Sleep Hygiene: The Science Behind Quality Sleep

Do you miss that feeling of waking up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep, ready to tackle the day ahead of you? Well, you're not the only one; 1 in 3 people in the USA don't get the required 7 hours of sleep and live in sleep deprivation. If you want to sleep better and wake up feeling refreshed, then it's time to incorporate sleep hygiene practices into your daily routine. Below, we look at what sleep hygiene is, why it is so important, how to identify signs of poor sleep hygiene, and tips to establish good sleep hygiene!

What is Sleep Hygiene?

Sleep hygiene refers to behaviors and environmental factors that can be adjusted in order to improve your sleep. Your sleep is affected not only by what you do close to bedtime but also by activities you engage in throughout the day.

Good sleep hygiene would include making any required changes in your environment as well as behaviors to create ideal conditions for you to sleep. Good sleep hygiene is the difference between a restful sleep and a restless one!

Why Sleep Hygiene Matters for a Healthy Sleep

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping, which makes sleep a very important part of our lives. You must have seen people attach pride to getting by with less sleep; heck, you might have boasted about it to your colleagues. However, we fail to recognize how important sleep is for us. Therefore, healthy sleep habits are important because of how crucial good sleep is for your mental and physical health.

Sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation, information processing, emotional regulation, and other cognitive functions. Moreover, studies have shown that insufficient sleep could lead to the accumulation of toxins in the brain, which could lead to Alzheimer's disease. Other researches have also shown that regular sleep deprivation could lead to issues like:

• - Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• - Diabetes
• - Obesity
• - Depression
• - Heart disease

So, getting enough sleep matters a lot if you want to stay healthy!

When we talk about staying healthy, we talk about exercise and diet but forget this important component. Good sleep hygiene practices are all you need to set the mood for a good night's sleep, which will ensure that your body gets the rest it needs.

Signs of Poor Sleep Hygiene

Does it take forever for you to fall asleep? Or you can fall asleep but keep waking up in the middle of the night? Typically, these are the signs of poor sleep hygiene. If any of these describe you, you're at the right place, and we will look at some good sleep hygiene tips in the sections below.

Issues like trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, disrupted sleep, and daytime sleepiness are the most obvious signs of poor sleep hygiene. However, signs of poor sleep hygiene manifest through psychological symptoms as well. Recent studies have shown that sleep deprivation can lead to anxiety and sadness.

So, if you're having trouble sleeping, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, irritation, or even anxiety, take that as a sign of poor sleep hygiene. However, the good news is that it's possible to get a good night's sleep by simply practicing good sleep hygiene!

Sleep Hygiene Tips for Good Night's Sleep

Sleep hygiene is all about putting yourself in a position where you are able to get restful sleep every night. To practice good sleep hygiene, you might have to make some lifestyle and behavioral changes, along with environmental changes. Here are some tips for improving sleep hygiene:

Consistent Sleep Schedule

Sleeping in on weekends and holidays can be very tempting, but what our bodies really crave is consistency. Having a regular sleep schedule, fixed sleep time, and wake time reinforces your circadian rhythm, which makes it easier for you to fall asleep and wake up without having to fight the ever-lingering insomnia.

So, to have good sleep hygiene, the first thing to do is prioritize sleep and fix your sleep schedule according to your requirements. It is recommended that you get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night, so schedule that according to the time you need to be up and about!

Moreover, if you want to make changes to your current sleep and wake timings, don't do it in one big step; it can throw off your sleep drive. Instead, make gradual adjustments of about an hour or two at a time so that your body can adjust to the new sleep schedule.

Bedtime Routine

Having a bedtime routine not only helps you wind down but also works as a cue for your body to get ready for sleep. The best time to start winding down is 30–60 minutes before you go to bed. You could do anything that helps you relax during this time. Some bedtime habits that you can consider are:

• - Take a Warm Bath or Shower
• - Read a Book
• - Sleep Journaling
• - Meditation
• - Gentle Stretching
• - And anything and everything that may help you relax.

When following a bedtime routine, make sure you consistently follow all the same steps in the same order. That will help you fall asleep more easily. Also, to further enhance the effectiveness of your routine, keep the lights dim during this time. And make sure you're not doing something stimulating, like heavy exercise, as a bedtime habit.

Bedroom Environment 

A cool, quiet, and dark room supports healthy sleep. Ideally, your bedroom should be the place where you feel the most comfort—a haven of relaxation. Keeping your room cozy and comfortable can enhance your sleep experience multifold.

Some things to consider for the bedroom environment are:

• Bedroom temperature: The best temperature for sleep is 15–19 degrees Celsius. It's the perfect point where it's neither too cold nor too hot, wherein you can comfortably sleep with your comforters.
• Noise Control: Noise can easily disrupt your quality of sleep, so make sure your home is not noisy when you're going to sleep. If you live in a noisy area and can't control the noise, soundproofing your bedroom could be a wise option. If soundproofing sounds like an extreme step, you could simply buy earplugs to block out the noise.
• Lighting: Dim your lights in the evening, and when you're going to sleep, make sure you block out all the lights. You can use blackout curtains to block any lights coming from outside, or you could use an eye mask.
• Bedding: It is very important to have comfortable bedding that supports your sleep. Sheets and blankets are the epitome of comfort when it comes to sleep, so make sure you buy the ones that suit your needs and preferences. Moreover, the firmness of your mattress should be as per your requirements. If it's too soft or too firm, it could not only hamper your sleep but also give rise to issues like posture problems.
• Scents: Studies have shown that scents have a psychophysiological effect on us and can promote relaxation and sleep. So, you could try infusing your room with scents like lavender or rosemary.

