Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining overall health, and many factors in daily life can disrupt it. Thankfully, when you know these factors, you can maximize your chances of getting a good night’s sleep. To help you out, we’ve compiled some of the most subtle of them for you.
Stress and Anxiety
Many people fail to realize that stress and anxiety are major sleep disruptors. Racing thoughts and heightened stress levels can make it feel almost impossible to relax, preventing you from falling asleep altogether. To fix this, practice relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing or meditation, which help to calm the mind and prepare the body for a restful night.
Inconsistent Sleep Schedule
If you have an irregular sleep schedule, it’s no wonder your sleep is of low quality: you’re confusing your internal clock. Going to bed and waking up at different times every day can prevent your body from establishing a consistent sleep routine, so try to stick to a regular schedule, even on weekends.
Too Much Caffeine
Not to state the obvious, but consuming coffee, tea, or energy drinks too close to bedtime can prevent you from falling asleep. Caffeine stays in your body for many hours, too, so aim to avoid caffeine at least six hours before bed to allow your body enough time to metabolize it and avoid disruptions in your sleep.
Late-Night Snacking
According to the Sleep Foundation, one of the worst things you can do for sleep is to eat right before bed, which is just about guaranteed to disrupt your sleep cycle. Digesting food requires energy, which can keep your body from fully relaxing. Additionally, certain foods, especially those high in sugar or fat, can cause discomfort or indigestion, making it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep.
Uncomfortable Room Temperature
Your bedroom’s temperature significantly affects sleep quality; if it’s too hot or too cold, your body struggles to maintain its ideal sleeping temperature, waking it up. So, experts recommend keeping your room around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows your body to naturally lower its temperature, promoting deeper and more restorative sleep.
Excessive Screen Time
These days, perhaps the biggest culprit for sleep disruption is the excessive use of phones, tablets, or computers before bed. The blue light emitted by their screens suppresses melatonin production, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep. This makes it harder to fall asleep and can disrupt the overall quality of your sleep, leaving you feeling tired in the morning.
Noise Pollution
Traffic, noisy neighbors, or household sounds can all interrupt your sleep cycle, especially when they’re out of the ordinary. Sadly, this is somewhat unavoidable, although wearing earplugs or using a white noise machine can help give you a more tranquil sleep environment, blocking out any unexpected noise pollution.
Alcohol Before Bed
While you may think that alcohol helps you to fall asleep, it’s far more destructive in the middle of the night. Once it knocks you out, it begins to interfere with the REM stage, which is crucial for restorative sleep. As alcohol is metabolized, it can also cause awakenings and lighter sleep, leading to feelings of fatigue in the morning.
Poor Mattress Quality
One of the most common yet unknown problems contributing to poor sleep quality is having an uncomfortable mattress. If your mattress is too firm, too soft, or simply worn out, it can cause discomfort and pain, even if you don’t feel it at the time. Naturally, this keeps you away, so it’s never worth cheaping out on a good quality mattress.
Inadequate Bedding
Just like mattresses, having inadequate or low-quality bedding is messing with your sleep. Pillows that don’t support your neck or blankets that make you too hot or cold can disrupt your sleep terribly. It can feel like trial and error, but once you find the right pillows and blankets that suit your sleeping preferences, you’ll see massive improvements in your sleep quality.
Light Pollution
If you sleep in the presence of light pollution from streetlights, electronics, or even a digital alarm clock, you can expect significant sleep disturbance. Light exposure at night can confuse your body’s internal clock and reduce melatonin production, so consider using blackout curtains or an eye mask, helping to create a darker, more conducive environment for sleep.
Lack of Physical Activity
Few people realize that their sedentary lifestyles are contributing significantly to their sleep deprivation. Regular physical activity helps regulate your sleep patterns and improve sleep quality. However, exercising too close to bedtime can have the opposite effect, so aim to finish your workout at least a few hours before going to bed.
Overhydration Before Bed
It’s never smart to drink too much water before bed, as this can lead to frequent trips to the bathroom throughout the night. This disrupts your sleep and can make it difficult to fall back asleep, so while it’s important to stay hydrated, try to limit fluid intake an hour or two before bedtime.
Irregular Meal Times
If you’re eating meals at inconsistent times, this will ruin your sleep. Late dinners are the worst, as they interfere with your body’s natural rhythm, although any irregular eating patterns will contribute to the problem. Make an effort to stick to a more consistent meal schedule, and you’ll see huge improvements in your sleep.
Napping Too Long
There aren’t many things out there that will keep you up at night more than having a long nap during the day. Short naps can be refreshing and keep you going throughout the day, but anything longer than 30 minutes is bound to end up doing more harm to your sleep schedule than good.
Sleeping with Pets
Believe it or not, sharing your bed with pets can disrupt your sleep. Pets move around a lot, especially dogs, and make noise, take up space, and heat you up. All of these things make it difficult to get comfortable, so if you’re struggling to sleep at night, consider creating a separate sleeping space for your pets.
Eating Spicy Foods
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some spicy food in the daytime, but it can cause indigestion or heartburn, so indulging in spice too close to bedtime can lead to discomfort and difficulty falling asleep. Opt for milder foods in the evening to avoid these issues, and you’ll sleep much more soundly.
Using Electronics in Bed
These days, Gen Z is riddled with sleep problems because they’re all using their electronic devices in bed, stimulating their brains late into the night and making it harder to fall asleep. Unfortunately, Millennials and Boomers are starting to fall into this habit, too, so don’t fall into the trap–leave your devices on charge away from your bed when you sleep.
Cluttered Bedroom
This may sound surprising, but having a cluttered and messy bedroom can contribute to stress and anxiety, making it harder to relax and fall asleep. So, even just taking a few minutes each day to keep your bedroom clean can have a significant impact on your sleep quality.
Skipping Your Wind-Down Routine
It’s a great idea to have a consistent wind-down routine, signaling to your body that it’s time to sleep. Skipping this routine can make it harder to transition from wakefulness to sleep, so once you establish one, such as reading or taking a warm bath before bed, you should try to stick to it.
Lack of Natural Light Exposure
Just like how being exposed to natural light while you’re sleeping is bad for your body clock, the same goes for when you don’t get enough sunshine during the day. Sunlight gives you vitamin D and regulates your circadian rhythms, helping your body to find a natural sleep cycle. So, if you’re having trouble sleeping at night, try to spend more time outside in the day.