Savvy Sleep Strategies
Posted on | July 19, 2009 | No Comments
Here’s a round up of tips sleep researchers actually agree on.
- Sleep on schedule. Timing affects your circadian rhythm, so if your weekday and weekend bedtimes differ by more than two hours, you may have trouble falling asleep on weeknights.
- Avoid big meals before bedtime. Overloading the digestive system after 8 p.m. takes energy away from restorative tasks that occur during sleep. And go easy on alcohol, which can disrupt sleep in the second half of the night.
- Turn off lights, computers, and blinking Blackberries. The sleep hormone melatonin is sensitive to even low levels of light.
- Get regular exercise, preferably in the afternoon. Research shows an afternoon workout improves the quality of nighttime sleep. And a fit body sleeps better than an unfit one, says sleep center director Helene A. Emsellem, MD, although results may take several weeks to kick in.
- Learn to relax. Wind down with a warm bath, some quiet music, a good book, or a few yoga stretches just before you climb into bed.
- Take a nap. Napping won’t interfere with bedtime sleeping, says Sara Mednick, PhD, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, “as long as you don’t nap longer than an hour and a half and you leave a two-hour buffer between waking from a nap and going to sleep at night.
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