Having a good quality of sleep is a key aspect of leading a healthy life in body and mind. Good bedtime habits bring well-being, joy and improve quality of life. According to data from the Spanish Sleep Society, 33% of the world’s population has difficulty sleeping. For this reason, the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) celebrates ‘World Sleep Day’ on March 13, with the aim of raising awareness among the population, promoting prevention and education of this phenomenon that is affecting more and more people due to the frenetic pace of current daily routines. Therefore, we must leave our worries outside the room, our bedroom has to be our little temple of rest.
The Spanish Sleep Society gives us some keys to achieving a restful and quality rest, which we must include in our daily habits:
- Establish regular schedules. As they say ‘the body gets used to everything’, so we have to take care of it and educate it in good habits.
- Make our space a pleasant and welcoming place while maintaining adequate environmental conditions, a temperature of around 18 degrees, absence of noise and light, and of course buy mattresses suitable for the characteristics of each one.
- Regular eating habits, avoiding large meals before bedtime. As a curiosity, dairy products facilitate sleep induction.
- Limit the consumption of stimulants such as coffee or tea, alcohol and tobacco.
- An important aspect is to “go to bed only when you are sleepy,” according to this study. Activities such as watching TV, playing with mobile devices or talking on the phone should be avoided.
- Avoid long naps during the day that can reduce nighttime sleep.
- Regular physical exercise is a very good practice to promote good habits as well as keeping us in shape.
- Creating a routine every night helps us prepare mentally and physically. And we can even use relaxation techniques.
Going to bed is one of the best times to relax and for our mind to assimilate everything that happened during the day, without paying special attention to any fact, that is, to let ourselves be carried away by rest and the pleasure of sleeping.
