What circumstances and bad habits interfere with healthy sleep?

Lack of sleep is one of the main prob­lems of mod­ern peo­ple. They wake up ear­ly enough and go to bed quite late. A per­son spends 2–3 hours on the way to work and back, then 8–9 hours at work. There is not much time left to spend with fam­i­ly or friends. Smart­phones, com­put­ers and TV view­ing also reduce sleep time. As a result, a sleepy per­son feels over­whelmed, con­cen­trates worse on per­form­ing work tasks, and his risk of devel­op­ing dis­eases increas­es.

What does lack of sleep lead to?

The sleep of adults should last approx­i­mate­ly 6–8 hours. But, unfor­tu­nate­ly, for many this is a lux­u­ry — they are forced to sleep for 4–5 hours for many rea­sons. There are many exam­ples in his­to­ry when such great minds of mankind as Leonar­do da Vin­ci, Niko­la Tes­la or Napoleon slept very lit­tle and were pro­duc­tive and suc­cess­ful.

But the vast major­i­ty of peo­ple’s bod­ies work dif­fer­ent­ly than a few genius­es. It is no coin­ci­dence that lack of sleep is con­sid­ered one of the most sophis­ti­cat­ed tor­tures. Even after one night of lack of sleep, a per­son will feel over­whelmed and lethar­gic. After a few nights, irri­tabil­i­ty appears, and in time a neu­ro­sis may devel­op. Lack of sleep leads to such detri­men­tal con­se­quences for the body as the appear­ance of excess weight and an increased risk of devel­op­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and dia­betes.

As a result of lack of sleep, a per­son eats more because the body needs more ener­gy. As a rule, he prefers to get this ener­gy from eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and harm­ful prod­ucts — pas­tries and con­fec­tionery. Lack of sleep is poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous for those who dri­ve a car, as the risk of acci­dents increas­es due to a decrease in con­cen­tra­tion.

Peo­ple who do not get enough sleep wors­en their appear­ance — bruis­es appear under the eyes, the skin ages faster. More­over, the body’s defens­es also decrease, and the risk of devel­op­ing colds and infec­tious dis­eases increas­es. Lack of sleep con­tributes not only to a busy work sched­ule, but also some bad habits.

Bad habits that interfere with healthy sleep

The ide­al sleep of a per­son should be, first of all, unin­ter­rupt­ed and free from dis­turb­ing thoughts and unnec­es­sary infor­ma­tion received dur­ing the day. But today, not every­one can achieve this. The habit of get­ting acquaint­ed with infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net makes a person’s sleep rest­less and inter­mit­tent, espe­cial­ly if he is seri­ous­ly inter­est­ed in live­ly and emo­tion­al dis­cus­sions on top­i­cal issues of our time. This overex­cites the ner­vous sys­tem and neg­a­tive­ly affects the abil­i­ty to fall asleep.

Oth­er bad habits that inter­fere with rest­ful and relaxed sleep:

• No mode.

Many peo­ple do not fol­low the dai­ly rou­tine. All the same mobile devices, a com­put­er, watch­ing TV shows pre­vent you from falling asleep. There­fore, peo­ple often stay up until 1–2 am, if nec­es­sary, get up at 6–7 am. To get enough sleep, it is rec­om­mend­ed to go to bed no lat­er than 22.00–23.00.

• The use of caf­feine, sug­ar and alco­holic bev­er­ages.

Caf­feine and caf­feinat­ed drinks do not pro­mote healthy sleep. Cof­fee stim­u­lates the body for 12 hours and pre­vents falling asleep. Also false is the claim that alco­hol helps to fall asleep — a per­son can fall asleep, but only for a short time. Sleep­ing unin­ter­rupt­ed under the influ­ence of alco­hol will not work.

• Elec­tric light.

In com­plete dark­ness, mela­tonin is pro­duced, which helps a per­son fall asleep. With elec­tric light­ing, and even if there is a work­ing TV or com­put­er, a per­son will con­stant­ly wake up and will not be able to sleep with­out a break.

• Watch­ing TV.

TV is just as bad as a com­put­er. Before falling asleep, a per­son can “digest” the infor­ma­tion received for a long time, not being able to fall asleep. There­fore, it is nec­es­sary to stop using the TV, com­put­er or smart­phone approx­i­mate­ly 2 hours before falling asleep.

To sleep sound­ly and unin­ter­rupt­ed, it is nec­es­sary not only to “turn off” all neg­a­tive thoughts, but also to choose the right bed­ding and adjust the tem­per­a­ture in the room.

How to make a person’s sleep healthier

Often a per­son can­not fall asleep for a long time, not only because of stress dur­ing the day, but also because of bad habits. The ide­al con­di­tions for falling asleep are com­plete silence and dark­ness. It is also advis­able to turn off all elec­tri­cal appli­ances from the net­work, since the blue, red or green light has an excit­ing effect on the ner­vous sys­tem.

The tem­per­a­ture in the room should not be high­er or low­er than 20–25 degrees. There­fore, it is dif­fi­cult for a per­son to fall asleep in a room that is too stuffy or too cold. In addi­tion, bed linen, mat­tress and pil­low must com­ply with the state of human health — mus­cle clamps do not con­tribute to relax­ation and lead to pain in the back and joints.

Watch­ing TV and read­ing infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net can be replaced by read­ing books. Of course, these should not be thrillers or action-packed detec­tive sto­ries. It is best to read some­thing sooth­ing or lis­ten to relax­ing music. Those who have mas­tered med­i­ta­tion skills will find it eas­i­er to set them­selves up for a pos­i­tive and rest­ful sleep.

Prop­er nutri­tion also helps you sleep well. There­fore, before going to bed, it is not rec­om­mend­ed to drink cof­fee or oth­er invig­o­rat­ing drinks, and also eat too heavy food, such as fried meat. High-calo­rie and fat­ty foods can have a neg­a­tive effect on the gas­troin­testi­nal tract. A glass of milk or herbal tea helps to fall asleep well.

Stress and prob­lems dur­ing the day reduce the abil­i­ty to fall asleep. Quar­rels, con­flicts, resent­ment against oth­ers — all this leads to ner­vous shocks and anx­i­ety, which can be quite dif­fi­cult to cope with. But late in the evening it is impos­si­ble to solve all prob­lems, and the ner­vous sys­tem suf­fers. There­fore, to main­tain health, it is impor­tant to learn how to relax prop­er­ly and try to avoid unnec­es­sary excit­ing fac­tors.

With insom­nia, folk reme­dies help, for exam­ple, aro­mat­ic oils with ver­be­na or laven­der extract. Today, phar­ma­cies also sell spe­cial pads with dried herbs. They can be put next to you before falling asleep.

The abil­i­ty to fall asleep cor­rect­ly and observe the dai­ly rou­tine is one of the main con­di­tions for main­tain­ing a person’s activ­i­ty, work­ing capac­i­ty and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. If he sleeps for a suf­fi­cient amount of time, goes to bed and gets up on time, then his qual­i­ty of life will be much bet­ter.