Scientists made it known to us that humans are known to spend one-third of their lives sleeping. A breakdown shows that during infancy, humans sleep for about 16 hours, at youthful age 9 hours, and at adulthood 7 to 8 hours. Good sleep lowers the risk of health issues and helps you to maintain a lighter weight. A good night of sleep gives proper servings of productivity, brain performance, body rest, and digestion.
As the human grow older, sleep pattern begins to change with vulnerability to experiencing a bad sleep due to increased responsibilities and changes in survival duties and roles. The newborn child has a higher tendency to have a streak of good sleep compared to an adult who works assiduously to meet ends meet. This technically means an adult will likely be vulnerable to the adverse effect of bad sleep than a child.
What is bad sleep and good sleep?
Good sleep can be defined as a situation when an individual sleeps for at least 8 hours per day. Good sleep is characterized by partial consciousness of happenings in the environment and lower awakenings during the night.
A night of bad sleep is the flipside of good sleep. It is negative in all appearance and it causes serious havoc for any human having a bad sleep. A bad sleep should not be mistaken as not sleeping at all. Not being able to sleep is known as Insomnia. Even though bad sleep can lead to bouts of insomnia, insomnia is a medical condition and psychological issue.
There are two types of Insomnia. They include; Acute and Chronic Insomnia
- Acute Insomnia
- Chronic Insomnia
Both insomnia and bad sleep are caused by extreme stress, sleep anxiety, and depression.
Read more: Myths and Facts about insomnia
Could there be health benefits of bad sleep and insomnia? No, there isn’t.
Bad sleep and insomnia are not good at any point for the human body. It has a lot of attached problems ranging from a heart attack, stroke, low sex drive, depression, aging skin, forgetfulness, and impaired judgment to name a few. Avoid them.
Brief History of Sleep
Sleep is as old as man. Even though the requirement for rest has been consistent all through mankind’s set of experiences, how we feel about it has experienced sensational changes throughout the long term. Sleep contributes majorly to the success of a man and a lack of it can be traumatizing. Historically, some very good epitomes of sleep recorded can be found in the Bible.
The very first one was that of Adam that featured a removed rib. He must have had a very good sleep for his rib to be taken without reaction. Another one recorded in the Bible was Jacob. Jacob had a good sleep because it was recorded that he had a dream of heaven. Nights of sleep are usually characterized by sound dreams. A night of sleep with a featured nightmare is not good enough as it can cause fear of sleep if the nightmares are consistent.
The Greeks referred to sleep as the transition from life to partial death. Scientists proved in the mid-years between 500 BCE and 450 BCE that sleep is the consequence of blood on the outside of the body pulling out into the inside. At the period when scholars argued that sleep was not a moment of inactivity, a medical journal published for the first time an article on sleep in the 1970s.
Gradually inventions to enhance sleep followed having realized that sleep is a catalyst for a good economy as it enables individuals to perform efficiently. A product of such is the introduction of the popularly known mattress. Mattress originally existed as the gathering of few stones but overtime it evolved into soft foam and springs used now.
You can read about the history of beds and mattresses here.
Hacks To Have Better Sleep At Night
A decent night’s rest is fundamental to your wellbeing and passionate prosperity. That is the reason the advantages of good rest ought to never be thought little of and getting a legitimate lay consistently isn’t only a smart thought, it’s a genuine one. To demonstrate it, here are medically approved ways to have good sleep without having the urge to take another bout of sleep when you wake in the morning.
1. Schedule As At When Due
To have a good night’s sleep, it is important to schedule your work and sleep/waking time. Just you create a to-do list for yourself every week, you should also schedule your work exercises to have time for rest, time of sleep, and time to wake. However, this can change if you have jetlag. Here, you should have long hours of sleep to balance yourself at the time of that country.
2. Reduce Light Exposure
Light exposure during the day is advantageous, yet night light has the contrary all for your activities but sleep. Sleeping with lights can slow the pace of your sleep. Those who are known to sleep with lights on are prone to sleep during the day, wake up intermittently, and have low quality sleep.
