A good night’s sleep is incredibly important. In fact, it’s a crucial factor in living a happy and generally healthy life, with some professionals going as far as to say that it’s just as vital as a balanced diet and regular exercise. Unfortunately, there are many different factors that make it difficult to nod off or even stay asleep when you do. These can leave you tossing, turning, and staring at the ceiling all night. With that in mind, here are six reasons you may struggle to sleep.
That Early Afternoon Coffee
Most of us need a caffeine fix before we can fully function in the morning. However, it could be your cups of tea and coffee keeping you awake at night. While the effects of these drinks peak around an hour after ingesting them, the caffeine can stay in your system a lot longer, keeping you alert for hours. For this reason, it’s best to limit teas and coffees to the time before lunch.
Mess In The Bedroom
Clutter is a major source of stress, and while you may view it as organized chaos, your subconscious does not. This means that, if you have piles of books, clothes, and other junk littering your sleep space, it could stop you from getting a good night’s rest. To remedy this problem, you should clear out any clutter from your room and organized everything else.
The Wrong Bedtime Story
Reading before bed can help to reduce stress, allowing you to drift off much easier. That being said, you do need to choose the right reading material. As interesting as the articles as Human Paragon may be, they can make you think a little too much, keeping your mind active. It’s better to read these and other non-fiction during the day and opt for light-hearted stories at night.
Too Much Light Exposure
Whether it’s coming from your television, cellphone, or a passing headlight outside, light exposure can harm your quantity and quality of sleep. The reason for this is that our bodies are programmed to wake up when there’s light and sleep when it’s dark. Because of this, you should remove sources of light from your sleeping space and use blackout curtains or blinds.
Sharing With Your Pet
Dogs, cats, and other animals don’t follow the same timeline as us humans. They wake up and sleep pretty much whenever they want to. Because of this, they may scratch at your bedroom door, play with their toys, or roll around on the bed while you’re trying to sleep, which, of course, will make it difficult to do so. For this reason, you should consider keeping pets out of your room.
An Inconsistent Sleep Schedule
When you don’t have work to wake up for, it can be tempting to sleep in for an extra hour or four. However, this can cause a lot of problems. The human body runs on cycles, which means that we thrive on routine. If you break your routine to get a little extra kip, it can cost you the next night, by keeping you awake. This means you should stick to a bedtime whatever day of the week it is.
Sleep deprivation can cause a lot of problems, so make sure that you don’t contribute to it by avoiding the mistakes above.
