Are the decisions you make during the day impacting your ability to fall asleep at night? Here are four tips for improving the quality of your snooze time, according to Elite Daily:
- Cut down on caffeine. Caffeine and nicotine are two of the most common stimulants, and so either in high quantity or close to routine bedtime will inhibit sleep. Rule of thumb? If it wakes you up in the morning, avoid consumption before bed.
- Sign off and stop the scroll. Anything with a backlit screen (TV, monitor, tablet, mobile phone) emits a very high percentage of blue spectrum light, which promotes wakeflness. It's recommended that people turn off all electronic devices one hour before their routine bedtime.
- Say no to extended happy hours. Going out after a long day at the office for a cocktail or two with coworkers can be a sigh of relief, but know when to cut yourself off so you’ll be able to rest when you get into bed. Alcohol changes sleep architecture, and suppresses some of the deeper stages of sleep.
- Avoid working in the bedroom. You can work from home; just don’t do it in the bedroom. It can be tempting to hop into bed and work on assignments from under the covers, but doing so will actually create a subconscious connection between conference calls and your comforter, causing your brain to resist sleep because, hello, shouldn’t you be answering emails when using that pillow?