From parade.com
Want to know how to sleep better? You’re not alone. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s Inaugural Sleep Health Index, 45 percent of Americans say that poor or insufficient sleep has impacted their daily activities at least once in the past seven days. And in addition to affecting your performance on the job or in extracurricular activities, sleeping less than seven hours per night can contribute to everything from obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and mental distress.
We’ve been hearing a lot about how avoiding blue light before bed from smartphones and devices can lead to sleep disturbances. But what about some of the lesser-known things that you could be doing that are setting you up for insomnia? Parade chatted with an array of experts to bring you this guide to 13 things that you may not realize you can do to sleep better.
How to Sleep Better
Nap the right way
Napping can come with a host of benefits —including increased alertness and enhanced performance—but doing it incorrectly can definitely impact your sleeping habits. “Sleepiness is a lot like hunger. If you have a big lunch or have a snack right before dinner, you are not going to be too enthusiastic about dinner. The same thing happens with going to sleep if you have a big nap or take a nap too late in the afternoon,” explains Luis E. Ortiz, M.D., a sleep medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. To avoid this, he recommends keeping naps to less than 30 minutes and avoiding napping past 4 p.m. If you feel like you need a nap but are nervous that it will make you drowsy later, you can always try what “nap expert” Christopher Lindholst, CEO of MetroNaps does in these instances: take a “coffee nap.” He suggests drinking a caffeinated beverage and then taking a 20-minute nap. “When waking up, people feel refreshed and alert due to the caffeine kicking into their system,” he suggests, adding that it takes about 20 minutes for your body to metabolize the caffeine. “So when you wake up from your short nap, you are getting a boost from the combination of the sleep and the caffeine,” he says.
Don’t OD on salty foods
Can’t get enough potato chips? While they might be your go-to comfort snack, indulging in sodium-rich foods may be causing your sleepless nights. We all know that the urge to urinate in the night can be a key cause of waking up from your slumber. That’s why many people avoid drinking water after the hours of 8 p.m. But there may be another culprit that is causing you to wake and pee: your sodium intake. A 2017 study by the Nagasaki University in Japan found a correlation between sodium levels and night-time peeing. Dr. James Rowley, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine and medical director of the Detroit Receiving Hospital Sleep Disorders Centre, said this study doesn’t surprise him as “increased consumption of salt leads to more urination, as the kidneys work to rid body of extra salt.” Thus, the study suggests that cutting your dietary salt intake can reduce your necessity to wake up to urinate.
Don’t become too dependent on sleeping pills
Popping a sleeping pill every now and then can help you to catch a full eight hours—however, becoming too reliant on them may backfire on you in the end, says Christy Huff, MD, director of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition. “People are often surprised to find that their sleeping pill (benzo or Z-drug) they are prescribed for insomnia can actually worsen sleep in the long-term,” she explains. Huff notes that these medications can be effective when taken short-term (less than two weeks) or intermittently, however, after repeated daily use of the drug, tolerance can develop, more of the drug is needed to get the same effect, and the resulting insomnia can be worse than the original condition. “The best long-term solution in this case is to taper slowly off the drug under supervision of a knowledgeable health care provider, and often sleep will improve after withdrawal is complete,” she says, adding that you should never stop a benzo or Z-drug abruptly “as this can cause seizures and even in some extreme cases, death.”
Make sure your comforter isn’t too hot
The National Sleep Foundation suggests that your bedroom should be between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit in order to promote a restful night’s sleep. You may set your thermostat before heading to bed, but your bedding material could be sabotaging you by raising you up a few degrees. Bedding expert Matthew Ross, co-founder & COO at The Slumber Yard, reveals that “hot sleepers” will want to stay away from comforters that use down filling, and instead opt for comforters filled with organic materials like cotton, silk or wool, like Casper’s “Humidity Fighting Duvet.” “Cotton doesn’t retain nearly as much heat as down fillings. Wool is a good choice because it naturally wicks moisture and silk is light, airy and resists heat,” says Ross. Another good option is to opt for blankets made from materials like Tencel or Lycocell (derived from eucalyptus pulp), such as Buffy’s “The Breeze” comforter. “Bamboo fabric is a very breathable material and has a higher moisture absorbency than most other fabrics,” including cotton, he adds.
