You probably didn’t need us to tell you that you’re not at your best when you don’t get enough sleep. Whether it’s waking up feeling groggy, experiencing brain fog and having trouble focusing throughout the day, general irritability or plain old exhaustion, it’s obvious to us all that when we aren’t getting good quality sleep, we just don’t feel right.
The science also backs up those gut feelings (speaking of gut feelings — we’ll discuss that later). Sleep is an essential component of the human body’s natural function. From the very first days when we’re born right throughout our lives, we need uninterrupted, deep sleep for hours at a time to keep our cognitive function, mental well-being and physical health in check. In the long run, sleep deprivation is detrimental to our health. The culprit for broken sleep can often be tracked down to seemingly unrelated causes such as indigestion and bloating.
Why is better sleep important?
During sleep, our body receives signals to heal, rest, and recuperate for the next day. Rest is a valuable tool for healing and boosting the immune system if we're recovering from an illness or injury. Sleep helps us recover from everyday muscle strain or after a big gym session and allows for healthy skin cell turnover — responsible for giving us that youthful, glowy complexion. Even with the best skin regime, your face will look lined and tired without sufficient sleep.
While sleep scientists don’t know the full function and extent of the importance of dreams, neurological studies have proven that, at the very least, dreaming is a way our brains catalogue and store the events of the day, create memories, and process thoughts and feelings in our subconscious and unconscious minds.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, sensitive or snappy after not getting enough sleep, chances are you’re not at your peak physically, and you haven’t given yourself adequate space to process and deal with the emotions that come with living life.
What causes bad sleep?
If you’re consistently falling short when it comes to getting good and plentiful sleep, there are lots of potential culprits, including:
- A busy schedule that is high in stress
- A hectic bedroom environment that isn’t relaxing
- Bad sleep hygiene habits
- Not enough physical activity and bright light exposure during the day
- Caring for teething, breastfeeding or young children with irregular sleep patterns
- Bad problems or other chronic pain conditions
- Digestive issues like general bloating or abdominal bloating
- Toothache or headaches
- Bad dreams and sleep anxiety
Some of these issues are easier to fix than others — your babies won’t be teething or waking up for feeds forever, but this is bound to interrupt your cycle in the short term! Other factors, like bloating, a poor environment for going to sleep or feeling stressed and anxious about getting enough shut-eye, are more within your control.
There are ways to tackle the challenge of getting better sleep at night, and once you start to look at the individual factors in your life and how you can minimise the ones you have control over, you’ll soon start to feel a difference. If you’re ready to start enjoying the benefits of better sleep, check out our eight tips for boosting bedroom downtime.
8 tips to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep
You might find that all of these tips apply to your life or only some of them. Either way, if you can start to make changes and improvements to your lifestyle that support better sleep habits, your body will thank you.
1. Cut the screen time before bed
This is the first tip on our list because it’s often the hardest. We’re all habituated to staring at screens for most of our day, and most people work jobs requiring plenty of computer-facing time that’s simply unavoidable. Because of this, we need to reduce the amount of screen time in our personal lives, especially before bed. While you might feel like watching your favourite TV show as you fall asleep is relaxing and calming, scientifically, we know that this actually provides the opposite effect. Screens are backlit using blue light — a spectrum of light waves that confuses our body into thinking it’s daytime. By swapping out your phone, tablet or TV for a book, you’re giving your body a chance to adjust into ‘nighttime mode’, and you’ll have a better sleep quality.
2. Take a holistic approach
We’re often in the habit of treating different tasks as totally separate in our lives, but in reality, peaceful sleep, exercise, work and family responsibilities are all interconnected. By taking a holistic approach to all aspects of your life, getting enough physical exercise and reducing digestive and gut issues with bloating supplements, you’re more likely to get off to sleep and enjoy deeper sleep cycles too.
3. Treat daytime and nighttime differently
As much as you can, it’s important to differentiate day and night to help your body adjust to its natural circadian and diurnal clock. Make sure you get plenty of exposure to bright light and sunshine during the day, which gives your body the sign to be alert and awake. Dim your lights and switch to more relaxing tasks before bed, allowing the darkness outside to get your body ready for sleep.
4. Swap out caffeine late in the day
If you’ve fallen prey to the temptation of an afternoon or evening coffee, this is almost certainly making it harder to fall asleep. Try swapping out your java for a lower in caffeine green tea, caffeine-free herbal tea, or even a soothing gut-friendly tonic like kombucha — which can mitigate bloating. PM caffeine boosts mess with your sleep cycle.
5. Reduce daily stress
OK, sure — this is easier said than done. Our daily lives can often become stressful very quickly, but there are small things you can do to reduce stress. Turning off work notifications in your free time and the evenings can help you wind down at night, as can taking vitamin supplements to reduce long-term stress.
6. Set up a routine
As much as we might like to pretend we aren’t creatures of nature with all of our modern conveniences, the human body is still very much ruled by its circadian and diurnal rhythms — this is the way our minds and bodies respond to our environment; most notably by making us feel active during the day and more restful at night.
If we resist or fight against these rhythms, our sleep doesn’t just suffer — our waking hours do too. To get that fresh morning feeling and motivation, we need to tackle the day ahead and set up a routine that signals to our body when it’s sleep time; it might be reading in low light, doing a face mask, or listening to a calming playlist — whatever works for you.
7. Revisit your bedroom basics
If you have an aching back or stiff neck when you lie down, it might be time to invest in a new mattress or pillow that better suits your sleep style.
8. Don’t overthink it
Last but not least, if you have a bad night’s sleep or experience a midnight interruption that wakes you up, remember it’s not the end of the world! Sleep is a tricky habit to get right, and most of us struggle with having a perfect sleep all the time. Try to enjoy the sensation of relaxing and unwinding before bedtime, and leave the rest up to your body.
Australian NaturalCare — helping you to live well every day
At Australian NaturalCare, we’re passionate about giving Aussies the remedies they need to live life to the fullest. Read more tips about how you can improve your overall health and wellness, or get in touch to find out more about our sleep-improving supplements and healthy vitamins.
