Sleep is an important physiological activity that takes 1/3 the time of our day. But nowadays, many people can’t get rid of the habit of staying up late, especially young people. So, what should we do to fix this situation? The following article will share 5 effective ways on how to go to bed early for people who often staying up late.
Before sharing with you 4 tips early to bed that I used to change the habit from going to bed late (after 12pm) to sleep early, let’t take a look at the benefits of sleeping early and getting enough sleep first:
The Importance of Sleeping Early and Getting Enough Sleep
Sleeping, eating and exercising are essential needs in every human being. In particular, sleeping takes 1/3 of the total time of the day. A quality sleep will help you feel comfortable, relaxed, and more energetic after waking up.
According to many experts, the average adult should sleep for 7-8 hours everyday. At different ages, there will be different sleep times based on energy needs and metabolic activity. For example, growing children need a lot of time to sleep to release growth hormone, but elderly people only need to sleep around 7 hours a night to ensure physical stability and health.
Some other documents suggest that how much you sleep is not as important as sleep quality. In other words, many adults sleep for 8 hours a night, but when they wake up, their body still feels tired and feels like they have not slept enough. This means they are still sleep deprived and their sleep is not good in quality. In contrast, someone sleep only 6 hours a night but still feel alert and not tired, they had a quality and deep sleep.
Therefore, the quality of sleep should be assessed by the state of mind and body after waking up:
+ Your body is healthy, there is no sign of muscle and joint pain;
+ Mentally refreshing, relaxed and pleasant;
+ Reduce stress, fatigue and psychological instability;
+ Improve concentration, do not yawn.
Read more: Benefits of Sleeping Early
At the same time, not getting enough sleep often brings high probability of affecting both physical and mental health. Here are some specific harms of staying up late and lack of sleep:
+ Time for your brain to rest is less, so it is easy to get tired and reduce the ability to remember;
+ Staying up late so often will alkalize the body to secrete hormones necessary for maintaining the body’s immunity, thereby making the body susceptible to colds and flu, quickly fatigued;
+ The cells of the stomach lining are not rested, leading to weakness if sleep deprivation. In addition, staying up late will cause more gastric juice to secrete and erode the mucosa, leading to ulcers;
+ Staying up late will cause the skin to quickly age, dull, appear more wrinkles and affect other functions of the epidermis;
+ Staying up late will reduce vision, your eyes are easily tired when working in an environment that lack of natural light, even there is a possibility of eye diseases such as nearsightedness, astigmatism, etc.
If you do not want to face the consequences mentioned above, you need to have effective solutions, and the most essential thing to do is to adjust the biological clock by creating a habit of going to bed early and getting enough sleep.
How to Go To Bed Early – 4 Effective Ways
I myself used to go to bed very late, often after 12pm, but now I usually go to bed early before 10pm. I tried and failed some times but finally made it. Early to bed also help me to wake up early at 5am and have more time for myself.
There are quite a few effective ways to sleep early, but here are 4 of the best that I have used:
#1 Stop using electronic devices at least 1 hour before bedtime
Nowadays, we often have the habit of using laptop or smartphone before bedtime. Most of us think that using them will make our eye tired and make us easier to sleep. This approach sometimes works, but most of the time it brings opposite effect. Because, our brain is a kind of complex neural network. This neural network is responsible for increased alertness when active, and they are very easily stimulated by external factors.
When using electronic devices, neural networks will be activated to respond to the needs. Moreover, the majority of electronic devices such as televisions, phones, computers, game consoles,… often emit blue light. The distance from these blue light to our eyes is relatively short which will inhibit the brain’s secretion of sleep hormones, thereby interfering with the sleep cycle.
Moreover, using electronic devices too much can make you forget about going to bed early then you delay your sleep. To overcome this situation, you should stop using blue light devices at least 1 hour before bedtime.
You’ll probably have some hard time at first, but after a few days you’ll get used to the new sleeping routine. Instead of using laptop or smartphone, you can read a book, listen to music, or chat with your bedmate to distract from your electronic device use.
#2 Take a warm bath before going to bed to fall asleep easier
A warm bath is also an effective way to sleep early for those who often stay up late. The hot temperature from warm water will stimulate blood circulation, the blood circulation process takes place better, then, the brain is relaxed, the nerves are stable and brings a feeling of relaxation and comfort before going to bed. In addition, taking a warm bath has many other great health benefits.
To add more benefits, you can use a few drops of aromatic essential oil mixed with bath water. The aroma of essential oils will bring more pleasant feeling which help you to fall asleep easier.
However, you should not soak too long in warm water. This can cause your body to become cold and your skin get dry. You also need to avoid washing your hair, because washing your hair in the evening may make you suffer from headaches, flu, colds, etc.
#3 Avoid caffeine-containing foods or alcoholic beverages
Caffeinated foods or alcoholic beverages can also interfere with your sleep. For the most part, these drinks often stimulate more flexible brain nerves. Drinking coffee in the evening will make it difficult for you to fall asleep and lead to staying up late.
Moreover, alcoholic beverages may also make you fall asleep easier, but they only bring you a restless sleep, not a deep sleep and you will feel tired after waking up.
To get to sleep quickly, you need to avoid drinking coffee or alcohol before going to bed. If you have to, you can use it at least 6 hours before bedtime.
#4 Relax your body and mind to sleep earlier
Going to bed late and hard to fall asleep may stem from the fact that you’re thinking or worrying about something too much. Relaxing your body and your mind is the best way to help you to fall asleep quicker and have a quality sleep.
There are many ways to relax the body and mind such as:
Reading: reading will help you distract from problems that make you stressful and tired, then you can quickly fall asleep. You should choose books with light content and not too attractive. Because books with interesting content will make you keep reading, increase alertness and stay awake longer.
Listen to music or audiobook: calm, quiet music will help the brain reduce stress, fatigue and easy to fall asleep naturally. You should choose soft instrumental music, meditation music, live music or audiobook.
Meditation and Yoga: many experts encourage those who often lose sleep or sleep late to practice meditation or yoga. These exercises, if properly practiced, will help the body relax, release stress and relax the body. Close your eyes, relax your body, focus on your breathing, and don’t think about things that make your brain think too much.
How to Sleep Early – Last Saying
Above are 4 simple but effective ways to help you sleep early which I used to transform my sleep habit. Try to follow these tips for several days then you will find that early to bed is not that hard. Just remember 2 more things: building new habit takes time (you need to go to bed early consistently for several days to make new habit stick) and you can fail some days (some nights you cannot sleep early, please do not worry about that, just try to get back to new habit the next day). Keep patient and then you can go to bed early every night and get a lot benefits from sleeping early and deeply.
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