It has been medically proven that sleeping with lights on can increase your chances of having cancer. Melatonin is the hormone responsible for regulating your sleep and alertness. Generally, the phrase ‘lights out’ in hostels or schools or anywhere signifies all should go to bed. It is an innate attitude to put the lights off when about to sleep.
Sleeping with lights on is proven to cause these four issues
- Chronic Illness of high blood pressure
- Obesity
- Depression
- Brain drain
To have a good night’s sleep avoid putting the lights on. If addicted to leaving the lights on, give it a trial for a night, for two, for three, and a week. You will realize how enjoyable your sleep will be compared to moments you left your lights on.
3. Create A Restful Sleeping Environment
An adage goes thus: “as you lay your bed so you lie on it”. Taking this saying literally, if you decide not to lay your bed as at when due especially when going out for the day’s job. When you come back after the day’s exhaustion, you get to sleep on your bed as it is because you refused to lay it previously.
Your sleep environment is crucial in your sleep preparations. It is vital to have clean bedsheets, a suitable mattress, and good sets of pillows to enhance better sleep. If you are fond of cuddling pets or teddies, you can also put them in your preparations. Ensure your pet is neat and not in any situation or position to disturb your sleep. The same goes for your teddy.
The color of your room also has a huge influence on the quality of sleep you get. Usage of tranquil colors will promote sound sleep and good dreams. Too bright colors can hamper sleep.
Read about the list of colors to use for your room.
4. Avoid Eating Late at Night
To have a better sleep at night, you must cut down excessive feeding and inculcate a habit of eating early and taking just water or fruits when hungry at night. This is if you are the type that sleeps late at night. Sleeping late at night creates more chances of you getting hungry. You might be wondering why? Since digestion takes place also while we sleep, eating late shouldn’t be a problem.
Food taken few hours towards your sleeping time causes indigestion which will give your stomach troubles culminating in a night of very bad sleep.
5. Write your problems and worries before sleeping
This is a piece of therapeutic advice and it will work perfectly for you if you have worries and desperate to have a good night’s sleep. Try it out.
6. Adopt a Polyphasic sleep pattern
Satisfaction for the cravings of a good night’s sleep is to adopt a polyphasic sleep pattern. There are two sleep patterns.
- Monophasic Pattern: this pattern of sleep requires a one-off sleep rate. No breaks.
- The Polyphasic Pattern: this pattern requires you to break your sleep process into two.
Arguably, a major chunk of the human population is monophasic. They work or play during the day then rest at night (i.e. sleep at night). Polyphasic sleep pattern is in two formats, 20 minutes sleep patterns in twos and 90 mins or more sleep patterns in two.
If you adopt the polyphasic pattern of sleep, you are most likely to get a good night’s sleep with ease. A part of your sleep can come during the day at lunch hours and the last bout of your sleep comes at night. It makes you less tired and prevents you from dozing during work hours.
7. Sleep in a Noiseless Room
Sleeping in a noiseless room helps you to get a good night’s sleep. Noise and sleep are not coterminous and are mutually exclusive.
Trust you wouldn’t want to put on the speakers when you about to sleep. Except you do not really wanna sleep. Similarly, avoid sleeping with your handsfree. Be it in your ears or hands. The longer your handsfree stay in your ears, the higher your chances of getting a hearing problem. Also, it slows the pace of your sleep. Resist the urge to do so.
What happens if you live in a noise addictive environment? An earbud that is ear compliant will save you the stress of trying to catch a sleep because it provides relative decorum and peace for your sleep amid bangs around.
8. Use Aromatherapy
Good smells are known to also promote good sleep at night. The process of using oils with good scents is called aromatherapy. Biologically, there are some neurons connected to our brains that receive chemical compounds in our environment and then send them to the brain. The brain then interprets the smell to be good or not.
