5 key ideas for better sleep

As science advances on issues related to mental health, the importance of having a good night's sleep is becoming crucial.

It is not just a matter of not feeling bad in the morning and performing better when working or studying; In addition, something as simple as not sleeping well for several months increases the chances of developing a wide variety of psychological disorders, and even some diseases that go beyond the functioning of the nervous system and affect other parts of the Body.

That is why It is essential to adopt certain simple habits that allow us to sleep better and make the most of the hours spent resting. Even if you have trouble falling asleep.

• Related article: "The top 7 sleep disorders"

Why is it important to get a good night's sleep?

If we dedicate a good part of the hours of the day to sleeping, it is not by chance. In nature it has been seen that practically all vertebrate animals need to sleep with a periodicity similar to that of humans; even the species that due to their biological characteristics do not rest like we do, enter a state of dormancy, in some cases causing the two halves of the brain to take turns sleeping (as happens, for example, with the dolphins).

This is due to something relatively simple: With complex nervous systems, it is necessary to have a self-maintenance system that is up to par. That is why our bodies have evolved to be active during certain hours of the day, and inactive during the rest of the time. And the best way to take advantage of that stage in which it makes no sense to go out to find resources or to create bonds with others is to make the nervous system charge energies and reorganize its functioning.

In fact, it is believed that one of the reasons we need to sleep is not only to prepare our networks of interconnected nerve cells so that they can face a new journey, but also the sleep stage allows us to consolidate in our long-term memory useful contents that we have learned during the previous hours, whether conscious or unconsciously.

This is consistent with what we know from neuroscience research.: when sleeping, our nervous system not only does not turn off, but we can hardly say that it is much less active than when we are awake. In those moments, millions of neurons begin to launch electrical signals in a coordinated way with each other, and patterns of nervous activation that give names to the different stages of sleep: the REM stage and the non-REM stage, which in turn is divided into others phases. The human brain is made to take advantage of these hours to go through these phases and let the interconnections Neural cells readjust each other, looking for the best possible configuration to wake up with charged batteries and clear.

• You may be interested: "The 5 phases of sleep: from slow waves to REM"

Keys to sleep better and in a restorative way

Now that we have seen to what extent the hours dedicated to sleep are far from being wasted time, let's look at several tips to get a better sleep. To do this, you must begin to integrate these habits into your day-to-day routine, and although at the beginning it will require a certain level of commitment, in If you do it well, it is very possible that after several months they will come out automatically, without the need for premeditation to enter into play.

1. Coffee, only in the mornings

The psychoactive power of caffeine should not be underestimated: introducing this substance into our system will have effects even if we are not immediately aware of it. So, the best thing is that you maintain a certain discipline of consumption of drinks with caffeine, doing everything possible to make it inconceivable for you to take it in the second half of the day.

2. Practice Mindfulness

In many studies, Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in managing certain experiences related to anxiety and even pain. Therefore, if you notice that there is something that worries you and that you are going around in your head, or if you have any health problem that causes you a certain discomfort, you can try this class of practices inspired by the meditation. Yes indeed, it is advisable to receive training from a psychology professional, so that it teaches you the basics and from there you can apply them in your day to day. Psychologists can help a lot in this regard.

3. Respect your resting place

Not all the keys to sleep better go through controlling what happens inside our bodies: the environment also influences, and a lot. Take the time to see which elements of the room you sleep in are working and which are not working to allow you to enjoy a good quality of sleep. Sometimes the ultimate solution is something as simple as stopping and realizing that you need less exposure to streetlight light coming through the window, or buying a more comfortable mattress.

Also, if you notice that you are having trouble falling asleep, try not staying in bed for several hours to do activities that have nothing to do with rest, such as eating or using a computer laptop. In this way you will associate that place with what you see and feel every time you are about to start to sleep.

4. Have a good exercise schedule

If you have a habit of going to the gym, going for a run, or practicing any kind of sport, be careful not to do it during the hours before you go to bed. If you don't follow this guideline, you will probably end up "fooling" your body into believing that the Dinner time is still a time when the environment can bring us challenges that require physical effort.

As a consequence of this, when the time of night comes when we try to go to sleep, the state of activation of our nervous system and our endocrine (hormonal) system will simply not let us, and we won't be sleepy until much later.

5. Have a good work schedule

In the same way that it is important to be careful about when you exercise, you also have to keep some control over your work hours. This is so for two reasons. On the one hand, working activates us mentally, even when, due to our profession, what we do is fundamentally an intellectual task. It is true that writing a report shortly before going to bed does not imply the same for our quality of sleep as spending that time going out for a run. time, but despite that, it will probably make it a little more difficult for us to start sleeping at the time it is due, because our brain will be more "switched on".

On the other hand, if we allow work to gradually enter the schedule of what should be our free time, it will be easier than with the passage of the days we are accumulating chores (due to a domino effect) and that being forced to go to sleep late is becoming the norm, and not the exception.

Bibliographic references:

• Freeman, D. et. to the. (2017). The effects of improving sleep on mental health (OASIS): a randomized controlled trial with mediation analysis. Lancet Psychiatry, 4 (10): pp. 749 - 758.