How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep
During sleep, the body undergoes an essential recovery process both physically and mentally. The functional agencies slow down gradually and enter the state of “rest”. Muscles relax, hormones are regulated, while the brain focuses on “information processing” to create a long-term memory. Besides, mental health also improved. Sleeping on time, enough hours also helps you have a healthy body, joyful spirit and prolong life.
Lack of sleep often makes the body tired, the mind sluggish, memory decline affects the quality of life and work. In the long run, your immune system, heart health, and mental health are all affected.
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BEAUTY SLEEP
Our body has a miraculous ability to heal itself and is also a fountain of youth that no other medicine can compare. When sleeping, the body secretes growth hormone (HGH), which promotes cell regeneration, stimulates collagen production to help skin become tighter, smoother and minimize wrinkles. If you don’t get enough sleep, your skin doesn’t have enough time to store enough water so that it can become weak, less smooth. Besides staying up late, lack of sleep is also a factor causing acne.
One of the most obvious signs of sleep deprivation is raccoon eyes. When you lack sleep, eyelids swell due to water retention in the soft tissues around the eyes, blood vessels around the eyes constrict, stimulating hyperpigmentation to form dark circles.
How long is enough sleep
An adult needs an average of 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day. Many people believe that sleeping a lot makes you fat. Sleeping too much (more than 9 hours a day) affects brain cognition, memory loss, weight gain, and decreased fertility. However, less sleep can also make you gain weight. A study in the US of more than 21,000 healthy adults over 3 years found that those who slept less than 5 hours a day were more likely to gain weight than those who slept an average of 7 hours a day.
DEEP SLEEP
Besides getting enough hours of sleep, getting deep, uninterrupted sleep is also extremely important. It would help if you built yourself a routine, regular bedtime and wake up at the same time to give your body the best rest. According to sleep expert Shawn Stevenson, the best time to sleep should be between 10 pm and 6 am to follow the body’s natural circadian rhythm.
Besides, minimizing the use of electronic devices in the evening also helps you sleep more accessible and more profound. The modern lifestyle has made us too familiar with watching TV, using the phone in the evening before sleeping. However, this dramatically affects the quality of sleep. Scientific studies generally show that light inhibits the production of melatonin, the hormone that affects the body’s circadian rhythm to help you sleep. Of all types of light, blue light from electronic devices such as televisions, computers, and phones has the most significant and most disturbing effect. According to a Harvard study, blue light suppresses melatonin twice as long and alters circadian rhythms twice as long as a green light. There are now many applications for computers and phones to reduce the effects of blue light. Apple fans can use night mode (Night Shift) on phones and Macbooks without installing additional external applications.
Besides electronics, white light LEDs also emit a significant amount of blue light. Therefore, you should choose yellow light and limit turning on lights when sleeping because turning on lights also negatively impacts young people. When you do not sleep long enough and not deep enough, the body cannot produce enough growth hormone HGH, thereby affecting the growth of the body, especially height.
BALANCE OF LIFE
Regular exercise not only brings a healthy body but also helps you sleep better. If you are experiencing stress at work, anxiety in life, find balance through activities that can connect the body and mind like meditation, yoga or pilates. Spend 30 minutes to 1 hour a day to connect with yourself, find balance, calm down, put aside your worries so you can sleep better. SUITABLE DIET
“You are what you eat.” If you’re having trouble managing your sleep, adjusting your diet will help you fall asleep more quickly and sleep better. In addition to limiting caffeine-containing foods such as tea and coffee, you should also limit eating too late or too full at dinner. Research shows that young people who eat about 3 hours before going to bed are more likely to wake up in the middle of the night than those who eat dinner 3 hours earlier.
Do you know why people often recommend drinking a cup of warm milk or eating a banana when it is difficult to sleep in foreign countries? Dairy products, bananas, and honey contain tryptophan, an amino acid that helps produce melatonin and Serotonin. While melatonin helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle, Serotonin is a hormone that helps regulate mood, reduce pain, and sleep.
Besides tryptophan, magnesium and vitamin B also support sleep regulation, especially for difficulty sleeping. Magnesium helps inhibit the hormone cortisol as well as reduce swelling, thereby supporting sleep. If you’re a vegetarian or don’t like dairy products, you can get melatonin and magnesium from nuts, especially almonds. 30g of almonds provides more than 20% of the essential magnesium for the body. In addition to almonds, walnuts are rich in omega-three and fatty acids like alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) that promote serotonin production to help you fall asleep.
Like me, a tea drinker, a cup of honey chamomile tea will help you sleep better. Chamomile tea not only contains flavones that are good for the cardiovascular system but also contains apigenin. This antioxidant can bind to particular receptors in the brain to increase feelings of sleepiness and help sleep.
AROMATHERAPY
Aromatherapy, also known as aromatherapy, is one of the methods to help the mind relax, fall asleep more quickly and sleep better. You can use aromatherapy to support sleep from burning oils, essential oils for nebulizers or scents sprayed on sheets and pillows. Among the aromas that help you sleep, at the top of the list is lavender. The smell of lavender helps lower your heart rate, aids in sedation and puts you to sleep faster. One of the most famous lavender scents to help sleep better is Deep Sleep Pillow Spray by this works. The combination of lavender, vetiver and chamomile brings a pleasant, deep, but not an overpowering scent that lulls you to deep sleep.
Although I don’t like the smell of lavender, I like the Sleep line of Neom, an organic cosmetics company from London. Sleep is a line of products that combines 14 essential oils, including English lavender, chamomile and patchouli, forming a lavender fragrance that is cleaner, clearer and brighter than Deep Sleep Pillow Spray by Deep Sleep Pillow Spray. This works. I always have a bottle of Slee essential oil and Neom’s Perfect Night’s Sleep Pillow Spray in my bedroom.
You may not know, lavender of different regions has different scents. If British lavender is a bit strong, a little green, French lavender is softer and warmer. That’s the lavender in Votary’s Rest Your Head Pillow Spray. Lavender essential oil blends with rose and chamomile essential oils for a luxurious and sophisticated scent.
SLEEP IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Technology is a double-edged sword. It can prevent you from falling asleep, but it can also help you get a good night’s sleep. Smartwatches from Fitbit to Apple Watch can “track” sleep, from how long you sleep to how deeply you sleep. From there, you can take notes to adjust your bedtime accordingly.
In addition, air purifiers can also help improve sleep quality. For people with high allergies, easy coughing, itchy eyes, itchy throat and difficulty falling asleep, the air purifier will remove potentially allergenic factors such as dust, pollen, smoke, and so on. Not only does it reduce health risks, but it also helps you sleep better. Dyson’s intelligent air cleaners are known for their modern design and top-notch performance in the most premium and newly launched market. Standard HEPA filter removes 99.95% of allergens. You can choose the Dyson Pure Cool Me; But for open space or a more oversized master bedroom, you’ll need a more extensive version like the Purifier Cool.
