Are You Letting These Sleep Robbers Steal the Sleep You Need?

by Royane Real

Are you getting enough sleep?  How can you tell how much sleep do you really need? 

Not everyone needs the same amount of sleep.  Some people can get by with only five or six hours of sleep each day, while others do best with eight or nine hours. 

When you wake up, do you feel refreshed and ready for another day?  Or do you groan when the alarm wakes you up, wondering where you’ll get the energy to get out of bed?  Does your body feel desperate to sleep longer? 

Do you drink cup after cup of coffee trying to force yourself to get through the day?  Do you sleep in on the weekends trying to catch up on the sleep you’ve missed?

If you’re always tired because you’re not sleeping well, or because you’re not sleeping enough, you may have to become a detective to track down the cause.  Once you know the reason for your poor sleep, you can take steps to help yourself sleep better.  You’ll have to experiment to see what works best for you.

Too Much Caffeine

A very common reason why many of us sleep poorly is that we drink too much caffeine throughout the day. Caffeine is a stimulant that is present in many beverages such as tea, coffee, cola drinks, and many over the counter medications.

The stimulating effects of caffeine start very quickly and last for several hours.  Caffeine can be a great pick-me-up in the morning, but for most people, drinking caffeine later in the day can lead to insomnia.  If you find that you feel jittery throughout the day, and feel that your mind is racing at night, you may be drinking too much coffee or too many cola drinks.

Many people get on a vicious caffeine merry go round.  They can’t get to sleep at night because they’ve had too much coffee the day before. They sleep very little at night, and then because they are so exhausted the next day, they keep drinking cup after cup of coffee just trying to stay awake.

Getting off this merry go round of drinking too much coffee is not always easy. 

If you have a hard time settling down at night because you drink a lot of coffee, try to cut back your consumption of caffeine to one cup or two cups per day.  Or try to stop drinking caffeine all together.  If you decide to reduce your consumption of caffeine, or if you want to quit altogether, you may feel better if you taper off slowly.

If you want to feel calmer at night, make it a rule not to drink any caffeine after 1:00 in the afternoon.  Many people find that drinking warm milk before bedtime helps them to relax and feel sleepy.

 Alcohol Can Cause Poor Sleep

In many people, drinking alcohol is another factor that can interfere with sleeping properly. Although alcohol can make you feel sleepy, it interferes with some of the important stages of sleep that the brain needs in order to feel good the next day. 

Your Body Needs Exercise

Do you get enough exercise during the day?  Some people have a hard time sleeping because their bodies are not getting enough exercise.  So many of us today spend long hours sitting at computers and watching TV, that we are completely out of touch with the fact that our body is made to move. 

If we don’t get up and get some physical exercise each day, we won’t sleep very well.  Taking an evening walk can be a great stress reliever. Doing very vigorous exercise can be great for developing our heart and lung capacity, but it can be overstimulating if done too close to bedtime. 

Be sure to wind down physically and mentally in the hours before your bedtime.  This will help you sleep much better.

For more ideas on how to have your brain work at its best, get the new book by Royane Real titled “How You Can Be Smarter” for just $16.76 US.