10 Sleep Hygiene Tips for Baddies
This one is a little off the cuff- but it's necessary. Baddies need to sleep because you can’t be a baddie if you are tired and your brain isn’t functioning at its best. Over the past few months, I’ve really honed into my sleep by examining the amount of caffeine and alcohol I consume, curating my nighttime and morning routines, and eliminating as many stress triggers as possible.
The older I get, the more I come to value my sleep. I need to get 7-8 hours to feel my best. I need to do a braindump before going to sleep so that I don’t spend the night constantly thinking of all the things I need to do, I need to have water next to the bed because at some point I will want water, and I must set 3 alarms for the next morning. Some of yall not taking sleep seriously, and your body will eventually reap the consequences. Almost all species of animal sleep- though it is a vulnerable position- they have to do it. You do too boo.
An overview of sleep:
Scientists are still studying why we sleep, how it works, and what happens when we don’t get enough sleep.
Sleep impacts every system in your body and your brain is heavily involved in the sleep process.
In adults, a lack of sleep has been associated with a wide range of negative health consequences including cardiovascular problems, a weakened immune system, higher risk of obesity and type II diabetes, impaired thinking and memory, and mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
Lets go over some sleep stats from the Sleep Foundation:
In a normal sleep period, a person experiences four to six sleep cycles.
On average, we spend about two hours per night dreaming.
Adults between 18 and 64 need seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Adults over 65 need 7-8 hours.
35.2% of all adults in the U.S.7report sleeping on average for less than seven hours per night.
Camden, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan tie for the highest rate of adults who sleep less than seven hours per night, with 49.8% of adults in those cities reporting short sleep.
Native Hawiian and Pacific Islandaners are the largest demographic group that report getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep at night with 46.3%.
Single parents get less sleep than adults in 2 parent households or childless homes.
Babies need 12-17 total hours of sleep each day depending on their age, and toddlers need 11-14.
It is recommended that preschool children get 10-13 hours of total sleep daily while school-age kids should sleep 9-11 hours.
Babies born prematurely may spend around 90% of their day asleep.
78% of people58 say they are more excited to go to bed if they have fresh-smelling sheets.
Drinking more than two servings of alcohol per day for men and more than one serving per day for women has been found to decrease sleep quality by 39.2%.
About 80% of people who take prescription sleep medications experienced residual effects like oversleeping, feeling groggy, or having a hard time concentrating the next day.
In a study of 31 melatonin supplements sold in stores, 71% were not within 10% of their listed dosage.
Now that brings me to the topic of the day- What is sleep hygiene? Basically, habits and practices affect your sleep. You can have healthy or unhealthy sleep hygiene- I'm sure we all have a mix.
Some things I've done to improve my sleep:
Wear comfy pajamas
This is a must. My pjs must be soft, non-constricting, and breathable.
I went through a satin pajama obsession just to come to the realization that my body hated sleeping in that material. It was too hot and I didn’t enjoy the feeling. But honestly- I think its that most of those sets were 2 piece sets and I prefer a dress/night gown.
Choosing what to sleep in depends on your sleep climate, your preferred fit, think about if you want socks on, or sleeping in nothing at all may be your preference!
Whatever it is, find it and implement it.
Complete darkness
Light is everywhere. My neighbors have bright backyard lights, my Google home light bleeds into my room, I have night lights, I now have an alarm clock with LED time display.
Light affects our circadian rhythm- and to simply that- our internal body clock tells us when its light we’re awake and when its dark we sleep. You can throw off your circadian rhythm by exposing your body to light at the wrong time- such as having on a bright light at bed time or having a phone in your face.
I am not perfect in this at all- sometimes I do keep the light on, I do look at my phone, and sometimes I’m just up doing whatever I need to do! But to alleviate the negative affects of light, I will adjust my phone light settings. Sometimes I make it black and white to make my phone less appealing, or I’ll decrease the amount of blue light, or make it extremely dim. I just try to make my phone as unappealing as possible.
So when I close my eyes, there is still light. So I use a silk blindfold to block the light. Its also easy for me to lift it up if I need to.
I've seen people talk about blackout shades, but that requires me to do too much.
Phone on DND
I can't turn it off at night, because what if theres an emergency?
I’ve also see some people recommend that you put your phone on the other side of the room when sleeping so you won’t be distracted. If that’s you- kudos. I cannot. But what I can is put my phone on Do Not Distrub.
Change settings to let certain contacts bypass dnd certain apps give notifications
Make it cold!
This is very important. I can't be in bed sweating. Make it cold and cover up. The ideal temperature for sleep is about 65 degrees. One thing about that...my electricity bill would be too high and make my wallet suffer. Therefore, supplement your tolerable AC temperature with a fan. BUT do not sleep with the fan in your face. You will get sick. Trust me.
Engage in physical activity during the day
Working out during the day helps burn energy. And what is really interesting is the fact that having extra mental energy keeps me up.
Exhaust my brain- reading and brain dump
This one is pretty straightforward- make yourself tired!
Eat dinner
They say don't go to sleep mad, I say don't go to sleep hungry.
Eat something sis. If you're feeling hungry- you won't sleep- you’ll be thinking about food. It could be you thinking about breakfast or what you ate during the day that made you feel hungry.
I can't say what kind of dinner b/c it's really specific to you. If I didn’t eat all day- I’m going in. If I need something light- I’m going for something light. But most of the research I read suggested that you don’t eat within 2 hours of bed and you eat something light.
Limit alcohol consumption
Whenever I drink, I know I’m not going to sleep well. Even if I don’t drink a lot- something happens and it's not good.
8. No naps during the day.
I think this one can be a bit controversial. And I want to clarify- no long naps. Keep them short- less than 30 minutes because anything longer will ruin your sleep for that night.
For me, if I nap I’m going to be up all night long. Naps only benefit me on the weekends when I’ve consumed alcohol the night before, didn’t sleep well (as in got 3 hours of sleep), and need to sleep!
So according to some trusted resources (WebMD, Mayo Clinic, and NSF), a short nap is good and can reap some benefits like improving your memory, making you more creative, and improving your alertness among many other things.
Now when your nap is too long the primary drawback is something called sleep inertia which is the feeling of grogginess, disorientation, drowsiness, and cognitive impairment that immediately follows waking- this feeling can last up to anywhere from 15 mins to a few hours.
Now the reason they can’t last too long is that you don’t want to enter a sleep cycle, so for this reason scientist say 20 minutes are the best nap time. It's up to you to set that alarm and wake up. If you can’t be trusted with that task- don’t take a nap!
9. Create a nighttime routine and wake up at a consistent time.
The purpose of the nighttime routine is to relax your mind and body so that your body is prepared to rest. For the most part, we all experience some level of stress throughout the day, so resetting and getting ready for bed signals to your brain that it's time to go to sleep.
My normal nighttime routine includes some of these:
Taking a shower, my skincare routine, reading a few pages from a book, journaling, checking the doors, checking the thermostat, changing the color settings on my phone, and turning on a boring podcast.
10. Make sure your bed is comfortable!
The pillows, mattress and comforter are clean and your desired texture, firmness level, and temperature. When I’m at a hotel I bring my own pillowcase.
Overall, I think too many people are sleeping on quality sleep. Hopefully this made you think about how you approach sleep!
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene
