Sleeping plays an integral role in our health and overall well-being.
The benefits attached to sleeping include “cleaning up” the brain from the previous day’s activities and preparing for the next, forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information, clearing out of waste from cellular processes, and restoring your body’s energy.
Without adequate sleep, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, and controlling your emotions. Sleep deficiency has even been linked to depression and suicide.
Sleep deficiency is also linked to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Studies have also found that with each hour of sleep lost, the odds of becoming obese went up.
Have you been struggling with sleeping lately? Or do you find it difficult to stay asleep for a long while? If your answer is in the affirmative, you need not bother as discussed in this article are five reasons that may be the cause of your sleeplessness.
1. Stress
If the truth be told, daily living in today’s world is filled with a lot of stress and most times one is just exhausted.
Stress and anxiety can often be the root causes of sleep disturbances. When you are stressed out almost every day from your workplace and you still have to do some home chores in that state or even stay awake most part of the night in order to meet deadlines, in the long run, your sleep will get disrupted. And this can lead to you sleeping less or finding it difficult to sleep.
If you find it hard to sleep as a result of stress, or anxiety, you should visit your medical practitioner, involve in yoga, deep breathing, and if your stress is making daily tasks difficult or even impossible, it’s best to work with a mental health professional, such as a therapist or psychiatrist.
2. Poor sleep hygiene
Another reason you might not be sleeping well is a result of poor sleep hygiene.
You may ask what is sleep hygiene? Sleep hygiene refers to practices that can positively improve your sleep. Some poor sleep hygiene habits include:
- Keeping electronics/smartphones in or near the bed
- Having lights on in your bedroom
Having your bedroom light on while you are trying to get sleep are poor sleep hygiene habits.
According to the Sleep Foundation, when light enters the eye, it is sensed by a special group of cells on the retina and then sent to the brain and interpreted as information about the time of day. The brain then sends signals throughout the body to control organs and other systems in accordance with that time of day. Bright lights can throw off these systems, not allowing your brain to wind down for the evening.
In order to stop these poor sleep hygiene habits, it is best you do without your phone in the bedroom or you put on the Do not disturb mode and try as much as possible to do without lights in your bedroom when you are about to sleep.
3. Eating too close to bedtime
If you are in the habit of not eating until it’s time for you to go to bed, then you are doing yourself great harm. To have a good night’s sleep, it is important you eat a few hours before your bedtime. This gives your body ample time to digest the food you have eaten.
Eating heavy foods such as eba, beans, fufu, pounded yam and the rest at your bedtime is a bad idea as these kinds of meals take a long time before they get digested and this can disturb your sleep.
Ditch that late-night meal and see if your sleep doesn’t improve!
4. Caffeine and alcohol
Intake of caffeine and alcohol can also be the reason you have been having sleepless nights.
Coffee, green tea, energy drinks, and even chocolate have varying amounts of caffeine that can be disruptive to sleep. Since some individuals are more sensitive to caffeine than others, it’s a good idea to be mindful of eating and drinking caffeine later in the day.
Wine, beer, hard liquor and the like can all wreak havoc in the night hours.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, adenosine (a chemical in the brain that acts as a sleep inducer) is increased while drinking. While this allows you to go to sleep quickly, this chemical quickly subsides, making you more likely to wake up during the night. If you choose to consume alcohol, do so in moderation and remember to hydrate with plenty of water.
5. Medication
The intake of certain medications at night can disrupt your sleep. Some medications can cause sleep disturbances such as insomnia, exhaustion, vivid dreams, and lack of REM sleep. These medications could include:
- Antidepressants
- Steroids
- Cold medicines
- Beta-blockers
- Statins
- Stimulants
If you suspect that your sleeplessness is attributed to a medication that you’re taking, speak with your doctor or medical provider.
Your lifestyle, that is, the things you do, the places you go, and everything else in your life has a great effect on the quality of sleep you get daily. Sleep better, live healthier!
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE