Six Summer Sleeping Tips

Alter Your Diet

Sleeping can be difficult all year round with an incorrect diet and summer simply builds on this and makes it even more tough, so for a lot of people its summer that makes them realise maybe they need to change things around slightly and improve their diet. Everything you eat or drink through the day has a positive or negative effect on your body and some of these affects can build on your restlessness or alertness such as sugars and caffeine. Then there is the simple fact that eating and drinking a lot before bed can make you feel bloated and weighed down, this heavy feeling can significantly work against you when you’re trying to get a good night’s sleep.

Alcohol is another huge part of trying to sleep at night as drinking before bed may make you feel sleepy in the short run but in the longer term can lead to restless sleep and in turn make you more tired in the morning. Avoiding alcohol means that your body will be able to completely shut down during the night-time and not have to focus on fighting the affects of alcohol, which is the main reason why your body will not shut down properly after drinking.

Another huge impact on your sleep is caffeine; things such as fizzy drinks, coffee and other caffeine related foods and drinks could have a huge affect on your sleep quality. Caffeine its self works through blocking Adenosine which in turn prevents you being able to sleep properly and keeps you awake, sleeping with caffeine in your system is possible, however you won’t be able to reach a deep sleep state and in turn can feel just as tied in the morning as you did the night before.

Many research studies have concluded that you should not consume caffeine after 2PM if you want to be able to sleep as deeply as possible in the night-time. However, this information is misleading as different people have different tolerances and sleeping patterns, therefore as long as you do not consume caffeine within 5 hours of going to bed, you should be fine.

Lose the Phone

Going on your phone in bed before you sleep is a huge mistake as it has a range of drawbacks in terms of keeping you up in the night after you have placed your phone down. The sounds and vibrations of keeping your phone near your bed in the night can significantly disturb your sleep and wake you up in the night. Then there’s the lighting up of the phone in the night, once the phone lights up you may wonder who it is or what it says and for a lot of people this will pester them until they view their phone, in turn preventing them sleeping. However, the main two reasons your phone keeps you awake before you go to bed are the light on your phone and the addiction;

Firstly, there is the melatonin levels being dropped by the light emitted from the phones, this in turn means that looking at your phone can physically stop you feeling tired and you will not sleep as well when you put it down for at least ten minutes. This may seem not that bad but taking ten minutes extra to fall asleep and having a less deep sleep can put huge impact on your day when you awaken.  Then secondly, there is the “one last check” of social media, emails and texts before bed. These final checks can sometimes go on for hours when you find something interesting and move from one  social media platform onto the next until you realise the time and have to sleep. Trying to keep your phone away from your bed and only accessing it when you are out of bed eliminates this problem.

Bedroom Aspects

Your general bedroom layout goes a long way in being able to support your night’s sleep. The most important thing you can do in your bedroom layout is to close the blinds and sure that your blinds are shut and of a high enough quality to fit the window entirely and not let any light through; poor quality blinds are a thinner material and in turn light can still penetrate into your room.

Then it is important to position your beds properly, place your bed in a common middle ground in your room with approximately the same distance between the windows and the radiator. This will ensure there is neutral and non-overwhelming temperature, whilst also giving you a little space to be able to move your bed either way on a particularly hot or cold night.

Tire Yourself

Tiring yourself out through the day is key aspect of achieving a good night’s sleep as you would have used your energy through the day and your body will begin to relax as soon as you lie down with your head on the pillow. This high level of relaxation should help you be able to get to sleep very quickly and reach a high depth of sleep very efficiently leaving your feeling great in the morning.  Try to exercise in the day time and not within 2 hours of going to bed will significantly aid your efforts as your body needs time to cool down and return to a relaxed state before bed to be able to efficiently drift off when you hit the pillow and not be to warm.

Maintaining a consistent bedtime is another way to tire yourself out. Once you work out how much sleep you need in the night, try to maintain a bed time schedule as much as possible to be able to keep you waking up on time and wide awake, before being awake through the day and tired again by the time it comes to sleeping. A very easy and effortless way to ensure a great nights sleep.

Cool the Room

Cooling the room before you sleep can be a very great way to fall asleep in both the summer and the winter. In the summer, cooling your room can be refreshing and in turn make you feel a lot more comfortable in your room; then in the winter, you can cool the room to feel more cosy and comfortable under the sheets and in turn allow you to drift off quicker in bed.

If you have a fan in your room that does not cool you down enough, then there is always the option of placing water and ice in front of the fan to ensure its cold air being wafted around the room. Then if this simply is not enough, there is always the option of buying an air conditioning unit to be able to cool the air in your bedroom and enable a comfortable sleep.

Opening the windows and doors in your bedroom can create a cross draft to be able to aid your attempts of bringing the room temperature down and in turn allow you a better night’s sleep, try to ensure you don’t leave things blocking the room of the cross draft if you can. For example, in the night open your blinds and move any furniture blocking the doorway. Although it is not the best idea if you are a light sleeper, it is an alternative to the fan or air con.

Change Your Bedding Around

It is always a good idea to constantly change your bed around, especially in the summer time. Things such as changing your underlay to something thinner, changing your quilt to a lower tog or just sleeping in a sheet should always be considered. It is also a good idea to get thinner pillows so that you do not sink into the pillows and they do not have as much heat within them. The small things like this go a long way in the bedroom to dramatically change the temperature and in turn make it a lot more comfortable to sleep in for you.

If you want to be able to change your sheet around for something thinner and more comfortable this summer, come and take a look at our range of bedding here at LongBeds.