How To Sleep Well And Have More Vigor During The Day

Learning how to sleep well is supposed to be as easy as counting sheep. It is one of the body’s ways to recharge our immune systems that was constantly challenged during the day. But because of today’s fast paced lifestyle and constant work hours, sleep is a little hard to come by, making it a luxury rather than a necessity. While it’s true that humans need less sleep as they get older, the restoration and memory processing that happens during sleep is still highly necessary. Here are a few tips on how to sleep well:

Get enough natural sunlight
This can never be said enough as most of us spend 80% of our time indoors, doing office work or else staying at home. Most of our ancestors spent most of their time outdoors and basked in the sun’s rays. Imagine then the complication when men now spend more time in their offices and homes rather than stay outside. Consider this. The light in the office is about 200 to 500 luxes (the measure of light intensity) while that of bright sunshine is 100,000 luxes.

Getting enough sunlight is directly proportional to melatonin production, which in turn will induce sleep at night. Sunlight is one of the prerequisite factors necessary to sleep well. If you’re indoors constantly, at least be in an area where there is streaming sunlight like near a window or a balcony. Don’t forget to open the drapes as much as possible too. Minimize the use of sunglasses only when highly needed, when the sun is blinding and is disruptive of your view. Extremely, some even engage in bright light therapy for those who are already lacking in natural light exposure.

Set up your alarm clock 30 minutes before the actual time you’re planning to awake
When considering an energizing sleep, people should wake up on the appropriate time. The appropriate time is when the person has fully completed the sleeping cycle and wakes up during the REM stage, which is the stage considered closest to consciousness. Unfortunately, most of us use alarm clocks which make us wake up at the wrong sleep stage, when we are in ‘Deep Sleep’. Deep sleep occurs when we are in Stage 2 and 4.

In order to prevent this from happening, set the alarm 30 minutes before to give the body a warning that one is about to wake up instead of letting the body feel like it’s being bolted directly out of sleep.

Follow the same sleep and wake routine even during the weekends
Weekends are the most tempting time to bury oneself in sleep and extend the sleeping period to more than what’s necessary. The problem is that it breaks the routine and in consequence, will let one get less natural sunlight than usual, alter the body temperature and decrease the time when you’re fully awake which will usually result in Sunday insomnia.

If you must ‘catch up’ on sleep, take power naps during the weekend but never sleep over your usual time.

Learning how to sleep well is empowering to the body and the psyche. When you know how to sleep well, mental and emotional development follows.