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Guidelines To Help Improve Sleep Hygiene

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MD ARIFUL ISLAM
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26 views

Guidelines To Help Improve Sleep Hygiene

Uploaded by

MD ARIFUL ISLAM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Morning Day Evening Night

Morning

Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule


Keeping regular hours helps the body’s sleep system stay in harmony
and promotes feelings of sleepiness and drowsiness when your body
is ready for sleep. Therefore, where possible, wake up at the same
time each morning and go to bed at the same time every night.

Get out into natural light as soon as is practical in the morning,


preferably around the same time every day.

Natural light, which can still be effective on a cloudy or grey day,


helps reset our internal body clock. It helps us get over feeling groggy
when we have just woken up and makes us more alert.

Something to think about


Be mindful of any abrupt, unexplained changes in your usual sleep
pattern. By pattern, this could be the quality, quantity and/or timing
of your sleep. An unexplained abrupt shift could indicate that your
sleep health is worsening and may need attention.

Completing a Sleep Diary may help identify any changes. By managing


your sleep hygiene, using the above guidelines, may be beneficial in
getting your sleep back on track and/or lessening the impact of a brief
period of poor sleep. If your sleep does not improve you must consult
your GP.

Day Time

Engage in daytime exercise


Exercise promotes the quantity and quality of your sleep, making it
deeper and more refreshing. However, a few studies have shown that
exercising too close to bedtime can prevent sleep so we suggest
leaving a window of at least two hours before bedtime without
exercise.

Avoid stimulants that contain caffeine eight hours


before bedtime
Although there are significant individual differences in how caffeine
affects each of us, give yourself enough time between your last
caffeine intake and your sleep time to make sure that it does not
interfere with your ability to get off to sleep.
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Morning Day Evening Night

Evening

Don’t go to bed full, hungry or thirsty


Eating at regular times helps strengthen our internal body clock.
However, eating a heavy meal before bedtime can make it
challenging to sleep at night. Drinking lots of liquid before bed will
also increase the chances that we have to go to the bathroom
during the night. Conversely, being hungry or thirsty at night can
increase the chances of waking up. A balance should be struck
between being sated but not full up before we go to bed.

Reduce electronic use before bedtime and avoid


electronic use in the bedroom
Using electronics just before bed and in the bedroom can keep us
awake for longer as the blue light from these devices has the
capacity to prevent the hormones that make us sleepy from being
produced. Importantly, it is not just the light that can affect our
sleep but most activities that we use our devices for can keep us
awake and alert which we don’t want to do at bedtime.

Don’t use alcohol to sleep


Although alcohol is a sedative, it can have a significant impact on
the quality and quantity of your sleep. Our sleep tends to become
fragile and light when we have a lot of alcohol in the evening and
can lead to lots of awakenings in the latter part of the night and
feelings of being unrefreshed during the day.
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Morning Day Evening Night

Night

Avoid nicotine before bed


Nicotine is a short-acting stimulant that can keep you awake and so
should be avoided in the later part of the evening and during the night
if you happen to wake up.

Ensure the bedroom is cool, dark and quiet before bed


Heat, light and noise can impact on our ability to get off to sleep and
increase the chances that we wake in the night. Even if we don’t
realise that is the reason for us being awake. Making sure the
bedroom is cool, dark and quiet can improve the quality of our sleep,
as can sleeping on a comfortable, supportive bed.

Ensure that bedroom clocks are not visible


It is common to watch the clock when we are awake at night. For some
of us, this can increase our anxiety levels and further prevent us from
being able to fall asleep. It is not necessary to remove the clock, as, for
example, some people rely upon their alarm clocks to get them up in
the morning, but having the clock face out of sight will help reduce
any sleep anxiety.

Important Note

These new sleep hygiene guidelines do not include elements such as leaving the
bedroom if not tired, only using the bedroom for sleep, napping, and restricting the
amount of time in bed, keeping a worry diary and defining a relaxation period
before bedtime.

While these are sometimes seen in sleep hygiene guidelines, these are active elements
used in other treatment protocols – most notably; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for
Insomnia (CBT-I). In each case, the directions for that particular technique need to be
tailored to the individuals’ particular circumstances. For example, prescribed napping
is useful and required in some circumstances such as chronic illness but should be
assessed and managed with the support of a healthcare professional, preferably one
with a working knowledge of sleep medicine.
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