Okay, so it sounds a bit ridiculous, but there truly is such a term as sleep hygiene. As you truly understand the meaning of sleep hygiene and it is quite likely that your quality of sleep will be significantly improved.
While personal hygiene is known to be that thing we all do in order to keep clean and fresh smelling and dental hygiene involves keeping our teeth clean, healthy, and in our mouth, sleep hygiene is about those things that you can do in order to have a healthier and more restful sleep life.
Sleep hygiene encompasses all of those things that you can do which can help you to get ready for a restful nights sleep. It involves getting ready for bed, and preparing to easily fall asleep and stay asleep.
There are several tips that you can initiate if you are looking to improve your sleep habits by improving your sleep hygiene.
First of all it is important that you establish set times for sleeping and getting up each and every morning. This even includes the weekends. Regularly scheduled bedtimes are important for children and are equally as important for adults.
Unfortunately, there are many nights in which we get caught up trying to catch with the things that did not get taken care of during the day and we force ourselves to stay up later and later. But, this really does not solve the issue since by doing this we began to create a sleep deficit.
Without a set time for you to go to bed and wake up it’s hard to get your body in the habit of sleep.
Not only do you want to establish set times for going to bed in getting up every day you also want to learn how to relax your body if you want to work towards improving your sleep hygiene. It is never a good idea to simply throw on your pajamas and leap into the bed.
Typically if you try this approach your body may revolt as it is probably not ready for bed. You simply cannot go from exercising or eating or reading a racy novel to jumping into the bed closing your eyes and going to sleep. Your body just does not work that way! If you don’t learn how to relax, you will learn that it takes you much longer to fall asleep even though you feel totally exhausted.
So when you are trying to improve your sleep hygiene, it is important that you make the decision to relax at least an hour before you plan to go to bed. Begin to settle down and allow your body to be quiet and calm. Both meditation and yoga are excellent examples of ways in which you can take your body, mind, and soul into a state of relaxation.
Good sleep hygiene can also come when you will learn how to relax your body through deep breathing. So when you are busy focusing your concentration on your breathing, your body automatically begins to relax.
There are many techniques, such as progressive relaxation, in which you begin relaxing one part of your body and continue moving throughout the body parts until you are fully relaxed, that can help you to relax as you prepare for bed.
Having a plan for an effective sleep hygiene routine is critical for you to get the restful sleep that you need in order to obtain the restorative sleep your body craves.