A Good Sleep

In order to deepen your sleep and minimize disruptions during the night, you may need to make some changes to your sleep environment.

Your bed

• Is your bed large enough? You should have enough room to stretch and turn comfortably, including with a bedmate present.

• Your mattress, pillows, and bedding. Waking up with a cramp in your back or a sore neck? Experiment with different levels of mattress firmness, foam toppers or egg crate toppers, and pillows that provide more support.
Your room

• Keep the noise level down. Too much noise—loud outside conversations, televisions blaring, music, traffic—can make it difficult to sleep well. If outside noise can’t be blocked, try masking it with a fan, white noise, or recordings of soothing sounds. Earplugs may also help.

• Keep your room dark during sleep hours. When it’s time to sleep, make sure that your environment is dark. Even dim lights—especially those from TV or computer screens—can confuse the body clock. Heavy shades can help block light from windows, or you can try an eye mask to cover your eyes.

• Room temperature and ventilation. If you can, experiment with the room temperature. Most people sleep best in a slightly cooler room with adequate ventilation. Check your windows and doors to make sure that drafts are not interfering with sleep.

• Reserve your bed for sleeping. If you associate your bed with events like work or errands, it will only make it harder to wind down at night.

Get stress and anxiety under control

• If you can’t stop yourself from worrying, especially about things outside your control, take steps to learn how to manage your thoughts. For example, you can reframe why worrying is harmful rather than helpful and practice replacing worrying with more productive thoughts. Read: How to Stop Worrying: Self-Help for Anxiety Relief

• If the stress of managing work, family, or school is keeping you awake, you need help with stress management. By learning how to manage your time effectively, handle stress in a productive way, and maintain a calm, positive outlook, you’ll be able to sleep better at night. Read: Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress

• If you wake up frustrated and angry with loved ones or colleagues—rehashing arguments over and over—you may need help managing your anger. Even if you later scoff at yourself for these thoughts, don’t be too quick to dismiss them. It may mean you have feelings of anger under the surface that needs to be addressed. Read: Anger Management: Tips and Techniques for Getting Anger Under Control

Optimize your sleep schedule

Make sure you are not going to bed too early

Set a regular bedtime

Limit napping

Improve your diet

A rich, hearty dinner, topped off with a big slice of chocolate cake might seem like the perfect way to end the day, but it’s wise to avoid eating a large meal within two hours of bed. Try to make dinnertime earlier in the evening, and avoid heavy, rich foods as bedtime snacks.

Get regular exercise

You don’t have to be a star athlete to reap the benefits—as little as twenty to thirty minutes of activity helps. And you don’t need to do all thirty minutes in one session. You can break it up into five minutes here, ten minutes there, and still get the benefits.

However, be sure to schedule your exercise in the morning or early afternoon. Exercising too late in the day actually stimulates the body, raising its temperature. That’s the opposite of what you want near bedtime, because a cooler body temperature is associated with sleep. Don’t feel glued to the couch in the evening, though. Exercise such as relaxation yoga or simple stretching shouldn’t hurt.

Sample of yoga