8-Simple Tips for Getting Into a Healthy Sleep Routine This Month

8-Simple Tips for Getting Into a Healthy Sleep Routine This Month

Sleep is like a good mattress—you never realize how good it is until you don’t have it. Interrupted sleep can be extremely frustrating for both children and adults. Not only can it leave you grouchy and fatigued for your day, but it can affect children’s mental development and behavioral psyche.

 Waking up a few times in the middle of the night or tossing and turning can be small indications that you need to work on yours or your child’s sleeping patterns. There are some studies done to show when exactly the line has crossed for stunting growth. Whether you or someone in your family is at an unhealthy sleeping pattern or not, getting into a healthy sleep routine should be a priority.

 1.  Sleep Habits

You can create sleep habits for yourself and your children, you can even start this with newborn children. This goes beyond just having a bedtime. Make sure a routine for getting ready for bed is set and the environment is the same every night. Getting ready, playing a song and turning on white noise and dimmed lights are a great example of this. Once the brain follows a sleep pattern, it will be harder to break.

 2.  Understand your Circadian Rhythm

Your Circadian Rhythm is your body’s internal clock. It works with your hypothalamus to help determine when it is dark out, that usually means sleep. Every person’s rhythm is different, but what stays the same is the factor of sunlight. Direct sunlight during the day will help trigger your body to be more adapted to light when you are supposed to be awake, then when that is taken away, you or your children’s body will want to sleep.

 3.  Decrease Blue Light

In conjunction with Circadian Rhythm, blue lights like phone and laptop screens and any form of artificial light are extremely bad for your sleep. Especially if you expose yourself or your family to them at night, which most normal humans do. Try to limit your body’s exposure to any light around bedtime, especially artificial as there are negative health aspects.

4.  Fix Your Noisy House

If you have any home repairs that may be causing excess background noise, they can help to eliminate random noise interruptions. For example, a noisy HVAC system, a large fan or a congested ice maker could be repaired to stop abrupt noise making in the middle of the night.

 5.  Room Temperature

You may think that you like to be chilly or warm when you sleep, but your body says otherwise. Adjust your room to be between specifically 60 and 67 degrees. This is the best and most natural feeling temperature for sleeping conditions.

 6.  Exercise

Exercise helps regulate the body’s temperature and makes you tired at the end of the day. For your body to feel at home and at ease to rest deeply, you can try to tire yourself or your child out in a very natural and healthy way.

 7.   Lavender

If you really want to get into a healthy sleep routine, get lavender. You can get lavender plants, lavender lotion, lavender sheets, and lavender pillowcases. Lavender is going on everything to help people sleep. It is a natural plant that helps lower your body’s otherwise heightened actions. For instance, blood pressure and heart rate can be lowered with the aroma of lavender. Once your body is calmed and de-stressed, it is much easier to sleep.

 8.   Change Your Bedroom

This may seem obvious but: change your sheets and mattresses or even where your bed is placed. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Change something in your sleep habit, your once comfortable mattress may have had its time and your body needs something different- listen to it.

 *** Written for Meridian Counseling by Amanda Turner. Amanda Turner is a freelance writer and recent graduate who is exploring her passions through writing.