What is Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep “Nidra” is an important part of a healthy lifestyle as per Ayurveda as well as other medical systems. Healthy Sleep Hygiene supports the holistic health of an individual in a most naturalistic manner.
Beauty Sleep is a common word which we mostly listen to in the females’ chat. This clearly explains that sleep plays a vital role in maintaining the natural beauty of a female. It is not only about beauty and the females, but the good lifestyle and prevention of various diseases for each and every individual.
The sedentary lifestyle that involves late-night parties, long working hours, binge-watching, binge eating, disturbed eating patterns, night work shifts, mental and emotional disturbance, and many other factors are responsible for our unhealthy sleeping patterns these days.
It was about the sleeping patterns, other than this there is one more concept that is “Sleep Hygiene”. Is this something new to you? If no, it is well and good but if yes, then many questions will arise in your mind like what is it? How it affects us? How does it make the night Restless? What are the tips to maintain it?
Moving further slowly and steadily, we will find the answers to all our relevant questions. Let us first reveal the common identity of Sleep Hygiene so that it will be easy and interesting for us to read about it. Sleep Hygiene is nothing different, but refers to the proper series of “Good Sleeping Habits”.
Tips for Good Sleep Hygiene
There are some tips that need to be followed to have a proper hygienic sleep. These are as follows:
1. Consistency
Being consistent with our sleeping timings is the first and foremost thing to maintain in any case. Whether it is a weekend or a normal working day. It helps to get fixed timings for sleep and also manage other activities of the day.
2. Bedroom Sorroundings
Our bedroom must have soothing lights and a peaceful environment. It should provide a comfortable temperature for the body along with the relaxing bed (mattress and pillows).
3. No Electronics
A perfect bedroom should not contain any electronic devices such as Televisions, computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, or any other gadgets. Stop using electronic devices at least one hour before going to bed. It will relax your eyes and mind leading you towards peace of mind. Also, due to the radiation and rays that are released by electronic gadgets, these can disturb sleep. Also, these are dangerous for our body and mind as well because while sleeping our brain and body acts differently and may not be very active to fight against its ill effects.
4. Light Meal Before Bedtime
The dinner has to be light in order to have a good sleep and proper digestion during the sleeping hours. While sleeping, our body is only mentally active and not physically. So, consuming heavy meals before bedtime can lead to digestive issues and restless sleep.
5. Restrict Alcohol, Tea, and Caffeine
Alcohol, Tea, Coffee, and Smoking are never helpful in the way of health. These should be restricted to enter in our life anyhow, in any case. Nothing is more than life itself and these all are the basic steps towards serious health hazards. Intake of any of these before bedtime is totally worst.
6. Stay Busy and Let Your Body Move
Get involved in more and more physical and mental activities during the day time, so that all the organs of your body function properly and need some rest at night. Being a lazy bird all day long and then going to have a beautiful sleep is nothing to do with hygiene sleep.
7. Go to Bed When You Feel Sleepy
Staying in bed and staring at walls or performing some other activities is not a good thing to do. So, always go to bed when you feel asleep. This will only happen when your body works well during the day time. Taking a rest/sleep without working or getting tired is not a healthy habit.
8. Limit In-Bed Activities
As per the health experts and researchers who keep studying the sleep and sleeping patterns of people, bedtime should be only for sleep and for making love with your partner. It should not be a place for other activities such as reading, writing, doing official work, eating, watching shows, etc.
9. Meditation
Yoga and Meditation in the early morning keep you active and calm all day long similarly practicing 5-10 minutes of meditation before sleeping helps you eliminate all the stress of the day and have a healthy sleep with yourself and your loved ones. Morning meditation also has some beneficial contributions toward better sleep.
10. Check on Diet and Medications
Insomnia is caused due to various reasons including intake of certain medicines, health issues, mental stress, and anxiety, emotional trauma, etc. Also, there are many food items that can be responsible for disturbing your sleep. So, take care of the food you eat or the medicines you take, it should not disturb your sleep. Otherwise, diet and medicines will become the reason for your illness instead of promoting health.
Conclusion
Following all the above-provided steps and practicing hygienic sleeping habits will surely help you to have a restful night and a wonderful start to the following day. Being habitual of these all will help you to stay away from stress, anxiety, depression, digestive disorders, mental and nervous ailments, and other health issues. Healthy sleep supports amazingly in the maintenance of the eyes, brain, and heart health as well as the entire body.
Prioritizing Sleep is one of the Best Ways of Self-Care as a Good Sleep and Heartedly Laugh are the Best Daily Life-Practices.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan (MD-Ayurveda) is an expert Ayurvedic Doctor based in Chandigarh, India, and doing his practice in Mohali, India. He is spreading the knowledge of Ayurveda – Ancient healing treatment, not only in India but also abroad. He is the CEO and Founder of Planet Ayurveda Products, and Planet Ayurveda Clinic. He can be reachable for online consultation through [email protected].