How do you end your day? Do you watch Netflix or do you read a good book? How do you feel when you wake up? Do you immediately feel tired or are you feeling refreshed? The way you end your day influences the way you start your day. Sleep is more than about getting those hours in. The quality of your sleep is also extremely important. You need enough hours of deep sleep to feel refreshed in the morning. But how do you improve the quality of your sleep? I give tips to sleep better and how to wake up feeling refreshed.
Tips to sleep better and wake up refreshed
- No caffeine. Stop drinking drinks that contain caffeine after lunch. Even a little bit of caffeine can decrease the quality of your sleep. Instead drink water, that is always the healthiest option.
- No screens before bedtime. I am going, to be honest, and say that I love watching Netflix before I go to bed, but I also know how good I feel if I don’t. You have to prepare yourself and your brain to get ready for bed, hours before you go to bed. That means you have to slow down and give your brain a break. Do something else that will relax you.
- Read a book. One thing I prefer doing instead of watching Netflix is reading books. Every single time I read a book in the last two hours before I go to bed, I feel amazing when I wake up. Make sure you brush your teeth before you start reading. From my personal experience, I know that it is easy to fall asleep within minutes when you start reading, especially when you were already tired.
- Have an evening routine. Create an evening routine that works for you and stick to it, even on the weekends. If you do the same things in the last couple of hours before going to bed, your brain will eventually know that it is time for bed and it starts preparing to fall asleep.
- Don’t eat in the last two hours of your day. If you go to bed at 10 PM, then you should stop eating before 8 PM. You eat food to get more energy, so you can do things during the day. But you don’t need that extra energy at night, because you want to sleep. Besides, most of the time we eat at night because we are bored, not because we are hungry.
- Go outside during the day. Especially when you work from home, it is important to get outside. Normally when you go to work, you will get enough sunlight and your brain knows it is daytime. But if you stay inside all day, your brain is not sure if it’s daytime or not and that can mess up your sleep routine and everything. So go outside for a walk, even when it is raining.
- Use the bedroom for sleep and nothing else. Well, maybe use it for one other thing if you know what I mean. But what I mean is that you shouldn’t be in bed during the day or work from bed because you are so comfy. This way when you are finally laying down on your bed at night, your brain knows it is time to sleep (and not work).
it is probably not easy at first to change your whole evening routine, especially if you are like me and like to watch Netflix at night. You can still watch Netflix at night, but make sure the last two hours are screen-free, so no phones or Netflix.
Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash