How to Get Higher Quality Sleep and Wake Up With More Energy
Do you want to get higher quality sleep and wake up with more energy in the morning? Why?
Did you know that not getting around 7 hours of sleep each night can reduce how old you look by three years?
It’s true. But there is a catch. The 7 hours of sleep needs to be of high quality. You need to slip into the rejuvenating deep sleep to reap the rewards for your health.
You’ve probably heard about the importance of getting enough hours of sleep. According to the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and WebMD, sleep deprivation increases your risk of having a stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, heart failure, and psychiatric disorders, including depression.
Sleep deprivation also negatively impacts your ability to concentrate, retain information, and control your emotions and response to stress.
You know you need to get enough shuteye, but have you heard about the importance of improving the quality of your sleep?
According to a study conducted involving 60,586 participants, poor sleep quality is associated with poor health. (1) Quite a few researchers (2) (3) now think that sleep quality is even more important than sleep duration.
Are you already thinking about how you can hack your sleep so you can get more rejuvenation out of fewer hours of shut-eye? That was my first thought too.
Read on to discover what you should do to increase the quality of your sleep.
Wake Up at the Same Time
Wake up at the same time each morning to regulate your body’s sleep and wake cycle.
Wake up early and Step into Sunlight or Bright Light
Did you know that that you spend around fifty percent of your sleep cycle in a deep sleep, the most restorative sleep cycle, in the first part of the night? Towards the morning you are only spending about two percent of your sleep cycle in a deep sleep.
The hours between 8 PM and 12 AM give you the highest restorative sleep.
The answer to getting more restorative sleep is clear: go to bed earlier. But what if you are a night owl by nature? What if you know going to bed earlier will mean you are laying in bed awake?
You can try to wake up earlier to hack your sleep and increase the quality of the hours you spend in bed. Waking up earlier and stepping into the bright light will start to shift your circadian system and help you fall asleep earlier in the evening.
Jumping out of bed an hour earlier will be worth your effort. Fall asleep ea, and you will be earning more hours of higher quality sleep time.
Leverage the Power of the Sun
You can increase the quality of your sleep by not only getting into full light as soon as you wake up but by going outside as often as possible during the day, too. Instead of heading to the coffee machine during a work break, head outdoors.
Or better yet, grab the coffee and take it with you into the sun. Sunlight will penetrate the photoreceptors in your eye and send and signal to your brain to wake up. You will continue with your day feeling more alert and energized.
Decrease your exposure to bright light after sunset. Dim the light on your computer or mobile screen and avoid screen time entirely within one hour of bedtime.
To achieve maximum sleep quality, you would go to sleep and rise with the sun.
I did in fact, live this way for three months while living in a rustic, electricity-free cabin on a scenic lake. So I can attest to the fact that you will get higher quality sleep and feel full of energy and vibrant health if you fall asleep and awake with the sun.
Wear an Eye Mask and Ear Plugs
Light can penetrate the eye even if your lids are closed in slumber and interfere with the restorative quality of your sleep. Likewise, noise pollution can negatively impact your sleep cycles even if it isn’t loud enough to wake you up.
Sure, you can take steps to rid your room of any light and purchase blackout window treatments. You can turn off televisions and all music. But you probably can’t turn off the lovely person snoring next to you, or the traffic outside your window.
Try out the use of an eye mask and earplugs for a week and see if they increase how refreshed you feel after a night of sleep.
Invest in Your Own Blanket
Did you know that women, in general, get colder at night than men? Just like the intrusion of light or noise pollution into your bedroom, too little or too much warmth from your blankets can throw your body out of deep sleep. You will lower the quality of your sleep if you are too hot or too cold at night.
If you don’t sleep alone, then the solution is to purchase two blankets, one for you, and one for your beloved.
Eat a Diet High in Fiber and Low in Saturated Fat and Sugar
Did you know that those who are eating a low fiber diet rich in saturated fat could cause you to suffer less restorative sleep? Recent research (1) indicates that eating a diet high in saturated fat and low in fiber could cause you to experience lower sleep quality.
You knew that avoiding foods high in sugar and unhealthy saturated fat would help you to lose weight. Now you