Another way you can try to combat sleeping hot is by trying out a cooling mattress, like the Helix Midnight Luxe. We cover that mattress and more cooling beds in our Helix mattress review.
Don’t be a mouth breather
Mouths are for eating and noses are for breathing, says Steven Olmos, DDS, with TMJ & Sleep Therapy Centre, whose medical focus is on airway as a critical component of dealing with sleep issues. So if you’ve been breathing from your mouth, it may be contributing to your restless slumber. “The purpose of the nose is to filter, warm and moisten air before it enters our body. Each nasal breath draws a gas (nitric oxide) from our sinuses and carries it into our lungs,” he says, noting that nitric oxide is the body’s natural immune protection against respiratory infection, as it kills virus, bacteria and fungus as well as lowers our blood pressure by dilating the blood vessels in the extremities.
Olmos adds that mouth breathing occurs when the nose is blocked for any reason. And this can in turn cause facial and jaw pain as well as headaches. “Nasal obstruction (mouth breathing) causes more arousals or interruptions in sleep and leads to daytime fatigue,” he says. Thus, it’s best to prioritize nose breathing at night. His best tips for doing this:
- Watch what you’re eating. “Diets high in saturated fats and sugar and low in fiber lead to more disturbances in sleep because of the systemic and nasal inflammation,” says Olmos.
- Spray your nose with all-natural xylitol nasal spray. “I have found that using a product like Xlear increases nasal volume by 7% and increases flow rate to the fourth power,” Olmos explains.
- Use a product at night to help open up the nasal valves such as Mute (nasal dilator) or Breathe Right snore strips.
Teach your kids to take bedtime seriously
If your child can’t fall asleep independently at bedtime, you may be staying in his or her room for longer than you’d like in order to help this process along. This can lead to you getting to bed later than you’d like or crashing in your kid’s room during this drawn out process, both of which can dramatically impact your own sleep cycle, says Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg, a sleep psychologist and author of Become Your Child’s Sleep Coach. “So putting a few night’s effort into helping a child learn to fall asleep independently at bedtime can have huge payoffs in terms of improved sleep for all,” she says.
Her tips for doing so include:
- Make sure you and your child have a cozy, comforting and consistent bedtime routine with a very clear endpoint (maybe a final kiss on the forehead). Then leave while your child is still fully awake. Remind him or her to play or read quietly in bed independently until drowsy enough to fall asleep.
- If your child makes lots of extra requests after the routine is over, try using “bedtime tickets” to manage these. Give your child one or two bedtime tickets when the bedtime routine is over and quickly grant one or two final requests. After the bedtime tickets are gone, remind your child that he or she has no more tickets but can play or read quietly in bed until drowsy enough to make the (solo) trip to dreamland.
Ditch the mint toothpaste
While your favourite peppermint-flavoured toothpaste may be giving your mouth a fresh and clean feeling, using products with mint might be keeping you up at night. “Minty toothpaste or mouthwash can have a stimulating effect and cause you to stay awake,” says Dr. Bryan Bruno, medical director at Mid City TMS. To avoid issues such as these, he suggests switching to a milder or slightly sweeter toothpaste or mouthwash for your nightly brushing.
Choose bedtime reading carefully
“Reading in bed can be a great pre-slumber activity, if it helps you wind down and makes you tired. But if what you’re reading draws you in too much, you may have a hard time putting it down and turning out the lights,” says Jeremiah Ellis, manager of the Sleep Centre at Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville, Georgia. He adds that thrilling genres can increase your heart rate and increase stress levels. “They also tend to be page turners and keep you reading longer,” he says. And Ellis never recommends reading on a tablet or cell phone prior to snoozing, as these devices emit blue light, which can stimulate the brain and cause it to think it isn’t time to sleep. Instead, he advises people read printed materials in a low light—“which can have a calming effect”—but avoid “stimulating genres.” You can also try a low blue light reading light, such as the LowBlueLight’s Blue-free Reading & Book Light to help really optimize your pre-bed environment.
