Getting enough sleep impacts your health just as much as working out or eating nutritious foods.
According to researchers, inadequate amounts of sleep can negatively impact your brain’s ability to function, keeping you from performing your best.
Restful sleep, on the other hand, has a positive impact on your health, making it easier to follow a healthy diet and to stay on track with an exercise routine. Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough sleep. Even if they do spend a lot of time sleeping, the quality of their sleep may not be good enough to provide the benefits that they need. Many are sleeping on a less than adequate mattress, check out these nest bedding reviews and consider getting yourself a mattress upgrade during the next Memorial Day mattress sale. This list of the best thin mattress from Sleep Standards is a great mattress buying guide too.
If you haven’t been sleeping as well as you would like at night, these suggestions could help.
- Figure Out The Amount Of Sleep You Need
The National Sleep Foundation found that the majority of adults require anywhere from about 7 to 9 hours of sleep on a nightly basis. Sleep requirements are highly variable from one person to the next. Factors like a person’s age and whether or not they are pregnant all come into play when determining the total number of hours of sleep that they need.
If you are having difficulty figuring out exactly how much sleep you need, try answering these questions:
Do you wake up naturally without the need for an alarm?
In the morning, do you regularly wake up before your alarm sounds? If so, it could be because you have gotten enough sleep. Of course, this problem can also be caused by poor sleep habits. The key is to focus on how you feel when you wake up. If you open your eyes and feel alert and well-rested, you probably are getting plenty of sleep. On the other hand, if you sleep through your alarm and constantly feel tired, you may need to spend more time sleeping.
How do you feel?
Keep track of your sleep habits in a diary or by using an app. This will help you identify what is and isn’t working for you in terms of your sleep. If you notice yourself feeling tired or anxious during the day, don’t ignore these feelings. Instead, consider whether they might be your body’s way of signaling that you need to sleep more at night.
Do you fall asleep right away each night?
Ideally, you should fall asleep right away instead of laying there staring at the ceiling. Sadly, that rarely happens. Most people lay awake for at least 20 minutes before they fall asleep. If it is taking you longer than that to drift off, you may need to make lifestyle changes that support better sleep habits.
