If you have trouble sleeping, you may be affected by the sleep effectors.
Different things that affect sleep.
- Caffeine. Virtually everyone knows that the effects of caffeine are sleeping. But it depends on how much caffeine you have consumed and how close it is to your bedtime. One thing that most people don't know is that it takes as long as 7-8 hours to completely get rid of all the caffeine from the system. This is a long time. Usually I don't drink coffee or anything that contains caffeine after 3pm. I don't want it to interfere with my ability to sleep.
- Exercise. Most sleep experts (and general health experts, for that matter) recommend doing 30-60 minutes of exercise a day. This is good for your body, because of the phytological strain, your body should be more prepared for sleep when it is time to go to bed. However, you don't want to train within 3 hours before bedtime. This will interfere with your ability to sleep. It's funny because as a young man I used to practice just before bed, thinking that doing push-ups and things tired me and I fell asleep faster. Mistaken!
- Food. You want to eat enough food and you want to eat well. Eat a good breakfast in the morning to start the day well and eat when you are hungry. However, do not eat any substantial amount of food within 3 hours before bedtime, as this will also adversely affect your ability to sleep.
- Environment and context of sleep. Sleep experts generally advise you not to use the bed for anything except to sleep and make love. Research shows that some people who are used to carrying work and TV in their bed can sometimes sleep better by taking those things away. It is normal for people to read, write and / or watch TV before bed. This may become routine, but it doesn't actually create the right context for your body to sleep. But these can be difficult habits to change, so you want to take them gradually. Experiment: try for a few nights not to read or watch TV before bed, use the bed to sleep.
I think it's rather strange that not much attention is paid to preparing for sleep. We prepare for the rest of life, so why shouldn't we prepare for sleep. Before going to sleep, you need to make sure that you are actually tired and feeling sleepy before going to bed. If you are not sleepy when you go to bed, you will probably lie down for a long time without sleeping, which is not nice.
- Read a boring book before going to bed. Read a boring storybook, with a slow, boring voice, for yourself. Leave your mouth open and read only until you can stop yawning! Then you know you're sleepy.
- Get up, start thinking about sleep. Relax your whole body.