Avoid Food that Disrupt Sleep

A lot of food items that we consume can potentially disrupt sleep. So, it is an essential part of sleep hygiene to take care of what you are eating, especially before bedtime.

• Heavy meals before bedtime and late-night eating can affect sleep. Your digestive system needs to wind down with your body for sleep, so avoid eating anything heavy in the three hours before bedtime. Also, avoid citrus, spicy, and fried foods, especially if you are prone to heat burn.
• Avoid stimulants like caffeine. Caffeine intake can disrupt your sleep, even if it's been hours since your last coffee. Caffeine can have its effects for anywhere between 3 to 7 hours, so make sure your last cup of coffee is at least 6 hours before bedtime. Moreover, things like soft drinks, chocolates, etc. also contain caffeine, so be careful about their consumption as well.
• Avoid Smoking. Smoking has been correlated to numerous sleep problems. Nicotine is a stimulant that can disrupt your sleep patterns, hence the correlation. So, if you like your beauty sleep, then avoid smoking, especially before bedtime.
• Alcohol, though a depressant, also works against your sleep patterns. Alcohol may make you feel drowsy, but the effects wear off quite quickly, and then it interferes with your sleep architecture, which is your natural flow of sleep through different stages. So drinking alcohol is going to give you restless sleep, and you will wake up feeling fatigued and probably with a hangover!

Regular Exercise

Exercising is not only good for your health but can also affect your sleep. A study shows that exercising regularly could help with insomnia. However, the timing of your exercise matters a lot. Make sure you're not working out close to bedtime. Otherwise, that could have the opposite impact and keep you awake past your bedtime.

Exposure to Light

Circadian rhythm, your body clock, takes cues from the lights and functions accordingly, which is the reason why we feel sleepy at night. So, exposure to light can be used to reinforce your body clock and use it to your benefit. There are two things that can be done:

• Expose yourself to light, if possible, natural light or sunlight, in the morning or during the day. This will help manage your circadian rhythm.
• Limit the light exposure after sunset; you can do so by dimming the lights in your home, setting your phones to night mode, using warm-light spectrum lightbulbs, etc.

Using light exposure to your benefit could greatly impact the quality of your sleep. If you are a shift worker, you can still manage your light exposure by following some tips.

Limit Daytime Naps

Taking a nap during the day is a guilty pleasure for many of us! However, if you are having difficulties with your sleep at night, you would be better off without that nap. Though a nap may help alleviate your mood and performance in the short term, it's not going to make up for the poor sleep you get at night. Naps could lead to difficulty falling asleep, waking up multiple times at night, etc.

If you do need to take a nap, limit it to 20 minutes and avoid sleeping later in the afternoon!

Calm Your Mind

You know how it's your bedtime, you are ready to sleep, you lie down on the bed, and that's where the issue starts; your brain just won't shut down!

In such a case, putting your mind to rest is the key to sleeping well. Some things you could do to calm your mind are:

• Meditation
• Relaxation exercises like counted breathing
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation

You can do whatever it is that will get your mind to calm down and get ready to sleep. You can also use guided meditations from platforms like YouTube!

Limit Bed Usage to Just Sleep

Studies show that we tend to connect to places on an emotional level and attach meaning to them. This makes it important to attach the right meaning to places. If you take your laptop to your bed and make it a workspace, scroll your phone, or watch TV, you are attaching the wrong meaning to your sleep space.

Make sure to use your bed just for sleep. This will help your mind associate bed with sleep and make it easier to fall asleep. Moreover, if you're unable to fall asleep, instead of tossing and turning around in bed, get up and go to another for 20 minutes or so, read a book or meditate, and then try again!

Consult Your Doctor

Sleep issues can impact every facet of your life, and they aren't something that you have to deal with on your own. If you have tried everything and still can't seem to get some quality sleep, it could be a sign of sleep disorders like sleep apnea or other sleep-wake disorders. In such a case, it is best to consult your doctor!

FAQs

1. What is the 10-3-2-1-0 rule for sleep?

The 10-3-2-1-0 rule refers to the concept of 10 hours before sleep—no caffeine, 3 hours before sleep—no food, 2 hours before sleep—no work, 1 hour before sleep—no more blue screens—and you hit the snooze button 0 number of times. It is something you could incorporate as a rule of thumb for practicing good sleep hygiene.

2. What is the 20-minute rule for sleep hygiene?

The 20-minute rule is simply: get up and try again. Basically, if you're in bed trying to sleep and can't after tossing and turning around for 20 minutes, you get up, do something relaxing for some time, and try again to sleep.

3. How to sleep faster?

The key to sleeping faster is good sleep hygiene. You can practice good sleep hygiene by following a consistent sleep schedule and bedtime routine, limiting daytime naps, avoiding eating heavy meals before bedtime, and much more! Practicing good sleep hygiene will ensure that you sleep faster and better!

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Disclaimer: What is said in this article has been referenced from multiple sources and is intended only for educational and informational purposes. Please note that no content in this article is a substitute for professional advice from a qualified doctor or healthcare provider. Always consult an experienced doctor with any concerns you may have regarding a health condition or treatment, and never disregard any medical suggestions or delay in seeking treatment because of something you read here.