How to Sleep Soundly: 9 Tips

Sleep is a fundamental aspect and practice in our lives, which allows us to live healthily, rest, stay energetic, perform at our best in our daily lives and maintain a positive state of mind.

However, there are many people who suffer from sleep problems, such as insomnia (the most common sleep disorder), recurrent awakenings or unrefreshing sleep. But… how to sleep soundly? In this article we will see different sleep hygiene guidelines that can help you rest better.

How to sleep soundly: 9 key ideas

Sleep soundly, probably what we all want. There are people who have a great facility for it, and others who don’t (it also depends a lot on the time we are living in); This is a problem, because The consequences of not getting enough rest greatly wear down both our health and the psychological skills that we use every day

Sleep hygiene is a concept that encompasses all those measures aimed at making it easier for us to fall asleep and sleep better during the night (deeper and more restful).

So, how to sleep soundly? Here you will find several very useful sleep hygiene guidelines As you will see, they are focused above all on falling asleep better naturally, which is related to a deeper and more restful rest.

1. Practice exercise

Exercise is one of the measures that is part of sleep hygiene techniques. Practicing exercise improves health, and can also make you sleep more soundly. A key idea, in this sense, is to practice an exercise routine every day, mid-afternoon.

The exercises can vary from one person to another (in terms of intensity, difficulty and types of exercises), depending on their physical condition and age. The important thing here is to establish a daily exercise routine that tires our body and that facilitates a more restful sleep at night

Surely it has happened to you, the fact of spending a long time “doing nothing” (sports), and feeling inactive, without being in shape. And during these times, it has surely been more difficult for you to sleep (especially if you already had sleep problems). On the other hand, when we activate ourselves, our rest improves.

On the other hand, it should be noted at this point that exercise cannot be too close to bedtime (better before 8pm), and that it should not be excessively intense either (because hyperarousal would make it difficult for you to sleep and relax). ).

2. Don’t drink liquids two hours before going to bed

Many people who have insomnia, or who do not rest well, tend to get up repeatedly during the night; either because they are sleepless and don’t want to be in bed, or because (and this reason is much more common) they have to go to the bathroom.

That is why the second key idea on how to sleep deeply that we propose is to avoid consuming liquids at least two hours before going to bed. This will help you not have to go to the bathroom so much, and will prevent you from waking up at night.

3. Avoid heavy dinners

Another key idea about how to sleep soundly is directly related to eating, especially dinner.

If we eat very heavy meals (copious) and high in calories and fat, It is likely that our digestive system will have more difficulty digesting all this food which in turn can make you feel uncomfortable during the night and make you wake up.

In this sense, we suggest that you opt for light dinners (for example, a salad with grilled fish), which will facilitate your digestion and can help you sleep better.

4. Avoid caffeine consumption

Caffeine is a substance that belongs to the xanthine group, which wakes us up and activates us. Consuming it during the first half of the day does not have to cause problems during the night but after approximately 6 p.m., we recommend that you do not consume this substance.

On the other hand, There are people who notice the effects of caffeine more (and that these last longer), so if this is your case, the ideal is that you do not take this substance, or that you try to reduce its consumption as much as possible. And, if you take it, better in the morning.

The effect of caffeine (which is also found in other drinks beyond coffee, such as some energy drinks) is antagonistic to the effect we need when we want to relax and fall asleep, so stopping consuming it can help you sleep better (and more deeply).

5. Avoid alcohol consumption

Another tip on how to sleep soundly is to stop consuming alcohol (or reduce your consumption as much as possible), since this substance also is closely related to the appearance of sleep disturbances (difficulties falling asleep, fragmented and non-restorative sleep, etc.).

In the end, let’s think that everything we give to our body, which is “artificial”, will alter our natural functioning, which directly affects our quality of sleep.

6. Relax before going to sleep (techniques)

If your body is relaxed right before going to sleep, your sleep latency (the time it takes you to fall asleep) is more likely to decrease, and your sleep will be deeper and more restful.

Logically, you can fall asleep relaxed and wake up during the night, or do so and not sleep well (there are all kinds of people and circumstances), but promoting relaxation when you get into bed, along with other factors, can really help you sleep better. In this sense, There are several techniques that can help you relax:

7. Use the bed only to sleep

This strategy, which is also part of the basic sleep hygiene measures, consists of encourage our brain to only use the bed to sleep through using it only for this use (that is, avoiding eating in it, watching movies in it, working, doing homework, etc.).

This key idea on how to sleep deeply will help you do precisely this, sleep better, since your brain will more quickly associate bed with sleep and a state of relaxation. It is a mechanism based on classical conditioning (association of environmental stimuli and physiological responses).

8. Keep your room ventilated and at the appropriate temperature

It is a reality that heat can inhibit sleep. That is why it is recommended that you always keep the room ventilated, cool and at an appropriate temperature. You must feel comfortable and calm in it, so that your body relaxes and associate these environmental conditions with sleep. Thus, all this constitutes another measure that can provide you with a good rest.

9. Control your mind

Finally, another guideline on how to sleep soundly has to do with controlling your thoughts.

Many people, when they go to bed, tend to systematically review everything they have done during the day or everything they have to do tomorrow.

They may also be thinking about past, present and future worries, or other types of thoughts that only generate anxiety and discomfort, and that make it very difficult to fall asleep (which, in turn, can also harm deep and restful sleep, although not always).

In these cases, we must learn to control our mind (an arduous task!), through the practice of the following technique: simply, Let your thoughts flow, do not repress them but do not dwell on them or dwell on them either

Here you can also apply, in a complementary way, breathing techniques and visualization of pleasant images, to help you focus on something else and relax.