How many hours on average do you sleep everyday? Do you wake up feeling refreshed every morning? Yawning frequently, feeling exhausted, losing attention… are all signals of your poor sleep. Sleep is essential to your physical and mental health, just as important as diet and exercise. After reading this article, you will get answers to the three questions below:
1. What is a healthy sleep?
2. Why do you need quality sleep?
3. How can you improve your sleep?
1. What is a healthy sleep?
Healthy sleep encompasses three major aspects of sleep, according to Dr. Marishka Brown, a sleep expert at NIH. It is related to the amount of sleep, sleep quality, and sleep schedule. Here are five key points of healthy sleep and you can check them one by one to evaluate whether you’re getting good quality sleep at night.
√ You can immediately fall asleep within 30 minutes or less.
√ You wake up less than once per night.
√ You can fall asleep again within 20 minutes if you wake up in the middle of the night.
√ You’re able to sleep 7-9 hours a day. These sleep hours are the recommended amount of hours for adults. Children will need more.
√ You feel rested, energetic, and refreshed upon waking up in the morning.
2. Why do you need quality sleep?
Sleep affects your physical and mental functioning the next day. The way you feel during the day depends in part on what happens while you sleep at night. What do they really do for you?
Helps brain function
Loss of a good night’s sleep may impact your focus, reflexes and judgment. You will be slow to react and may even result in risky behavior. Think about why drowsy driving is one of the main causes of traffic accidents. It also brings on low productivity during work and study when your brain is not getting enough rest.
Helps prevent weight gain and obesity
If you’re trying to control your weight, give your body enough sleep. It is easy to neglect that poor sleep will boost your appetite unconsciously. The leptin in your body which is supposed to tell you you’re full will decrease. With fewer signals to remind you, you will tend to overeat which makes weight gain easier.
Helps boost your immune system
Sleep deficiency affects your immune system. Your immune cells and proteins will be weakened to fight the virus off. With COVID-19 still prevalent across the world, keeping your body strong is needed to get out ahead of infection.
Helps build a good mood
Do you feel like you are easily annoyed when you don't sleep well? That’s because sleep disturbances may affect your emotional regulation and stability. With adequate sleep, you will feel refreshed and be able to better control your own emotions and behaviors. So try to wake up energetically with a good night’s sleep. It will make your day more lovely.
3. How can you improve your sleep?
Your behavior during the day, especially before bedtime, can significantly impact your quality of sleep. So establishing good habits is important to improve your sleep health. Here are some helpful tips for you.
- Set a regular sleep schedule. When your body adjusts to the new schedule, you’ll be much more likely to fall asleep instantly on time. Setting a clock to remind you every day is also a good idea.
- Do some sports during the day instead of at night.
- Caffeine, alcohol and large meals are not on the welcome list before bedtime.
- Try to drop your smartphone or other electronic devices at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep.
- Create a comfortable sleep environment: choose the best pillow and mattress for your body preference, maintain a cozy temperature and reduce light exposure in your bedroom. If the curtain cannot keep up with your demand, try using extra gadget such as eye mask.
If you have sensitive skin and are sensitive to the light, a silk eye mask is your best choice. Feelits Silk Sleep Eye Mask is crafted from top royal mulberry silk material handmade by senior craftsmen. The rich silkiness helps you fall asleep quickly. Besides further preventing light disturbance, Feelits eye mask also reduces fiction to your delicate eye area, giving you a luxurious beauty sleep trip.
Conclusion
Sleep has a great effect on every process in your body. Knowing more about your sleep situation and adjusting yourself to get a quality sleep have great benefits to your body's health. Hope you can be inspired to keep on a healthy sleep routine.
