Last Updated on January 25, 2021
We can all relate to the fact that sleeping is just the best thing ever. Especially when you’re tired, after a long day of work, getting into your pajamas, and rolling inside your comfy warm bed is such a great feeling.
You might have experienced moments in your day where you just dreamed about your bed at home, wishing you were resting in it.
However, we tend to have some bad habits when it’s near bedtime, these habits are the causes of sleep disorders resulting in less quality sleep, increased anxiety, panic attacks and so on.
If you’re wondering what are the habits that ruin your sleep, keep reading so that you can work on them and have your well-deserved beauty sleep.
1. Screen use
This might be one of the most difficult habits to stop doing. But the truth is that screens continue to stimulate our brain when it’s time for sleep.
Screen time at night should be reduced, even if most of us enjoy being in our beds in the dark or under our blankets, watching funny videos or talking to our friends about whatever feels more important than resting.
Try to read before bed instead and stop using electronic devices 20 minutes before you go to bed.
2. Messy sleeping pattern
There’s nothing new here, sleeping patterns can be very off for most of us. When our biological clock, also known as circadian rhythm is messed up with it can lead to some sleep problems. When and why does this happen? Well, maybe we work shifts or like to party 3x a week.
The truth is, most of the population is sleeping at irregular hours and suffers from lack of sleep.
How to fix this? Well, try to reduce your nights out and rest at least 8 hours per night.
3. Caffeine
Caffeine intake is also one habit to remove from our lives, especially at night. Caffeine is bad for sleep since it has the exact opposite effect: keeping you awake.
You might be thinking, “Oh, but I don’t drink coffee.” Well, just because you don’t drink it, doesn’t mean you don’t drink other caffeinated drinks such as energy drinks or tea.
It’s not rocket science; drinking coffee before bed means that you won’t be able to fall asleep as quickly since caffeine causes insomnia and it might also cause some stress and anxiety or even panic attacks, because you feel tired but your brain is not letting you sleep.
4. Unhealthy diet
Studies show that the less junk food you eat, the better you might sleep. Why? Because when you eat unhealthy food you’re not receiving as many vitamins as you would if you were eating healthy food such as fruits and vegetables.
Calcium, magnesium, zinc and A and D are some vitamins that you won’t be getting in your body if you’re just eating Mcdonald’s food and pizza every day. These vitamins are also known to help you sleep better. Healthy body = healthy sleeping habits.
5. Alcohol
The same goes for alcohol. Even though it isn’t a “food” it’s something that’s considered to be unhealthy. Alcohol intake should be reduced as much as possible, if not, it can turn into serious cases of alcohol dependence.
It’s true that for healthy people, alcohol can help fall asleep faster, but what alcohol does to your sleep is that it won’t allow you to rest since it disrupts the second stage of sleep, this is the stage where you start to dream.
So, if you’re constantly waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and suffering from sleep apnea maybe you shouldn’t drink as much.
6. Not working out
If you work out once in a while, you’ll notice how you sleep better, and part of it is because you’re more tired than usual, but it’s also psychological.
Let’s say you don’t work out, but instead of taking the bus to your job, you decide to walk for 10-20m. That’s a simple change that will make you sleep faster and more effectively at night.
Maybe you’re not even feeling tired but because you know you’ve walked for a long time, and you’re not used to it, you’ll unconsciously go to bed earlier and probably won’t even notice it.
7. Dirty bedroom
Don’t you notice that you sleep better when your room is clean? This is partly psychological because when you’re inside a nice, clean room, you feel more balanced and you go to sleep not worrying about how messy your room is.
But at the end of the day, we’re all humans, and sometimes we get home so tired that we just take whatever is on top of the bed and throw it on the floor just so we can rest.
The problem is that happens for a lot of consecutive days, which means at the end of the week your room will be so messy that you feel frustrated and overall in a bad mood just because your room is a mess!
The other part is, if your room is clean, it means you won’t have dusty shelves or dirt around the floor, and for people who are allergic to dust, for example, sleeping in a clean environment helps a lot!
8. Drinking water before bed
Yes, drinking water is good, as long as you do it through the day. When it comes to drinking water before bed, it can actually affect your sleep. Our urine output usually decreases during nighttime.
Which allows us to sleep the whole night, between 6 to 8 hours. That’s why when we wake up after 8h of sleep we feel a light need to pee, but if we sleep for 10h we might wake up with an urgent need to pee. What do you think happens when you drink a glass of water or a whole bottle before you sleep? That’s right, you’ll probably wake up after 4 hours just to go to the bathroom.
Now that you’re aware of all these bad habits you should definitely re-think these life choices and try to give not only your body but also your mind a good rest by preventing future sleep disorders.
