Creating the right bedtime routine and environment is essential for a good night’s sleep. If you’ve been asking yourself “How can I get a better night’s sleep?” this article will share 9 tips on how to sleep better at night. Good sleep is key to maintaining your health, energy and focus. If you feel tired all the time, struggle to fall asleep or feel fatigued regularly, these tips for better sleep will help improve your sleep quality so you can wake feeling more energised and productive.
Why is sleep important?
Sleep is important because it impacts your mindset and well-being. Sleep also plays an important role in your physical health, Good sleep improves energy, creativity and productivity. Ongoing sleep deficiency can lead to fatigue, feeling tired all the time, and other health related problems.
A good night’s sleep is important because it enables you to recharge and rejuvenate and helps the body to repair itself to take on the challenges of daily life.
What are 5 benefits of sleep
Here are 5 benefits of a good night’s sleep:
- Sleep reduces stress levels
- Sleep improves your memory and focus
- Sleep helps you maintain your weight
- Sleep makes you more productive
- Sleep can lower your blood pressure
9 proven tips to sleep better at night
Here are 9 proven tips to sleep better at night.
1. Make good sleep a priority
If you want to sleep better at night, it all starts with being intentional about having a good night’s sleep, and making it a priority. There are so many other things that compete for your time.
Your work, your family, your friends, staying connected, staying fit, entertainment. Sleep can often drop further and further down your list of priorities.
If you commit to getting 8 hours a night, and making it as important as your other priorities, you will notice a dramatic shift in your clarity, energy, focus and creativity.
2. Cut out the technology
Cutting out the technology will help you sleep better at night. Many of us struggle to switch off from our smart phones or tablets at night, keeping our phone on a bedside table or at least in the bedroom.
We check for notifications or respond to emails rather than just unplugging and winding down before sleep.
If it’s not smart phones many of us have a television in our room and we are catching up on the latest Netflix series before we switch off the light.
Wakefulness is often triggered by blue light that emanates from a computer or smartphone screen which can affect the rhythm of your sleep.
Try this.
Leave your smart phone or tablet in another room. Decide on a time to stop emailing and being on social media before you turn off the light.
3. Go to sleep at the same time each day
Creating a consistent bedtime routine can help you sleep better at night. Try choosing the same time to go to sleep and wake up each day. By doing this, we build up a routine to to go to bed and wake up at the same time.
Try being consistent with having a specific go to bed and wake up time for seven days and see the impact it creates in your life.
4. Make sure you wind down your day slowly
Don’t go to sleep when your energy levels are high or your mind is racing. Give yourself some time to wind down your day slowly before turning out the light.
If your mind is racing it can make you stay awake, tossing and turning.
So, take 45 minutes to just calm the mind and body before getting into bed. To help you decompress try drinking hot tea with honey, journaling or meditating.
Slow everything down to give yourself the best chance of a good night’s sleep. If that doesn’t work pick up a book and read for 15 minutes.
5. Stop working at night
There can be a blurred line between when work stops and ‘home life’ begins.
For many of us we don’t step through the door in the evening until 7 or 8.
We may have additional work to complete or emails to send. We want to spend time with the people that matter most but the challenge is fitting it all in
Commit to creating a better work-life balance to help you focus on rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. To do this, the best course of action is to give yourself a specific time to stop working.
If you decide that time is 8pm stick to it and don’t answer any emails or do additional work.
If you’re lying in bed working or worrying about something you think you should be doing, then this will massively effect your ability to get 8 hours of shut eye.
6. Create an optimal sleep environment
Make having a good night’s sleep an experience that you really look forward to, rather than something you have to do.
Invest in a new mattress or new pillows. Adjust the temperature in your room or have lighter/heavier duvets so you’re not waking up in the night being too hot or cold.
Have crisp, clean sheets on the bed. Burn some candles and dim the lights as you wind down.
Many of us have a playlist for working out or running.
Create a playlist of relaxing, soothing music that will help calm the mind before sleep.
Think of a time or place when you were most relaxed and think about how you can create that environment in your bedroom.
Create an environment and experience that makes you feel relaxed and calm.
7. Keep your mind clear
To create the perfect harmony of mind and body, try taking everything that’s running around your mind and get it down on paper.
Journaling is a great tool to clear your mind and get your thoughts and ideas down on paper. Try sitting for 15 minutes and just writing.
Write down your worries, goals and thoughts. Clear your internal inbox so to speak.
By quieting down that internal chatter you are in the right frame of mind to experience to drop off quickly.
8. Express gratitude before you turn off the light
A calm mind and body leads to a better night’s sleep. To help you achieve this, give yourself 5 minutes to give thanks for the day.
Whatever has happened or you’ve achieved during the day, step back, reflect on it and be grateful. Giving thanks will help ensure that you don’t fall asleep worrying.
You will be positive, thankful and tranquil rather than have a negative, worried mind.
Try this. Choose a minimum of 3 things to be grateful for every night and spend a calm 5 minutes reflecting on why you’re grateful for them. Read more about how to practice gratitude.
9. Create a bedtime routine
There is so much evidence of the benefits of creating a morning routine and examples on how to do it.
But what if you could multiply that benefit?
Try this.
Spend 15-20 minutes in the hour before you go to sleep planning out the next day.
Be clear on the specific things you want to achieve.
Get specific about what the Number One thing is you want to focus on.
Tie this tool in with showing gratitude and you will set yourself up for a great sleep.
The bottom line
Learning how to sleep better at night can make you healthier, more productive and more creative. These 10 tips will help you stop feeling tired all the time and give you more energy in the morning.
Give them a try and let me know how you get on.
Learning how to get better shut eye could transform your life if you make that commitment.
Now I’d love to hear from you
What your top tip for sleeping better at night?
Let me know in the comments.
About the Author
Mark Pettit is a small business coach to business owners who want to simplify their time, energy and focus so they can multiply their freedom, impact and results.
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