Improve Your Sleep Instantly With 4 Simple Tweaks
Hitting the hay at a decent hour isn’t going to guarantee you effortless, quality shuteye. (Photo: Thinkstock)
We’ve all experienced what happens after a bad night’s sleep: Minor headaches, grogginess, overall hatred for everything that doesn’t go our way, you know the deal. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recently put out their first recommendations for just how much sleep we should get regularly, advising that adults get at least seven hours nightly to protect against poor health.
But is seven hours really the magic number? William Christopher Winter, MD, medical director at Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center, says not exactly.
Related: Your Guide to Beating Exhaustion & Fatigue For Good!
“I’d say that there’s no golden number of sleep hours,” says Winter. “[Sure] the average individual, if they sleep well, needs something between seven and eight hours of sleep. The real question is, though, if you’re getting seven hours and you’re falling asleep at work, maybe you need more. When your body wants to sleep, it’s going to sleep.”
Winter suggests a test: Take a time, seven hours, stick with it for two weeks. If at the end of the two weeks you feel great, then seven hours is probably perfect for you. If not? Try tweaking it, going through the two-week trial, and seeing how you feel. While recommendations may provide a great baseline, every person (and body!) is different. Not to mention, your quality of sleep can make or break how you feel the next day.
Looking to get the best quality sleep? Winter gave us his four must-regulate bedroom habits for a more satisfying shuteye:
Bedroom Control No. 1: Light
“I always tell my patients, ‘Go into your bedroom around lunch time, and climb into bed, turn off all the lights, close your blinds’” says Winter. If they can then can easily find the door (and not just because you haven’t moved in years), that’s a major sign that the room is too bright for sleeping.
Related: 6 Things to Avoid for a Better Night’s Sleep
While that may sound extreme, even 5 minutes of white light from a screen suppresses melatonin levels, by more than 50 percent, according to The Bulletproof Diet. What’s that matter? Melatonin, otherwise known as the sleep hormone, levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert in the evening, and sleep becomes more inviting. If light is around, you’ll have less of a natural inclination to hit the hay and stay sleeping.
Bedroom Control No. 2: Temperature
There are two things you can control for here: The temperature of the room and then the temperature of the beds. “A lot of people sleep better in a cooler environment, so if you can cool your room, or cool your bed, or cool your half of the bed or whatever the case may be, it can be very helpful, says Winter. Companies like Sleep Number offer a dual temperature balancing layer that allows you to personalize the temperature on both sides of your mattress.
Bedroom Control No. 3: Noise
"Try to create a situation where your bedroom is as quite as possible,” suggests Winter. “People who sleep with televisions or noise machines all night long are indirectly damaging their sleep quality.” The exception? When you’re drowning out worse noise from loud neighbors or perhaps the street. In that case, a low fan can do wonders for keeping the noise levels constant around your sleep situation.
Related: Are These Sleep Mistakes Making You Fat?
Bedroom Control No. 4: Comfort
We’ve already touched on temperature, but your mattress can also play a major part in how well you’re sleeping. In a 2011 poll, the National Sleep Foundation found that 92 percent of people say a comfortable mattress is important for a good night’s sleep. The catch? Often times, depending on your poison, plush mattresses can cost big bucks. Solution? Buy a mattress topper. Brands like Sleep Innovations offer a wide range of mattress toppers featuring memory foam that not only helps to renew your mattress and relieve pain at pressure points, but also even conduct heat from the body to aid with temperature regulation during sleep.
By Emily Abbate
More from Rodale Wellness:
