Author: Sean K. / Source: Lifehack
It’s well past midnight and you’ve got to get up in less than six hours. Before you know it, another hour passes by and you start panicking.
“If I don’t get to sleep in the next 30 minutes, I’m going to be exhausted tomorrow!”
One thing is for sure, you’re not alone.
Over 70M+ Americans have stated that they don’t get the proper sleep they need at night.1 So what could possibly be causing this insomnia epidemic?Throughout my entrepreneurial journey of building my language learning company, I have experimented and researched dozens of best sleep practices. Some have flopped but a few have dramatically improved the quality of my life and work.
Why you can’t sleep through the night
The first step to improving anything is getting to the bottom of the root problem. Different studies have shown the reasons why most people cannot sleep well at night.2 Here are the main ones that the average person faces:
If you’ve ever stayed up at night worrying about something, know that it’s a major sleep inhibitor. When you’re feeling stress, your mind and body becomes more activated, making it incredibly difficult to fall asleep. Even when you do manage to sleep, it won’t be deep enough to help you feel rested the next day.
Exposure to blue light before sleep time
We’re exposed to harmful blue light on a daily basis through the use of our digital screens. If you’ve never heard of blue light, it’s part of the visible light spectrum that suppresses melatonin, our sleep hormones.
Other harmful effects include digital eye strains and macular cellular damage.While daytime exposure to blue light is not very harmful, night time exposure tricks our brain into thinking it’s daytime. By keeping your brain alert and suppressing melatonin, your mind is unable to shut down and relax before bedtime.
Eating close to bedtime
Eating too late can actually be an issue for many people, especially those who are older than 40. The reason is, eating before laying down increases the chances of Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), in which stomach acid backflows into the esophagus.
Another reason not to eat too late is sleep quality. Even if you manage to sleep right after eating, it’s likely that you’ll wake up tired. Instead of letting your body rest during sleep, it has to digest the food that was entered before bedtime.
Rule of thumb: eat 3-4 hours before bedtime.
The vicious sleep cycle
The biggest danger to repeating the bad habits mentioned above is the negative cycle that it can take you through. A bad nights sleep can affect not only your energy but your willpower and decision making skills.
For example:
You get a bad night’s sleep
–> You feel stressed and tired throughout the day.
–> You compensate it with unhealthy habits (for example junk food, skipping exercises, watching Netflix etc.)
–> You can’t sleep well (again) the next night.
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