Nothing is more frustrating than looking forward to lying in bed after a long day and instead of immediately falling into a deep and sweet sleep, finding yourself tossing and turning with your eyes wide open.

Surely you have been in this situation at least once in your life.

But the question that arises is the following:

How come you can't sleep when you're so tired?

The answer here depends on many factors, however a good place to start is "sleep hygiene."

While sleep hygiene may conjure up images of fresh, fragrant sheets or clean, ironed pajamas, it's much more than that. Sleep hygiene focuses on the habits that affect your ability to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep throughout the night.

In general, the definition of sleep hygiene includes the practices and habits that contribute to a good night's sleep. It's not just what you do before bed – sleep hygiene habits include everything you do during the day that can affect your sleep at night. For example, that cup of coffee at 3 p.m. is probably contributing to you staying up all night and tossing and turning in your bed instead of sleeping.

So what is the difference between good sleep hygiene and bad sleep hygiene?

In this article, we will examine the above difference and also look at top tips to improve your sleep hygiene and enjoy better sleep every night.

So, let's start with the basics, shall we?

What is good sleep hygiene?

Good sleep hygiene is essentially about creating certain sleep-friendly habits and routines that will help you get the best quality sleep possible every night.

It involves being aware of your daytime habits so that they don't ruin, but rather encourage, quality sleep when it's time. Essentially, sleep hygiene is about creating a routine around good habits and avoiding others that may interfere with sleep.

The path to establishing good sleep hygiene starts in the morning and rewards you when evening comes and you lie down in bed.

Why is good sleep hygiene important?

Healthy sleep is important for both physical and mental health, improving productivity and overall quality of life. Everyone, from children to the elderly, can benefit from better sleep, and sleep hygiene can play a key role in achieving this goal.

Research has shown that forming good habits plays a central role in our health . Creating sustainable and beneficial routines helps you acquire healthy behaviors almost automatically, creating a continuous process of positive reinforcement. On the other hand, bad habits can be entrenched even when they cause negative consequences.

Fortunately, we humans have a impressive ability to make our habits serve our long-term interests. Building an environment and a set of routines that promote our goals can really pay off.

Sleep hygiene includes both environment and habits and can pave the way for higher quality sleep and better overall health.

Improving sleep hygiene has little cost and virtually no risk, making it an important part of a public health strategy to address the serious problems of insufficient sleep and insomnia.

How to improve your sleep hygiene?

Although every person is different, there are some daily sleep hygiene habits that are beneficial for everyone.

Let's start with your sleep environment, namely your bedroom (or wherever you sleep at night, I don't judge!).

The most important rule here is this: the bedroom should only be used for two purposes, sex and sleep. Any other activity is prohibited!

Working in bed, eating, watching movies, and other activities should be avoided because the brain learns to associate the bedroom with a state of wakefulness, not the other way around. The bedroom for the brain should be inextricably linked to quiet, darkness, and sleep. A cooler room with a gravity blanket is optimal, as are blackout curtains to block out light from the outside environment.

Here are some more tips for establishing good sleep hygiene.

Create your sleep schedule:

• Maintain a consistent wake-up time: Regardless of whether it's a weekday or weekend, try to wake up at the same time, as a fluctuating schedule prevents you from getting into a consistent sleep rhythm.
• Prioritize sleep: It can be tempting to skip sleep to work a few extra hours, study, socialize, or exercise, but it's vital to treat sleep as a priority. Set a specific bedtime based on your set wake-up time and do your best to be ready for bed around that time each night.
• Make gradual adjustments: If you want to change your bedtime or wake-up time, don't try to do it all at once, as this can backfire. Make small, incremental adjustments of up to an hour or two so you can adjust to your new schedule.
• Don't overdo it with your nap: Napping is a great way to regain your energy during the day, but overdoing it can prevent you from falling asleep easily at night. To avoid this, try to limit your nap to 30 minutes, and always in the early afternoon.

Bedtime routine:

• Keep your bedtime routine consistent: Following the same steps every night, including things like putting on your pajamas and brushing your teeth, helps your brain associate these activities with sleep, and by doing them, it understands that it's time for bed.
• Dedicate 30 minutes before bed to relaxation: Take advantage of anything that puts you in a state of calm, such as soft music, light stretching, reading and/or relaxation exercises.
• Dim the lights: Try to stay away from bright lighting because it can inhibit the production of melatonin, the hormone that the body creates to help us sleep.
• Disconnect from electronic devices: Avoid using screens at least 30 to 60 minutes before bed. Cell phones, tablets, televisions, and computers cause mental stimulation that is difficult to turn off and also emit blue light that can reduce melatonin production.
• Try relaxation methods: Meditation, mindfulness, rapid breathing, and other relaxation techniques can put you in the right mindset for sleep.

