Merdeka.com – As is well known, sleep is a need for rest that needs to be fulfilled properly. Normally, adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day. With this time duration, you can rest your body to the maximum, so that your body’s energy can be properly fulfilled for the next day’s activities.
Even so, not a few people often experience sleep disorders. As it is often difficult to sleep, sleep restless or not soundly, until often wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Some of these sleep problems cause poor sleep quality.
That way, you need to build healthy habits to help improve the quality of sleep well. One of them is by applying sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is a healthy habit of applying sleep hygiene to increase the ability to sleep quickly and maintain sleep throughout the night.
If it’s a habit sleep hygiene this is applied regularly every day, of course you can get back to getting better quality sleep. In addition, indirectly this method can also increase the body’s immune system properly so that it is not susceptible to disease. Not only is it physically beneficial, but the need for adequate sleep can support better mental health as well.
Reporting from Verywell Mind, here we summarize various things about sleep hygiene including the benefits and how to put it into practice that need to be known.
Get to know Sleep Hygiene
The first thing you need to understand is what sleep hygiene is. As previously explained, sleep hygiene is a healthy habit that is done by paying attention to sleep hygiene to help improve the ability to sleep quickly and stay asleep throughout the night.
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Establishing and practicing sleep hygiene every day can have an impact on the quality and quantity of sleep that is getting better. Not only useful for physical health, this habit is also useful for maintaining mental health from various disorders that can occur. Some good habits that can support sleep hygiene are as follows:
- Follow an evening routine by making time for leisure activities
- Wake up and go to bed around the same time every day
- Creates a healthy sleeping environment that includes dim lights and the ideal thermostat temperature
- Turn off all electronics at least 60 minutes before bed
- Limit caffeine intake a few hours before bed
- Get physical activity with enough exercise early in the day
- Reduces stress levels
- Avoid large meals with high fat content before bed
Benefits of Sleep Hygiene
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After knowing the general understanding of sleep hygiene, here are some sleep hygiene benefits that you can get. In general, applying sleep habits can help improve the quality and quantity of sleep for the better. This is certainly very useful for those of you who often experience various sleep disorders. Not only that, there are several kinds of sleep hygiene benefits that are no less important, namely as follows.
1. Overcoming Sleep Disorders
The first benefit of sleep hygiene is that it can overcome sleep disorders. As previously mentioned, applying sleep hygiene habits can help overcome sleep problems that often occur. Not only that, this habit can also reduce the short-term and long-term risks caused by sleep problems.
Short-term consequences of sleep disorders include increased stress, decreased quality of life, emotional distress, mood disorders, and cognitive, memory, and performance deficits. When sleep disorders become a long-term problem, healthy adults can face increased hypertension, cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, weight-related problems, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and indigestion, among others.
2. Maintain Mental Health
The next benefit of sleep hygiene is that it can maintain good mental health. Keep in mind that some mental disorders such as depression and anxiety are often associated with sleep disorders. These two things are related to one another.
Sleep disturbances can occur due to mental health problems. But new evidence suggests that a causal relationship can also counteract sleep problems that contribute to new and existing mental health conditions.
3. Reducing Stress Conditions
The next benefit of sleep hygiene is that it can reduce stress conditions. As is well known, stressful conditions often affect sleep routines. Between stress and sleep are also interrelated things. If this cannot be handled properly, it can interfere with overall health.
Applying sleep hygiene is considered to be able to help sleep problems that cause stress, as well as help relieve stress so that you get better sleep quality.
How to Practice Sleep Hygiene
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After knowing the meaning and benefits, there are a number of steps you can take to practice sleep hygiene in everyday life. Some of the following ways can be done regularly so that you can build good and healthy habits every day. Here are some ways to practice sleep hygiene that you need to know:
- Get into the habit of going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.
- Get 7 hours of sleep for adults and 7 – 9 hours for older adults.
- Limit or avoid naps so you can fall asleep earlier at night.
- Have a relaxing night routine. Like reading a book, taking a bath, meditating, doing restorative yoga exercises, doing body stretches, listening to soothing music, or journaling.
- Create a good environment to help you sleep easily. Like making the atmosphere of the room or room darker or dimmer, turn off your smartphone or other electronics 1 hour before going to bed, make the room temperature comfortable.
- Doing physical activity or exercising regularly every day. You can do sports activities 6- -90 minutes before bedtime.
- Avoid large meals before bed, especially foods high in fat.
- Try to drink caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, or soda during the day and avoid consuming them at night or before bed.
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