February 20th, 2012 | | Blog

Good afternoon Readers!

MAN, I’m dragging today… you know those nights when you just can’t get comfortable or you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t seem to get your brain to shut off?? Well, unfortunately it even happens to sleep bloggers too. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’re on a good supportive and comfortable mattress first, but there are also some other things you can try to help yourself get into (and stay in!) that deep, restorative sleep our bodies crave.

It’s widely suggested by sleep health professionals everywhere that one of the best things you can do for yourself is get into a sleep ritual or routine. If your body is accustomed to winding down and waking up around the same time every night, it’ll be much easier not to cringe when your alarm goes off in the morning. Something I’ve started since the New Year and have really been loving is to get in bed about an hour before I’d like to fall asleep, and have some great ‘me’ time. Whether it’s leafing through a magazine and having an herbal tea, or surfing the web and listening to some relaxing music on my laptop, I usually devote about an hour to sit and clear my head. Something new I’m going to try is to on pen and paper, write down what I need to do, or things stressing me out–hopefully to avoid what happened last night where I thought about all of that stuff from 4:30am until my alarm started screaming at me this morning.

Also, the temperature of the room and your bed plays a big role I think. I try to keep my room cool enough to where it’s almost a little uncomfortable unless I’m snuggled up. With the winter in Louisville being as mild as it has, I love to leave the windows open and enjoy the crisp air outside, and the sounds that go along with it. I also think that taking 5 when I get up to make  the bed and be sure my clothes made it somewhere other than the floor allows me to come home and feel far more relaxed and excited to get into bed. I use a DreamFit quilted sheet set made of temperature-regulating bamboo where the top sheet is essentially a sheet and a quilt in one piece. The fitted sheet is specially designed and guaranteed never to shift or pop off. The pillow cases are double sided too, so I’ve gotten out of the habit of having tons of decorative pillows all over the place. To make the bed I really just have to pull up the sheet and flip the pillows over. And, the set can be laundered in the washing machine. So no more taking a bulky comforter to the dry cleaners. It is so SMART. And soft. And luxurious. And wonderful. But I digress….

Eating a responsible dinner and calling it a night on any alcohol consumption at least 2 hours before you get in bed is also really important. Fried and fattening foods can tend to give people acid issues when they try to go to sleep, and if your body is busy trying to process alcohol, it keeps you out of that deep sleep your body needs to fully recharge. As we start edging into spring and it’s promise of warmer weather, if you can go on a walk with your spouse, kids, a friend, or your fur baby, you’ll get some great relaxing time with loved ones catching up on the day, and also getting in some light exercise which is awesome not only for your overall health, but your sleep health too.

I can’t wait to try and take my own advice in a few hours, and hopefully get back what I lost last night.. because the most important thing about having a great night’s sleep is the great DAY afterwards.

Cheers!

Tags: great night's sleep mattress perfect bedroom sleep tips