Are you having Trouble Sleeping? These Insomnia-Inducing Habits Could be Blamed

Getting a good night's sleep is incredibly important for your mood and overall health. It is just as important as eating healthy and exercising. Nowadays people are sleeping less than they did sleep in the past, and their natural sleeping pattern has been affected by various outside interferences.

It has been advisable to take a minimum of seven hours of sleep each day, unfortunately, we perform such activities before going to bed that restrains our mental state of mind from sleeping. Thereby, causing insomnia in our regular daily life. Below are the things that you do unintentionally and increase your own trouble before sleeping.

Using an Electronic Device/ Smartphone for texting or entertainment

Avoid the urge to text and use your smartphone while sleeping. Pixabay.

We often stick to our electronic device for the whole day making us continue with the same in the night before sleeping. Electronic devices like e-readers and smartphones, or even television can disrupt sleep if watched while or before sleep. Keep a note that you're suffering from Nomophobia if you sleep with your phone in or near your bed and get the urge to use it. It disturbs your brain after you've already retired or fallen asleep.

Drinking Coffee/ Tea

Avoid intake of caffeine before sleeping. Pixabay.

Though you might love to drink a cup of coffee after your dinner, avoid it to the extreme extent. Coffee and tea contain stimulants of caffeine that disrupt your sleeping pattern. Do not intake caffeine after the evening if you desire to spend a peaceful night. Drink herbal tea which does not have composition of caffeine in it.

Eating chocolate

Chocolate is a rich source of caffeine, especially dark chocolate with high cocoa contents. If you are sensitive to caffeine, eating chocolate or drinking tea/ coffee might not do the desired role to keep you awake. Chocolates increase the heart rate, thereby affecting your sleep.

Skip your wind-down time

When you admit you can't shut your mind off in bed, it's often because you haven't given yourself adequate time to rest and relax in the past hour. Take to bed after 30 minutes of your thought process of the day and put away anything that is provoking you and your night. To avoid any chaos, make to-do lists for the next day and plan up your day in advance.

Having Chocolate or heavy food should not be consumed before bedtime. Pixabay.

Checking your work email

The blue-light-emitting device can overstress your body affecting your sleeping rhythms, and force you to check your work emails repeatedly before bedtime. This kind of mental disturbing activity will make you nervous or agitated and also unfocused for the next morning.

Eating spicy or fatty foods

It is not preferable to have a large meal too close to bedtime else you are sure to feel uncomfortable while sleeping. Spicy or fatty foods are capable of refluxing the acids of our body which is processed easily when a person lies down at night. You should try to fix a proper time for your dinner at least two hours before sleeping to enhance the process of digestion.

Drinking Alcohol/ Smoking

Nicotine increases the risk of insomnia. Pixabay.

Alcohol does trick you into a drowsy state but as your body begins to metabolize the alcohol, you will feel the restlessness throughout the night and wake up tired with a dizzy and aching head. Smoking is injurious to health, we all are aware but it also disturbs your sleep. Nicotine acts a stimulant in your body worsening your insomnia. You need to consult a doctor for quitting nicotine consumption, be it traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smoking cessation patches, pipes, cigars, and chewing tobacco.

ALSO READ: Beware! E-cigarettes are also harmful

Working out too intensely

Heavy Intensity workout may disrupt your sleeping pattern. Pixabay.

Exercising before bed is a healthy habit to promote your sleeping habits by treating insomnia. But to put your body into high-intensity exercise in the night does not affirm that you'll have a great night. You need to have an early workout session to ensure your body has ceased from the energized stimulations at the gym.

Getting into a fight

Avoid fights causing stress before sleeping. Pixabay.

There's a definite reason couples are advised to never go to bed angry. Stress causes insomnia, increasing your stress hormones like cortisol. So, avoid serious conversations for the night and discuss them in the other time of the day.

Alter your routine

You should follow a certainly specified routine of carrying out activities before bed on a fixed time. This ensures a good sleeping hygiene and sends your brain a signal that you are going to sleep in a rest awhile. Do not alter that consistent routine often to maintain a healthy mind and brain before and after sleeping.

-Prepared by Bhavana Rathi of NewsGram. Twitter @tweet_bhavana

mental health