You’re probably conscious of your hygiene. You shower at least once a day, shave, brush your teeth and wash your hands regularly.
But what about your sleep hygiene? It has nothing to do with how clean you are when you go to bed, but rather how “sloppy” you are in terms of behaviors that promote good-quality sleep. By wrecking your shuteye, poor sleep hygiene can adversely affect many aspects of your overall health. Conversely, improving your sleep hygiene can enable you to get the sleep you need to stay healthy and functional.
“Bad sleep hygiene generally undermines the quality and quantity of your sleep, which is why 40% of adult Americans are chronically sleep deprived,” explains Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer, DO, with the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center. “But we see people every day who can reverse these bad habits.”
Sleep Hygiene Tips
Correcting certain behaviors throughout the day and evening and improving your sleep environment are the foundations of good sleep hygiene.
| BEHAVIORS | Morning
· “Anchor” your wake time: Get up around the same time each day, including weekends. · Get exposure to bright light (i.e., sunlight) each morning. · Restrict any caffeine consumption to the morning hours. |
| Afternoon
· Take naps earlier in the afternoon, and limit them to 20–30 minutes. · Stay physically active, but don’t exercise in the four hours before bedtime. |
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| Evening
· Do not eat anything near bedtime: no heavy meals within three hours of bedtime. · Don’t use alcohol as a sleep aid, and avoid imbibing in the evening. · Find ways to wind down before bedtime, such as taking a warm bath, reading a book, meditating, or listening to relaxing music. · Maintain a consistent routine (e.g., brushing your teeth, bathing, etc.) before bedtime. · Refrain from using cell phones or computers or watching television near bedtime; keep these devices out of your bedroom. · If you can’t fall asleep in about 15–20 minutes, leave the bedroom, do something unexciting, and return to bed only when you feel sleepy. |
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| ENVIRONMENT | · Keep your home dimly lit at night; shut off any bright lights.
· Keep your bedroom dark, cool, quiet and free of pets or other noise sources. Use room-darkening curtains or blinds. · Remove all light sources from the bedroom. Remove your alarm clock, or cover the display, so you’re not focusing on it. · Find a comfortable pillow and mattress. Replace your mattress if it fails to provide appropriate support and comfort. |
The Price of Poor Sleep Hygiene
Good sleep, a healthful diet and exercise are considered the three pillars of wellness, Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer points out. Experts recommend that most adults get about seven to eight hours of sleep each night, but many people struggle to reach this goal.
Failing to get enough good-quality sleep not only can leave you tired during the day—thereby reducing your productivity and increasing your risk of accidents—but it also can increase your risk of a host of medical concerns, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cognitive dysfunction.
“Many people are sleeping six hours or less each night, and this is a critical level of sleep deprivation that we know not only promotes cardiometabolic diseases, but also poor brain health,” Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer says. “The link between poor sleep and short sleep with dementia has been established.”
To lower your risk of these complications, you need to prioritize and optimize your sleep. It starts by improving your sleep hygiene.
Sleep Hygiene: An All-Day Endeavor
Good sleep hygiene isn’t only about the things you do at bedtime. One of its key tenets is establishing a consistent wake-up time each day and getting exposure to bright light (ideally, sunlight) each morning.
If you still feel tired during the day, a nap can help, but don’t overdo it: Limit any naps to 20 to 30 minutes or less, and take them early in the afternoon. Also, restrict any caffeine consumption to the morning hours, and refrain from it if you have insomnia.
Then, at night, maintain a consistent bedtime and pre-bedtime routine, and keep your house dimly lit to prepare your mind and body for sleep. (See “Sleep Hygiene Tips” for other recommendations that help support better sleep.)
“Sleep hygiene is an all-day thing. It’s all about the things we need to do more of and the things we need to do less of during the day, and it’s also the behaviors we have through the night and as we’re going to sleep at night,” Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer says. “Make sleep a priority. We know that sleep hygiene and insomnia can be corrected with behavioral strategies that restore good sleep health. That, then, will have more favorable long-term effects as people age.”
