How to have a good night’s sleep – A practical guide & tips

1. Frequent late nights

We get away with pulling the occasional ‘all-nighter’ in our youth – but our slapdash attitude towards sleep eventually causes problems.

You don’t have to live like a monk for the rest of your life, but you do need to take action to ensure you establish, and maintain, sleep-friendly patterns and routines.

Given what is at stake and given how wonderful you will feel when you are released from the nightmare of sleep deprivation, the required changes are not only easy but also simple to apply.

2. The work ethic

The average person is working longer hours today than our counterparts a hundred years ago.

Technology, automation, & artificial intelligence have not allowed us to work less – instead, they have led to us working longer, harder hours – normally at the expense of healthy behaviours, especially those related to sleep.

Changing your attitude towards establishing great sleep routines, even at the expense of that extra couple of hours a night at work will actually make you even more productive, less prone to errors, less moody and stressed and better equipped to enjoy great sleep.

3. Devices with screens

We all know about the damage these devices cause to our ability to sleep – but how many of us take action to address the issue of excessive screen time, especially approaching bedtime?

There are solutions to this issue which do not necessarily require you to ban your smart phone from your bedside or night-time routine, but they begin with the acknowledgement that change is necessary.

The wonderful thing is the changes can be easy and enjoyable to apply.

4. Stress

It’s considered by some to be a badge of honour, an outward indication to everyone who knows us that we have a hugely challenging career, overwhelming life responsibilities, and gargantuan demands on our time.

Changing our perception of stress is important – especially as not all stress is bad. Our ancestors relied on it to deal with real, life endangering situations – it had them be wary of venturing into certain areas with potentially dangerous wildlife or inhabitants.

Stress only becomes a negative thing when it is triggered by fears that are not a threat to our survival.

Whether it is work worries, relationship issues, or money problems – we don’t react to these with the fight or flight reaction as we would if we were in fear of being attacked by a wild animal – yet our central nervous system responds as if we should do and produces hormones accordingly.

An ongoing state of stress hormone arousal can delay the onset of sleep and bring on anxiety at night.

Finding ways of handling the stresses and strains of life is important but it’s a well-trodden path and a thoroughly positive process.

5. Anxiety

Closely inter-related with stress, anxiety is becoming an ever-increasing issue across society in the 21st century.

Whereas stress is best defined as a physical response to external threats, anxiety is the mental state that can arise from stress, or from purely psychological worries. Dealing with stress and anxiety is important, quite aside from how it impacts negatively on our sleep.

But like stress, anxiety in itself isn’t bad – we need it to survive.

It is the causes of anxiety and stress that are becoming increasingly harmful: human-made causes like work, social acceptance, aggressive social media, inadequate health and fitness, poor diet, and a host of behavioural issues and addictions.

Tackle those – and great sleep will follow.

Like most problems that seem insurmountable – they become much less daunting if you have advice and guidance on how to address them positively rather than with a sense of trepidation and fear.

Something that seemed really difficult can suddenly become ridiculously easy if you go about, it the right way.

6. Diet

The type of food & drink we consume and even the time of day we choose to consume it has a massive impact on our sleep quality.

Junk food, sugary food, processed ready meals, starchy and processed carbohydrates all manipulate our blood sugar levels and can not only prevent sleep, but increase the number of times we wake up and reduce the amount of super-important “deep sleep” we get.

Increasingly studies into the relationship between diet and sleep are indicating that not only does poor diet have a detrimental effect on sleep, but poor sleep also has a detrimental effect on diet.

It’s a vicious circle but once addressed – excellent quality sleep beckons.

7. Stimulants & addictions

All quite predictable really: caffeine, energy drinks, smoking, alcohol, & prescription drugs can all detrimentally affect your sleep.

The great news is that you do not have to forgo your morning coffee, never have alcohol, or even quit smoking to remedy your sleep issue – you just need to understand the impact these things can have on your quality of sleep and take steps to prevent them doing so.

8. Bedroom environment

We take it for granted and barely give it a second thought.

We think that by keeping our bedroom nice and warm we’re enhancing our chances of achieving great sleep. Perfect sleep conditions are much cooler than that, at no more than 18C (64F).

Being mindful of the temperature in your bedroom is one of many, many simple changes you can adopt to ensure your bedroom and bed become sleep-friendly rather than sleep-harming.

It is the easiest of wins and reduces your heating costs to boot.

9. Lack of exercise (or exercising at an unhelpful time of day)

Your body is an incredible machine capable of performing a multitude of tasks all at the same time.

Rejoice in the fact that you have this living, breathing machine and take pride in looking after it.

When you read the words ‘health & fitness’ you might have a vision of an athlete or personal trainer or one of those people who loves going out running and be thinking, “That’s just not me!”

That really isn’t a problem – it’s just a case of doing a few simple, easy to achieve, enjoyable activities that will keep your body in good health.

It doesn’t involve training for a marathon or a triathlon or anything like it, it can be as simple as a couple of short walks each day.

It all adds up to a sleep friendly lifestyle.

10. Bad choices

There are many sleep remedies, behaviours, and beliefs which are unhelpful when striving for great sleep.

They largely revolve around choices we make in life. We are not born pre-programmed to suffer sleep deprivation.

On the contrary, we are pre-programmed to sleep just as naturally and effortlessly as we breath.

Human intellect leads us astray by presenting us with an array of choices that all disrupt sleep, and the same intellect tells us it’s ok to go on choosing them.

It is clear that to stand any chance of getting a good night’s sleep, at least some of these choices need to change.