6 Habits To Avoid If You Want To Have A Good Night’s Rest

Written by Tanya Arora  • 

Often sleep can be eluding. But if the elusiveness of it becomes a regularity, you might be suffering from insomnia! Insomnia can be caused by several reasons with the prominent ones being stress or anxiety, gastrointestinal problems, endocrine problems, chronic pain, pain in the lower back, and more (1).

Notice anything common among these reasons? Most of them can be attributed to and fixed by the lifestyle you follow. So, if you have trouble falling asleep, you should reevaluate your lifestyle and make certain changes to it. Then, sleep will surely come knocking on your door like a welcome visitor!

Experts recommend avoiding the following 6 habits to get a good night’s rest:

1. Drinking Coffee After Lunch

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If your reason to drink coffee is to get that kick to survive your work day, then you already know that coffee can disrupt sleep. Psychologist, Matt Goldenberg, recommends not having a cup of joe after lunch for the very same reason! In fact, most experts agree on it and suggest you shouldn’t have coffee at least 4 to 6 hours before bedtime. Coffee contains the stimulant known as caffeine in abundance, which can prevent you from falling asleep and keep you awake and alert instead (2). If you still need coffee for some reason, opt for a decaf mug.

2. Having A Nightcap

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Nightcaps or having alcohol before bed has been known to be conducive for sleep. But that’s not really the case! Alcohol intake before bed can actually worsen your sleep quality. Even if it makes you fall asleep faster!
Goldenberg says that alcohol can cause disruptions in your sleep during the latter half of the night. What alcohol does is it reduces rapid eye movement at night and even delays it so that your sleep quality is compromised (3). Besides, alcohol can even make you snore and cause sleep apnea, which will result in fatigue the next day.

3. Smoking Before Sleeping

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Smoking is an addiction that’s hard to control. Hence, it’s no surprise that those who smoke, do so even before sleeping. However, this is ill-advised as smoking too can disrupt your sleep. Goldenberg states that the nicotine in cigarettes can stimulate you and prevent sleep (4). Besides, smoking can also lead to breathing and psychological issues – both of which can keep you wide awake at night. No doubt, quitting smoking is easier said than done (5), (6). But if you love your sleep (and your health), it’s a sacrifice you should be willing to make!

4. Eating A Heavy Dinner

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Many people falsely believe that a large meal can help put them straight to bed, keeping them conked out for hours! Again, like most myths, this is not true. A large meal before bedtime (even three hours before) can make it difficult for you to fall asleep. The intake of high amounts of carbs and nutrients can weigh on your tummy and make it harder for it to digest food. A slowed digestion rate can lead to problems such as heartburn and acidity, stopping you from getting as many snooze hours as you’d like (7).

Besides such foods can also increase your chances of cardiometabolic diseases and obesity, and these can consequently cause sleep problems such as nightmares (8). If you’re hungry before bed, you should have a light sleep-inducing snack such as bananas, walnuts or almonds.

5. Drinking Plenty Of Water Before Bed

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Or even after dinner. Not drinking large quantities of water before bed, in fact, should be the number-one bedtime habit you must avoid! Having too many fluids at bedtime can put your bladder in overdrive, forcing you to wake up in the middle of the night and take a trip to the loo. Needless to say, this can majorly affect your sleep quality and make it harder for you to fall back asleep after each washroom visit. Besides, your body has naturally been designed in a way to reduce your urine output during its sleep hours (9). By having water before bed, you may ruin its mechanism. Hence, try to restrict your water intake to only about after and at least a couple of hours before bed.

6. Using Your Bed For Things Apart From Sleep

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Okay, your bed is meant for only and only sleep and making love. That’s it. Trying to do anything else on it can confuse your brain and make it associate the place with multiple activities instead of rest. This can force you to count sheep at night when you should actually have been sleeping! So, if you want to be in dreamland for long hours, you better not use your bed for activities such as eating, watching movies, using your smartphone or laptop, etc.

Even such small lifestyle changes as the ones mentioned above can improve your sleep quality tremendously and keep you away from the iron grip of insomnia. Do you know any more sleep-busting bad habits? If so, do let us know in the comments below!

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