I bet that time and time again you’ve proven to yourself that nothing kills your ability to get things done and have the will to go on with your day than a bad night’s sleep. Before you know it, yawning becomes as frequent as breathing, you have zero will to keep a friendly mood with your co-workers and it feels like time has slowed down and you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. Then you go home, doze off and you find yourself staring at the screen watching House of Cards until the AM hours, only to realize that you are left with as little as 3 hours to sleep. Ouch. Time to break this viscious cycle.
The Bedding
Many bedding materials, cotton being one of them, make the perfect place for dust mites and other bacteria to thrive, causing frequent sneezing and coughing at night. Naturally, this can make it hard to fall asleep, let alone go through the entire 90-minute sleep cycles without interruptions. For that reason, nowadays more and more people turn to organic bamboo bedding due to the fact that bamboo is one of the most resistant crops and it does not require the use of any toxic chemicals. Bamboo sheets online reviewers and experts on the matter swear by bamboo’s huge power in promoting calm and refreshing sleep. This type of bedding is well-known for its hypo-allergenic properties and for being extremely gentle to sensitive skin. The organic bamboo sheets online and offline stores offer are breathable and do not trap moisture as easily as other types of sheets do. This means they prevent dust mites and other bacteria from invading your bed and causing allergies that lead to tossing and turning and a overall bad night’s sleep.
Have a Daily Bedtime
A great start for having a good night’s sleep is choosing a certain time to go to bed every night and sticking to it. Once you’re in bed, allow yourself about 15 minutes to fall asleep and set your alarm for a time in the morning that gives you the amount of time as close as possible to your new established quota, which will also coincide with the end of a 90-minute sleep cycle.
Also, don’t sleep in if you can fight it. Just as it craves actual sleep, your body also craves consistency and not being woken up in the middle of a cycle. For that reason, if you are up late, set your alarm for the time that you usually get up and make sure to get as many unrepeated cycles as possible. Do take a classic 10-minute power nap in the afternoon, or a 90-minute one. A recent Harvard study has shown that a 90-minute nap can help promote as much improvement in learning and memory as getting a full night’s sleep. Whatever you do, make sure not to wake up before 90 minutes or after 20 minutes of sleep so that you do not interrupt your deep sleep.
Get Moving
It has been proven time and time again that physical activity improves the quality of your sleep and it also increases its duration. Plus, exercising reduces stress and tires you out. Working out in the morning and early in the afternoon may help reset your sleep-wake cycle as it slightly raises the temperature and then enables it to drop a trigger sleepiness a couple of hours later in the day. One thing to consider regarding this, is the time when you workout. It used to be thought that working out at night, pretty much close to bedtime, was a big no-no for everybody. However, recent research has shown that it all depends on the individual. Therefore, if you realize that you come home so exhausted that the minute you touch your bed you fall asleep, then by all means keep doing with what you’re doing!
