can also negatively affect your mood and ability to learn.
So, how do you take advantage of light’s sleep-inducing power? “Open your blinds as soon as you wake up, and be sure to spend at least some time every day outside in broad daylight,” suggests holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora, M.D. Natural sunlight keeps your circadian rhythm operating on a healthy sleep-wake cycle, so it’s important that you’re exposed to it regularly.
Get a little (natural) help.
There are several natural sleep aids that can help. Here are the most well-researched ones to try:
Magnesium: Magnesium is an essential mineral that plays a role in regulating your nervous system and helping promote a sense of calm.* In one study, participants who took 500 mg of active magnesium saw a positive impact on both sleep quality and sleep duration and were able to sleep in longer in the morning.* While there are many forms of magnesium, your best bet is magnesium glycinate, which is more bioavailable and has fewer side effects than other forms.*
GABA and L-theanine: Research shows that supplementation with a combination of GABA (neurotransmitter) and L-theanine (an amino acid) can positively affect the time it takes to fall asleep and can increase sleep quality and duration.* An appropriate dosage of GABA is 100 mg/kg of body weight, while 20 mg/kg of L-theanine should do the trick.
Melatonin: Melatonin may be the most well-known and well-studied natural sleep aid out there.* Because melatonin is a hormone that’s tightly connected to your ability to fall asleep, supplementing with it may help support sleep quality.* The right dosage can range from 0.15 mg to 12 mg. However, one review notes that there are some potential side effects of taking melatonin regularly, like daytime sleepiness, dizziness, and headache. Because of this, it’s best not to rely on melatonin for the long term.
Valerian root: Valerian root is an extract of the valerian plant that’s been used as a sleep aid in Europe for decades.* According to one study, supplementing with valerian root can help promote sleep quality and the amount of time it takes to fall asleep without any known side effects.* However, there hasn’t been enough research to determine a standard dose.
Get moving.
It probably isn’t breaking news that working out is good for you, but aside from its cardiovascular and weight loss benefits, exercise can actually help improve your sleep, too. One study found that engaging in regular moderate aerobic exercise, like walking or riding a bike, could improve sleep quality and reduce the time it took to fall asleep in adults with insomnia.
The participants in the study also reported that they felt more rested in the morning, which translated to an improved quality of life.
If you have to prioritize between getting enough sleep or fitting in exercise, sleep takes the cake, but try to schedule in at least a half-hour of movement every day. Bonus points if you can take your exercise to the pavement and get some sunlight while you’re at it.
Try meditation and deep breathing.
Exercise is a natural stress reliever, but when you’re having trouble sleeping, targeted relaxation techniques like meditation and deep breathing aren’t just handy, they’re necessary. You can’t go from being completely stressed out to snoozing soundly; that’s like trying to bring your car to a stop on the highway by pulling the emergency brake when you’re going 75 mph.
The goal is to get into a relaxed state before your head hits the pillow.
If you’re generally tense or stressed, this may seem impossible, but the relaxation benefits of meditation and deep breathing are more than just anecdotal. According to a review of over 50 studies, regular meditation can help regulate the brain functions and physiological processes involved in sleep, leading to enhanced slow-wave sleep (or deep sleep) and better rapid-eye-movement sleep.
One study found that, when combined with other positive lifestyle changes, slow, deep breathing can help you fall asleep faster and make it easier to go back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night. That’s because deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate and relaxes your muscles.
If you’re new to meditation and deep breathing, start small. Find a quiet spot where you can sit or lie down and practice for five minutes. Every week, add one more minute to your time until you can comfortably reach 30 minutes in one sitting.
Block the blue light.
Try keeping your cellphone out of your room. Charge it in the kitchen or somewhere that’s not within arm’s reach. If you rely on your phone to wake you up in the morning, get a traditional alarm clock instead.
But if you can’t completely ditch your electronics before bed, take steps to reduce your exposure to blue light. Most cellphones and laptops have a nighttime mode that warms up the screen’s color tones, reducing blue light. You can also turn down the brightness of your screen because as light intensity decreases, so does the suppression of melatonin.
You can also opt to wear a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses, which filter out blue light and have the added benefit of helping to reduce eye strain when you’re staring at a screen for too long.
Take a warm bath or shower.
A warm bath (a shower works, too) is another way to calm your body and mind before hitting the sheets. The warm water relaxes your muscles and helps relieve pent-up tension, but the benefits go deeper than that, too.
According to Shahab Haghayegh, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, warm water helps stimulate the body’s thermoregulatory system—the system that controls internal body temperature. About an hour and half before you go to sleep, your body naturally drops its temperature by about 0.5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit.
The warm water from a bath or shower can help kick-start that natural process, and it doesn’t take much time either. According to research led by Haghayegh, as little as 10 minutes in a warm shower or bath about an hour to two before bedtime is enough to improve sleep quality.
If you want to light two candles with one flame, you can use your bath as a time to meditate and practice your deep breathing.
Upgrade your bedding.
It may seem obvious, but one of the keys to getting a good night’s sleep is making sure that you’re comfortable. And when it comes to your bed, there’s a lot that’s involved. You want to consider your mattress, pillows, and sheets, all of which play a role in your comfort level, especially if you have any chronic back, neck, or shoulder pain.
According to one study, the comfort and support of your sleep surface are directly related to problems with the quality of your sleep and the ability to fall and stay asleep.
Of course, which mattress and pillow are “best” is extremely subjective. The key is finding an ideal balance between comfort and support. If you don’t know which mattress to go with, work with a sleep specialist who can guide you in the right direction. While there may be some initial sticker shock when shopping for a high-quality mattress, the investment in your sleep is worth it. Plus, most mattresses come with a 10-year warranty, so you’ll have it for a while.
Keep in mind that it takes some time to adjust to a new bed. Experts recommend an adjustment period of about 28 days, after which you should notice a difference in quality of sleep and pain levels.
Adjust the temperature of your room.
While the right mattress and pillows are a vital part of getting comfortable, so is creating the ideal sleep environment. And your room’s temperature is a big part of that. One study even goes so far as to call your thermal environment—or the temperature of your room—one of the most important factors that can affect your sleep.
When it’s time to hit the hay, your body responds by releasing heat through your skin to lower your internal body temperature. If your room is too hot, especially if it’s humid heat, it prevents this temperature release, which makes it harder to fall—and stay—asleep.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends keeping your bedroom temperature between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit to help initiate sleep and improve sleep quality. In addition to using a thermostat to control your room’s temperature, you can also make your sleep environment cooler by swapping out your standard sheets for a set with cooling technology (like these five organic breathable sheet sets) and sleeping with the fan on.
Stick to the same sleep schedule.
Having a regular routine is really important, especially when it comes to your sleep. According to Amira, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day helps set your body’s internal clock so that it becomes programmed to expect sleep at certain times.
And when your body’s clock is set, you tend to get tired at the same time every night and fall asleep easier. One study found that college students with irregular sleep schedules had a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep at night and slept more during the day than those who had a regular sleep schedule, even when the amount of sleep was the same.
Decide on a wake-up time and bedtime, and make it a priority to follow that routine. While it may be easier to stick to a set sleep schedule during the week, do the best you can on the weekend.
The take-aways.
While a lack of sleep can be extremely frustrating, you aren’t doomed to sleep poorly forever.
You may not see improvements overnight, but with consistency, you should be on the right track to a better night’s sleep. If none of these tips work, it’s best to check in with your doctor or a sleep specialist who can rule out any sleep disorders and make specific, targeted recommendations for you.
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