The fragrance can incite the sensory system to send signs to the limbic framework in the mind, the very piece of the cerebrum that houses feeling and memory.
9. Use Sleep Gadgets
Placing checks and balances on your sleep routine helps to give you a better way to have a good sleep night. There are many sleep gadgets available in stores that can help you monitor your sleep rates. Such as noise-canceling earphones, alarms, eye masks, and meditation applications. Here is a list of sleeping gadgets.
- Color Starter Kit
- Sound Oasis Illume
- Dodow
- Homni
- Fit bit Versa 2 smartwatch
- Stop Snoring Ring
- Nanu hot & not duvet
- Sleepace Sleep Dot
10. Reset your sleep pattern
It takes approximately 24 hours to rest your sleep pattern. Maintaining a sleep schedule can be a little tough with the different time zones. You should have a schedule but in addition to that, develop the habit of resetting your sleep pattern every time you change time zones. To effectively change sleep patterns, follow these steps I will show you.
11. Create your Sanctuary
For me, my bedroom is my sanctuary. I will never let anything get in my way of having a nice and quality time of rest in my peaceful abode and sanctuary. The totality of my beddings is my imaginary safety house. You should also try this. Let your room be your sanctuary. Keep away distractions and any loud bang device. Your phones must be in silence too. The toppings of your mattress should be warm to keep you in bed to sleep quickly and easily.
12. Midnight Curfew
This is not for the Mayor alone to impose. You can do this on yourself too. Impose curfew on activities you are addicted to doing at night. Like taking a sip from the yogurt or replying to that chat from your best friend or glancing through the pictures of your crush. All these can hinder your sleep activities. You will assuredly get poor loads of sleep at night and eventually have regrets because it will tell on your health and daily functions.
13. Meditate before sleep
I previously told you to write down your worries before you sleep which I’m sure you must have worked on that. Successful right? You can combine a pre-sleep meditation with it. Meditation naturally is a way of intelligently providing for yourself therapies through thoughtful memories and imaginations.
Engaging in meditations before sleep help a great deal. It lets you relax tensions from the day’s activities. Before you kick start any of your meditations, try this- breathe in (20 seconds) then breathe out (20 secs). Now get in your meditation.
14. Take Non-Caffeine drinks
Make it a habit to take drinks that do not have caffeine. Caffeine drinks are made of ingredients that will make you have irregular sleep and when you sleep, your sleep will not be deep and sound. Besides, you will visit the restroom so many times within a single night because it is a diuretic. Very bad situation for you, especially when you did not use your break at work.
No matter how tempted you are to consume caffeine drinks to stay active, avoid it. Because it could also counter increase your sugar intake. The sweetener in caffeine is converted to sugar and when in excess it results in a drop of blood glucose which will make you weak. When your body is on low glucose, it means your energy level is also low thereby leading to some other body issues like aches.
15. Work Early
You once received recognition as the most diligent staff. And now you are on the path to win another forgetting that you are killing your sleep to win awards. Stop it! Your sleep is more important. I’ll keep letting you know that health is wealth.
Working late close to your hours of sleep will drastically affect your sleep rate and pattern. It could result in sleep disorders which will eventually let you miss days of work. Keep a balance on both sides. Work as at when due and rest at the appropriate time. Both are important and should never lap into each other.
16. Take Warm Milk
Warmth enhances good sleep whether internal warmth or external warmth- all derived from the bedding style, sheets, and mattress you are using.
Here, I am talking about how you could generate internal warmth for yourself through the intake of milk. Get into the store down your street, tell the attendant to lead to the stall for warm milk- then buy it. Hey, after your trial, go ahead and tell momma and grandma to buy lots of warm milk at home. Sleep is sweeter when you take it constantly.
17. Drink Banana Peels
This will be a weird suggestion but a very useful one. Doctors have explained that bananas are rich in magnesium which always calm the body. The peels of bananas have twice the level of magnesium in the fruits themselves.
