As you crawl into bed, you may feel like your body is shutting down- but it is actually an important time for your body to rest and restore!

When asleep, the brain can attend to other issues such as releasing hormones that can encourage tissue growth, and repair damaged or sore muscles. Your body can also make more white blood cells whilst sleeping which may help attack viruses and bacteria.

For adults, 7-9 hours per night is the optimal amount of sleep- that’s almost a third of our lives!

There are many factors that may play into whether we get a good night’s sleep. “Sleep hygiene” means habits we may adopt throughout the day or before bedtime to optimise our sleep.

Here are a list of tips to get you started!!

Set your sleep schedule

A fluctuating sleep schedule keeps us from getting into a rhythm of consistent sleep- so try to wake up at a similar time all the time: weekdays or weekends!
Figure out a target bedtime based on your wake up time and do your best to get to bed around this time every night.

Stay away from stimulants close to bedtime

Stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine should be avoided in the hours leading up to bedtime. Caffeine has a half life of 6 hours, meaning a 3pm coffee will still have half of its caffeine content hanging around in your system at 9pm!
Bluelight coming from TVs, laptops, smartphones and other artificial light is another form of stimulation and it’s best to minimise these, within an hour or two of bedtime.

Sleep environment

Have a comfortable pillow and mattress
Try to use your bed for sleep and sex only- avoid watching TV in your room
Have your bedroom as dark as possible and a cool comfortable temperature

Exercise

Physical activity can improve your sleep quality and sleep duration
Exercise has the added benefits of reducing stress, controlling your mood and gives you more energy.

We hope some of these tips will help you to get better quantities and quality of sleep!!

Emily Nelson

Osteopath

Summit Osteopathy