Have you ever wondered why you can sleep easily and quickly at night and sometimes not? Are you pondering, “What should I do and do not do before going to Sleep?” If so, the following write-up will help you understand how your pre-sleep habits can impact your rest.
“A peaceful night’s sleep begins with the right habits before bed.”
Sleeping is one of the most important parts of our daily routine. After a long, busy, and hectic day, sleep helps our body and mind to calm and relax and recharge to be ready for the next day. But have you ever thinks that to sleep well, it’s important to follow some habits before going to bed. Several habits can help us to sleep easily and ensure that we wake up feeling refreshed.
Now, let’s get straight to the point and explore some pre-sleep habits, things we should, and things we should avoid before goint to sleep.
Importance of Pre-Sleep Habits
Before exploring what to do and what not to do before going to bed, let’s take a moment to understand why these habits are so important.
Think about it—have you ever had a night when you found yourself unable to fall asleep easily, even if you were tired? Or did you wake up feeling more tired than when you went to bed? If so! Read further to understand how pre-sleep habits play a huge role in how well we rest.
Our body has a natural rhythm that is known as the circadian rhythm. It helps us feel awake during the day and sleepy at night. When we follow the right bedtime habits, then this way, we are giving the right signals to our mind that it’s time to relax and sleep. But, if we do things—like watching movies late at night, drinking beverages that contain high amounts of caffeine late in the day, or other activities that we should avoid before sleep. Then, it can mess with that rhythm, resulting in feeling harder to sleep well or not a refreshed wake-up.
Therefore, we should take a little time to establish a perfect bedtime routine as it can greatly impact how rested and refreshed we feel in the morning.
I hope you now understand the importance of Pre-Sleep Habits. Now, let’s dive into what habits we should adopt and which ones to avoid before going to sleep.
5 Things to Do Before Going to Sleep
In order to rest and sleep well, we must follow certain processes to prepare for sleep. Here are some tips to help you enter the sleep phase smoothly.
Note: Reserve the last 30 to 60 minutes before your bedtime routine to do the following things that will prepare you for a quality sleep.
Set a Schedule and Stick to It:
The first thing you should do before going to sleep is to establish a routine with a clear schedule for going to sleep and waking up.
Preparing a schedule helps the body to sleep at a certain time and to start relaxing when that time comes, but it is also important to have enough time to sleep (at least 8 hours) and to wake up on time. So that you can be able to do everything you have planned for the day. If you are not able to fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed, it is recommended that you get out of bed and do something else that can relax you. Because staying in bed will only make you more frustrated, resulting in making it harder to fall asleep.
But, for this to work, you have to stick to the schedule you made. Having a schedule is useless if you don’t follow and respect it.
Set a Proper Time for Dinner & Choose What to Eat:
Eat your dinner at least two hours before going to bed. Make sure that what you eat for dinner should be light and always eat slowly to help digestion. Prefer eating foods like— vegetables, soups, cereals and dairy products. Avoid eating heavy dinners such as coffee, chocolates, alcohol, fried foods, or fast foods.
Do Some Exercise
Proven by science that exercising at night is good for you and can help you sleep easily and relax. But make sure that your workout session should end at least an hour before you go to sleep. Moreover, you should avoid doing very intense or difficult workouts right before bed; it might make it harder for you to relax and fall asleep. Instead of helping you sleep, it can have the opposite effect on what you want.
You can try to go for a swim, walk a little after your dinner, run a little and do exercises like yoga, which can help you calm and relax your body and mind.
Start Doing Bedtime Yoga
One more thing that you can do before going to sleep is “Bedtime Yoga.” Doing this can be a great way to help you relax and prepare your body and mind for a restful night’s sleep. Performing Yoga Asanas before bed can directly improve the quality of your sleep by calming both your body and mind.
Some effective poses you can try are— Viparita Karani Asana, Baddha Konasana, Savasana, Cat stretch, Legs up the wall, Supta Matsyendrasana, Uttanasana, and Balasana. These poses can help to release any tension in your muscles and relax your nervous system. Moreover, doing this regularly can also help reduce stress and anxiety, which often interfere with sleep.
Take a Hot Shower
Taking a hot/warm shower bath can also be a great way to relieve the tiredness of the day and relax the body. You can take a warm bath for 5-10 minutes before going to bed. The warm water helps to soothe your muscles, calm your mind, and relax your body, creating the perfect environment for a restful night’s sleep. This will help you a lot in getting good sleep.
5 Things You Should Never Do Before Going to Sleep
In order to rest and sleep, here are some tips you should avoid before going to sleep.
Busy or Stressful Activities
The first thing you should never do before going to sleep is— You should not go to bed and look at your mobile phone, watch reels, prefer late-night chatting, think about how your whole day has gone, or overthink your problems. Definitely, it is difficult to come out of your daily routine. But if you manage to distract yourself from these things before going to bed, sleep will come more quickly and will be much more restful.
Eating Late at Night
If you eat snacks late at night, your body continues to digest the food even after you fall asleep. The digestion process after you fall asleep gives you more energy. This extra energy can make it harder for you to fall asleep, it can also disrupt your sleep at midnight. Therefore, to avoid this, it’s best to finish eating at least two hours before going to bed. This gives your body enough time to digest the food and helps you relax, making it easier to fall asleep quickly.
Drinking Coffee
If you want to maintain a proper sleeping schedule for yourself, then you should not drink coffee or any other drink containing caffeine. A cup of coffee contains anywhere from 80 to 120 milligrams of caffeine per cup. And this habit could disturb your sleep. The reason behind this is— Caffeine can stay in our body for up to 8-12 hours. Even if you drink coffee in the afternoon, then that is also too close to bedtime for a better sleep.
It’s not that you shouldn’t drink coffee at all; try to drink less of it and don’t make it a daily habit. Also, avoid drinking it just before bedtime if you want to sleep easily on time.
Don’t Drink Alcohol
If you drink alcohol, then prefer not to drink it before going to sleep. Although alcohol may initially make you feel drowsy and help you fall asleep faster, it can significantly disrupt the natural sleep cycle. Even if you sleep for a long duration, the quality of your sleep may be poor, leaving you feeling tired and unrefreshed in the morning. Therefore, to ensure better sleep quality, it’s advisable to avoid alcohol, especially close to bedtime.
Napping Late in the Day
Although short naps during the day can be refreshing, taking long or late-afternoon naps can directly affect nighttime sleep. It can make it hard to fall asleep at night because it disrupts your body’s natural sleep cycle, reduces your “sleep drive” by providing sleep too close to bedtime, and makes it harder to feel tired when you actually want to sleep at night. If you want to nap, keep it earlier in the day and not for long hours.
Final Verdict!
In summary, good pre-sleep habits are key to opening a door for a restful and quality night’s sleep. Stick to a regular sleep schedule, eating light meals, doing light exercises 2 hours before sleep, doing bedtime yoga, and taking a warm shower can help you relax before bed. On the other hand, make sure to avoid the aforementioned things that can disrupt your sleep cycle and make it harder for you to sleep daily at the same time. By following these simple habits, you can improve your sleep quality and wake up feeling refreshed.
