How to Sleep Better

by J. Steven Poceta, MD

Topics: health, stress, exercise, sleep, caffeine More

Content provided by Revolution Health Group

What are the six basic activities that everyone who has trouble sleeping should follow?

1. Get 30 minutes of outdoor time each day. This is the easiest way for most people to get bright light. Getting some bright light helps to set your body clock and stimulates portions of the sleep-wake rhythm generators in the brain. Try to get the bright light at about the same time each day.

2. Take only one serving of caffeine each day, only in the morning. Caffeine taken after lunch lingers in the system and can worsen sleep. Too much caffeine in the morning can cause a rebound of drowsiness later in the day.

3. Practice a relaxation technique such as meditation for at least 20 minutes each day. This could also be exercise, prayer or biofeedback. Prayer and meditation have the advantage that you can also do them when you might be awake in the night.

4. Get up at the same time each day. This is the most important rule, and it is best to move the time a little earlier than you might naturally wake up. Somewhere near sunrise is also ideal if you can manage it.

5. Plan your bedtime based on your wake-up time; for most people, about seven hours before the wake-up time. The worst mistake for most people is to go to bed too early, hoping for nine hours of sleep.

6. Lastly, if you cannot sleep during the night, it is vitally important that you stop trying for a while. Get up, go sit in a recliner and spend 20 to 30 minutes there before trying to sleep again. Then go into bed and try it again.

So there you have it — a little sunlight, only a little caffeine, a regular morning wake-up time, some daily stress reduction, planning for seven hours in bed, and if you still can't sleep, get up for a while and stop trying.

Click here to learn more about sleep and its importance to your health.