Sleep Hygiene Changes for When You Can't Fall Asleep

[This post is for people who struggle with trying to fall asleep, it goes hand-in-hand with the post Sunshine for Sleep, and covers how to use your bedroom environment to better your sleep and reduce stress]

Good sleep affects your body’s ability to store memories, rebuild tissue and heal damaged joints and muscles, fight infection and illness, and restore mental and physical energy. Sleep is incredibly important for life.

Sleep hygiene is a set of practices used to improve the quality of our sleep. Remember when we were little and our parents had a whole bedtime routine for us? Pajamas on at 8:00, brush teeth and in bed with books at 9:00, ex. We kept our rooms relatively tidy and bedtime was enjoyable. The routine our parents built for us triggered our brains to know when it was time to fall asleep. Just as you form habits for waking up in the morning, habits for falling asleep are just as important. 

Sleep hygiene practices include: 

• Using a regular bedtime schedule 

• Keeping your room clean, dark at night, and in a cool temperature  

• Turning off screens and devices once the sun goes down

• Choosing pajamas and bedding made with only natural fibers 

• Avoiding rich, large dinners and processed food to improve digestion during rest

Especially for teens, our bedrooms are used for working on projects, studying, and gaming. The space we’re supposed to rest in becomes cluttered and stressful even though we’re surrounded with stuff we like. 

What needs to be changed in our lifestyles to improve our sleep hygiene?

• Regular schedule: Practice going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, and if possible even on weekends. Form habits like brushing teeth and getting ready for bed early so that you’re not stuck only falling asleep late at night

• Bedroom environment: If you need a place to fall asleep easily in, you’re going to need to make some changes:

  - Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, clean, and cool so your sleep isn’t disrupted.

  - Bedroom lights and nightlights should be calming instead of visually stimulating.

  - Choose bedding made from natural fibers like linen, organic cotton and wool so you don’t get all static-y and hot at night from high-strain microfibers and polyester. Natural fabrics are actually healing and relaxing to our bodies. 

  - Use house plants and diffusers to clean the air in your room. Snake plants release oxygen at night and a diffuser’s white noise and humidity calms your body.

• Avoid stimulants and overeating: Being in control of what you ingest before bed will change how you sleep. Limit things like sugar and caffeine if they affect you poorly and have a small, protein filled dinner.

Using your bed only for sleeping will train your mind to accept it as a place of rest. Keep projects on the floor or desk and even designate a chair for reading. Change your sheets once a month and hang blankets out in the sun to kill bacteria and remove any odor. 

Sharing a room with my little sister makes it really challenging to keep our room clean, but when I put effort into changing my “sleep environment” for the better- it actually made a big difference in how quickly I could fall asleep even after a year of very poor sleep habits. I Hope this helps, how are you going to include better sleep hygiene?