Daytime habits that help with quality sleep:

• Expose yourself to sunlight: Light, especially sunlight, is one of the key drivers of circadian rhythms that can encourage quality sleep.
• Be physically active: Regular exercise can make it easier to sleep at night and also offers a host of health benefits.
• Don't smoke: Nicotine stimulates the body in ways that disrupt sleep, which explains why smoking is associated with many sleep problems .
• Reduce alcohol consumption: Alcohol can make it easier to fall asleep, but its effect wears off later in the night, disrupting sleep.
• Cut down on caffeine in the afternoon: As a stimulant, caffeine can keep you awake even when you want to rest, so try to avoid it after noon.
• Don't eat late and heavy: Eating dinner late, especially if it's a large, heavy, or spicy meal, means you'll continue to digest the food while you sleep, which will undoubtedly disrupt the quality of your sleep.

Optimize your bedroom for better sleep

A central component of sleep hygiene beyond the good habits we mentioned above is the environment you sleep in. To fall asleep more easily, you want your bedroom to exude... calm.

Although the concept of a peaceful and inviting bedroom may differ from person to person, these tips can help you optimize your bedroom and make it more peaceful and free from distractions that can disrupt your sleep:

• Make sure you have a comfortable mattress and pillow: Your sleeping surface is critical to comfort and pain-free sleep, so choose wisely the mattress and pillow that suit your needs.
• Use quality bedding: The sheets, duvet, and weighted blanket are the first thing you touch when you lie down in bed, so it's beneficial to make sure they match your needs and preferences.
• Keep the room temperature cool but comfortable: It is proven that in order to sleep well, the room temperature must be cool , ideally between 15-19 degrees Celsius.
• Block out all light sources: Use heavy curtains or a sleep mask to prevent light from interrupting your sleep. Even a small light from a device can affect the quality of your sleep. Use insulating tape to hide the lights on electronic devices.
• Reduce the noise: Earplugs can help in this case, but if you don't find them comfortable to sleep with, you can try a device that produces white noise.
• Try relaxing aromas: Light scents, like lavender , can induce a calmer state of mind and help cultivate a positive environment for quality sleep.

What are the signs of poor sleep hygiene?

If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night, or even if you feel sleepy during the day, then your sleep hygiene probably needs improvement. An overall lack of consistency in the amount or quality of sleep can also be a symptom of poor sleep hygiene.

Is sleep hygiene the same for everyone?

The basic idea of ​​sleep hygiene - that your environment and habits can be optimized to help you get a better night's sleep - applies to almost everyone, but what constitutes ideal sleep hygiene for each individual naturally varies from person to person.

For this reason, it's worth trying all of the tips above, making the appropriate adjustments, and learning what helps you sleep the most. Take small steps and stick to what you feel helps towards better sleep hygiene.

It's also important to know that improving sleep hygiene won't always solve every sleep problem you're experiencing. People who suffer from severe insomnia or other sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea, may benefit from better sleep hygiene, but other treatments are usually necessary.

In other words, while it can be beneficial, sleep hygiene alone is not a panacea. If you have long-term or severe sleep problems or daytime sleepiness, it's best to talk to a doctor who can recommend appropriate treatment.

Better sleep hygiene for better health

The bottom line is that establishing and maintaining good sleep hygiene habits will take some work on your part until it becomes a routine, but the sooner you incorporate good sleep hygiene habits into your daily routine, the better.

From an evolutionary perspective, the fact that sleep is essential for all living things (think of animals sacrificing valuable time away from instinctive survival activities like hunting and reproduction, while remaining vulnerable during their sleep) is a strong indication that it is fundamental to well-being .

In humans, sleep appears to play a critical role inphysical and mental development starting from infancy through the teenage years.

In adults, accumulated sleep deprivation has been associated with a wide range of health problems, including:

• cardiovascularproblems
• theweakened immune system
• the highest risk for obesity andtype II diabetes
• reduced ability to concentrate and poor memory
• mental health problems , such as depression and anxiety disorders

These diverse effects caused by sleep deprivation are strong evidence that sleep does not only have a biological purpose but is in fact, through its complexity, an essential component for the proper functioning of almost all of our body's systems.

Sleep is therefore important because it allows us to:

• to rest our body
• to recover from an illness
• to cope with stress
• to be able to solve problems that arise in our lives
• to enrich our memories and
• to improve our motor skills.

A recent study of 30,000 Britons showed that people who increased their sleep over a 4-year period increased their level of happiness in life by as much as if they had 8 weeks of psychotherapy or won a €250,000 lottery prize. Impressive, isn't it?

However, a good night's sleep is not only defined by how many hours we slept, but also by the quality of sleep.

Improve your sleep quality with a gravity blanket

Gravity blankets are the most effective way to deal with insomnia and stress without medication, as they have been used for many decades to help people suffering from anxiety disorders, autism, and other sensory disorders.

How do they work?

They are designed to apply gentle, steady pressure to the entire body, which occupational therapists call “ Deep Tactile Pressure .” This steady pressure relaxes the nervous system and helps the body naturally increase levels of serotonin and melatonin (the hormones of happiness and sleep) while reducing levels of cortisol, which is responsible for stress.

As a result, the mind stops "racing", the heart rate drops, the mood improves and the body enters a state of complete relaxation.

Choose the one that weighs closest to 10% of your body weight and upgrade your sleep from the very first night.