You may have heard of the term ‘sleep hygiene’, but do you know what it means?
In this blog, Dr Lindsay Browning explains what sleep hygiene is and some tips on how to improve the quality of your sleep.
What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene means basic, good behaviours that can help you to improve your sleep at night.
General good sleep hygiene advice includes:
- reducing caffeine near to bedtime
- using your bed for sleep and sex only
- having a wind down time before bed.
Making some small changes like these can improve a short term sleeping problem, or improve the quality of someone’s sleep.
However, no amount of good sleep hygiene alone will overcome chronic insomnia – that is when someone’s sleep has become a significant problem affecting their quality of life.
In these cases, CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) is more appropriate, rather than simply practicing good sleep hygiene. Learn more about insomnia and my adult sleep services here:
However, if you are simply looking for ways to improve your sleep and your sleep hygiene, check out my tips below.
7 top tips for improving sleep hygiene
1. Increase physical exercise
Increasing physical exercise is beneficial for deep sleep, so it’s a great idea to start incorporating exercise into your daily routine.
Ideally, you want to exercise earlier in the day, not just before bedtime. Certainly allow at least 90 minutes before you are due to go to bed after vigorous exercise.
Typically, evening exercise can raise our body temperature and our heart rate making sleep more difficult soon after exercise, and so should be avoided, if sleep is a problem. However, if you are professional athlete or are extremely fit then you may find that your ability to cool down after a workout is much more efficient than a typical person, and therefore, exercising near to bedtime may be less of an issue for you.
2. Address your anxiety levels
Stress makes it difficult to sleep because it’s hard to ‘switch off’ when we are anxious.
If you feel worried or anxious, then a good sleep hygiene practice is to note down your worries or concerns, during the daytime, and certainly a little time before bed. Addressing your anxiety levels and find ways to relax during the day is also helpful, to help you be better able to sleep at night, instead of the brain being flooded with concerns when you are trying to fall asleep.
3. Be aware of when you last had caffeine
If you drink caffeine near to bed time that will disrupt sleep because you will be too alert and not feel sleepy enough to go to sleep.
It is worth remembering that it is not only tea and coffee that contain caffeine, but also so does cola and chocolate.
Good sleep hygiene includes being aware of what drinks may disrupt your sleep.
4. Have a hot milky drink before bed
Alternatively, good sleep hygiene also includes being aware of what is good to drink (and eat).
So, for example, instead of hot chocolate, a hot milky drink before bed is an excellent alternative, because the warm drink helps to promote sleep and also milk contains tryptophan, which is a precursor of melatonin – the hormone that helps us feel sleepy.
If you are not keen on milk or milk alternatives, any non-caffeinated warm drinks before bed can be helpful to improve relaxation and sleep.
5. Don’t eat too much too late
You should try to avoid eating your main evening meal too near to bedtime. However, a small snack before bed can be helpful to give you slow release energy through the night.
Foods that are high in tryptophan (as mentioned above) are actually beneficial before sleep. These include foods such as milk, chicken, turkey, salmon and nuts.
Spicy and fatty foods should be avoided near to bedtime because they can cause indigestion, making sleep harder.
7. Put away your phone
Generally, the advice to avoid screens before bed is for two main reasons.
Firstly, the bright light from LED devices can disrupt our ability to produce melatonin because our body sees the bright light and thinks that it is still daytime. This is not believed to be as serious as it once was, however, you can help to minimise the effect as much as possible by enabling “night mode” on your phone (and tablet).
Secondly, when we use phones near to bedtime, it can cause us to be so distracted by scrolling though social media that we forget to go to bed or to sleep. We may also see work emails come in or receive messages which need a reply, which can cause us to become increasingly stressed or anxious, which then in turn will disrupt our sleep.
7. Get the right mattress and pillows
You should choose your mattress based on your sleeping style and weight. Generally speaking, a heavier person will need a firmer mattress compared to a lighter person.
The number and type of pillows you choose will also depend on your sleeping style.
You should sleep so that your spine and neck remain in a neutral position during the night. Back sleepers may need fewer pillows than a side sleeper to keep their head at the right angle through the night.
It is a good idea to choose a mattress and pillows by physically trying them out in a shop, so that you can get the right comfort level for your body shape and sleeping style.
Seeking professional help for sleeplessness or improving sleep hygiene
The more you try to improve your sleep and the more anxious and concerned you get about your sleep the more stressed you will become, and paradoxically, the worse you will sleep.
If you have tried introducing a relaxing down-time before bed, followed the above tips and more but are still struggling to sleep, it may be time to speak to a sleep professional or your GP to see if sleep therapy would be beneficial.