To drink banana peels, get about 5 to 9 bananas into your boiling pans. Rip off the tail end of the banana before you place it into the pan. Do not peel the bananas, that’s our main deal. Pour a sufficient amount of water in it and put honey (not sugar we are on a no sugar diet) to taste well. Boil for about five to 7 minutes and get ready to serve. Drink regularly and you are ready to give yourself the best of sleep for nights to come.
Find out ways to prevent snoring at night
Facts On Sleep You Should Know
- All individuals on average spend about 2 hours on sleep.
- About 15% of the world’s population are sleepwalkers.
- When you wake, you are most likely to forget 50% of your dreams.
- Humans are the only species that delays sleep.
- The more you deprive sleep, the more tolerant you are to pain.
- When you earn a high income, you are prone to sleep better and comfortably.
- Fear is the main trigger for nightmares.
- Part of your dream comes in black and white.
- An individual did not sleep for 11 days and 25 minutes. That is the longest so far.
- You can actually sleep deeply for 10 minutes.
- Your body temperature drops significantly when you sleep.
- You can not catch up on all your missed sleep in one sleep.
- The myth that children need sleep more than adults is false.
- The brightness of your phone and laptop can affect your sleep.
- Heavy foods at breakfast make you doze.
- Clinomania is the irresistible urge to stay cozy in bed all-day.
- Dysania is the feeling to sleep again when you wake in the morning.
- Humans dream at every sleep.
- Sleepwalking is genetic.
- Every serious disease that can kill any individual is linked to a lack of sleep.
- People who are born blind are prone to have nightmares than dreams.
How can I Change my sleep pattern?
1. Understand your current time zone
There are about 7 time zones in the world. You as a tourist must be well vast on your chosen country of visit. The time zones available include the; Atlantic Standard Time (AST), Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST), Mountain Standard Time (MST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), Alaskan Standard Time (AKST), Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST), Samoa standard time (UTC-11) and Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10).
Each of these time zones is differentiated by a 15 degree longitudinally gap. If you decide to spend your Christmas and New year in places like Baker Island and America Samoa you must prepare to be among the last countries to enter in the new year because these two places are way behind the usual time calculations.
When you know the different time zones, it will not only help in how you schedule your journey but how you conquer jet lags. On arrivals at designated hotels at tourist centers, you can take a round-the-clock rest and sleep for a day or two. This will help you rest and balance your rest pattern and create an adjustable schedule for the remaining days you stay.
2. Exercise daily
Have your gym instructor told you that no amount of exercise will be enough for you? You need exercises to regulate your body growth, maintain stability and grow muscles with abs (trust your partner will like that).
You could decide to register at the nearby gym or you go the natural way. Whichever way you choose you are on the right track. All you have to ensure is that you are consistent and do not be like the young lad who works out only when she feels like it. And that’s once in three weeks.
That routine is bad to see the effect of any exercise. Put away your feelings, be disciplined, and obey your gym instructor. Consistency leads you on the path of adapting to a changing sleep pattern Try it out and thank me later. Oh, by the way, you’re welcome.
3. Meet your medical guide
Have you tried the first two guides and you are yet to get results? One more thing left is to meet your medical guide. They are professionals and they are ready to give you the best therapy and guide that will help you achieve your sleeping goal. Be sure to ask your guide what melatonin is. Limit your sugar level
4. Control your appetite
You should not always try every food. You can get addicted from the first, second, and third trial of getting those tater tots, doughnuts, cheese, jerky, or the rocky mountain oysters.
5. Use lights to your advantage
Ensure to dim your lights in the evenings. And make sure to use bright light in the mornings when you rise and shine
Conclusion
Sleep is a major survival instinct for all humans. No one can avoid it even if you want to. Just as the days are for work duties, the nights are for sleep. Sleep during the day is not advisable but could be prescribed. The above techniques listed are a proper guide to have a better night of sleep.