Drown out outside noises
Live in a big city where there is constant activity outside your window? Is there a lot of traffic on your street? Does your neighbour’s dog bark in the middle of the night? You may think you’re used to these common sounds, however, such occurrences can have a bigger impact on your sleep patterns than you think. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine deems a lack of sleep due to external noises "environmental sleep disorder" and suggests that it can cause everything from daytime sleepiness to irritability, sleep deprivation and mood swings. “Noises from other apartments, neighbours and street noise can cause you to wake multiple times throughout the night, meaning you’ll be missing out on the quality sleep we need,” says Dr. Andrew Stiehm, a sleep specialist at Allina Health’s United Lung and Sleep Clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota. He notes that “getting rid of outside noises can be tough, so consider using a sound machine (like the Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine) or a fan to block out some of that noise.”
Don’t obsess over your sleep tracker
For some people, sleep trackers appear to hinder rather than help them get a good night’s rest, says Larry Miller, CEO of Sit 'N Sleep. He noted that this can be the case because in some instances, sleep trackers actually lower sleep quality by inducing anxiety that can result in insomnia. “A recent article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine describes a growing number of cases of a new sleep disorder called orthosomnia, which is an unhealthy obsession with the results of a sleep tracking device’s findings,” he says, noting that becoming obsessed with how much or how little you are sleeping can cause you to lie in bed awake at night stressing about the situation instead of actually catching some much needed zzz’s. “In most cases, orthosomnia ends up worsening rather than improving sleep quality,” he adds.
Improve your air quality
If you’re having a restless night’s sleep, allergens like dust mites, mould, and pollen in the air could be to blame. Seasonal or year round allergy symptoms, known as allergic rhinitis, can cause everything from a runny nose to post nasal drip, headaches, sinus pressure, itchy eyes, voice hoarseness, a feeling like your ears are full, sneezing, or itchy nose, says Dr. Kathleen Dass, an allergist immunologist with Michigan Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Centre. She adds that sleep disturbance affects up to 80% of people with symptoms from allergic rhinitis. Per Daas, nasal congestion and uncontrolled allergies can also lead to snoring, insomnia, and increase your risk for sleep apnoea. “If this is the case, you definitely want to schedule an appointment with your allergist, who can customize a treatment plan based on your needs,” she says. Additional things she recommends to troubleshoot this issue are to allergen avoidance measures based on what exactly you’re allergic to, nasal sprays, or antihistamines like Allegra, Claritin, Zyrtec, or Xyzal. You can also try a bedroom air filter like the Levoit Core 300 True HEPA Air Purifier.
Don’t mess with your your sleep schedule
Going bed and waking up at the same time is ideal. And deviating from this plan can definitely hinder our sleep performance. “Our brains get used a certain daily schedule—what time we wake up, what time we sleep, what time we eat, etc. There are some neurochemical changes in the brain that help control that rhythm, so it’s important to be disciplined about our sleep schedule,” says Stiehm, who recommends trying to get up at the same time every day and go to bed at the same time every night, including weekends. Even one hour can make a difference. “If you typically go to bed at 10 p.m. you should feel wide awake around 9 p.m. If you were asked to lay down an hour earlier than your typical bedtime, you’d have a hard time going to sleep—unless, of course, you are sleep deprived. But that is exactly what you are asking of your body when the clocks shift during Spring daylight saving time or when you fly into a time zone that is an hour ahead,” says Dr. Sujay Kansagra, Mattress Firm's sleep health expert.
Save stressful TV shows for earlier in the day
We hear that watching TV before bed can give off blue light, which can keep us up at night but there are other reasons why television in the evening can disturb sleep: stress. When we watch an intense television show, we excite the right hemisphere of the brain, thus tuning into a stressful or exciting show lights up a series of actions in the limbic system that produces anxiety, says says Dana McNeil, a licensed marriage and family therapist in San Diego, California. So when we binge something like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad pre-bed, “our brain is essentially pushed into a fight-or-flight response, which releases tons of chemicals into our nervous system.”
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