8 Easy Sleeping Hacks to Get the Best Sleep of Your Life

The average person will spend 26 years of their life asleep. 

But what is even more staggering is that they will spend another 7 years just trying to get to sleep in the first place.

Modern technology has made our lives easier, but also made it harder for us to switch off. Getting a good night’s sleep isn’t always so easy. 

So read on as we take a look at 8 simple sleeping hacks that will have you waking up refreshed every morning after having the best sleep of your life.

1. Stick to the Same Hours

We’ve all stayed in a bed on a Saturday morning in a desperate attempt to try to catch up on missed sleep.

But it turns out that by doing so, you might actually be making things worse. Our bodies have a natural internal body clock that tells us when to go to sleep and when to wake up. If we stay in bed longer than we should, the cycle is thrown out of whack, making it harder to fall asleep at night.

Disrupting your sleep cycle has been linked with obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. The best way to keep your body clock regular is to go to bed at the same time each night and wake at the same time each morning. Even on the weekends.

2. Try to Complete Your Sleep Cycles

Our sleep goes in cycles that include deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep.

These cycles repeat roughly every ninety minutes. And when we wake up in the middle of one of these cycles, we tend to feel much worse than if we wake up at the end of a completed cycle.

Try to plan your sleeping a waking times such that the amount of time you sleep is an exact multiple of 90 minutes. So 9 hours would be perfect, as would 7 and a half hours.

There are now also apps that can monitor your sleep, and wake you when you have completed a full cycle so that you wake up feeling fully refreshed.

3. Give Yourself the Chance to Wind Down

It’s not always easy, but try to give yourself time to wind down before you go to bed.

Go straight from a hectic day to trying to get to sleep is unlikely to work. Take a little time to do something relaxing before you attempt to sleep, to let your body slow down. Read a book, take a bath, or listen to some music to give your brain a chance to stop buzzing.

And try to avoid using your phone or tablet during your wind down. The light that they emit can cause your brain to think that it’s still daytime, and stop the sleep process from starting.

4. Exercise More

A great way to help you to fall asleep more quickly is to do more exercise.

Research has shown that getting a reasonable amount of moderate to vigorous exercise can help you sleep better at night. There appear to be a number of benefits from exercising that help with sleep, including anti-depressant effects and the positive impact on your internal body clock.

But you should refrain from exercising too close to bedtime as your body will require time to cool down before you sleep.

5. Use Light (And Darkness) to Promote Sleep

Before Thomas Edison ruined everything, our sleep cycles were dictated by the sun.

Once electric light became commonplace, our sleep patterns took a hit. Research has shown that the gland that produces the sleep hormone melatonin is affected by ambient light. Darkness triggers the gland to produce more melatonin, which means keeping the lights on at night stops the sleep process from starting effectively.

Make sure that your bedroom is completely dark at night. And that includes steering clear of looking at your phone when you’re in bed.

6. Make Your Bedroom a Nest

We often use our bedrooms for far more than sleep. Many of us watch TV or use laptops or smartphones in bed.

This leads to our brains developing associations with things other than sleep when we climb beneath the sheets. Try to keep your bedroom devoted purely to sleeping, and your body will react accordingly.

In addition, make your bed as comfortable as possible. A supportive mattress and a comfortable pillow such as the memory foam Layla Pillow will ensure that you’re not woken by discomfort in the night.

7. Have a Bath

Just before we fall asleep, our temperature drops. 

We often give children baths before bedtime to help them sleep, and the same can work for adults too. The change in body temperature after a hot bath can mimic the temperature drop we experience before sleep, and help us to fall asleep more easily.

It will also help you to wind down before bed, provided that you don’t spend your entire bath time using your phone.

8. Keep Clear of the Caffeine

Many of us need that jolt of caffeine in the morning to help us start the day.

But take your caffeine hit too late in the day and you may find it much more difficult to fall asleep. The recommendation is to avoid caffeine for the six hours before you go to bed. The reason for this is that caffeine can actually delay the onset of your normal sleep cycle as set by your body clock.

Keeping clear of caffeine isn’t as easy as you might think. Coffee is the obvious culprit, but herbal teas, flavored waters and many sodas also contain significant amounts of caffeine. Avoid these before bed and you should find your sleep improves significantly.

Loved These Sleeping Hacks?

If these sleeping hacks have helped you learn how to sleep better, we’ve got plenty more where that came from.

We have a whole host of weird and wonderful health hacks for you to enjoy, as well as weird news and even weird pictures. We’re sure you’ll find plenty to satisfy your yearnings for all things weird.

Feel free to take a look around.

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