Better sleep? What does that mean?

Trying to tackle sleepiness and physical fatigue by etching a half hour from your too busy day to tuck-in earlier? It’s Better Sleep Month – time to examine sleep quality instead of just sleep quantity. Polishing up on sleep hygiene and investing in your sleep environment can re-boot your bedtime and tap into undiscovered energy and vitality.

What is quality sleep?

Simply put, a quality night’s rest is one that allows you to pass undisturbed through a complete sleep cycle, several times throughout the night.

A healthy sleep cycle has four phases: drowsiness, light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep, and each phase allows your body to do different, critical functioning and repair work – from storing and sorting memories and information, to repairing neurons , fighting infection and bolstering the immune system.

You may be getting a full 8 hours of rest, but if you’re waking during the night, suffering from restlessness, tossing and turning or other sleep disturbance, your lack of sleep quality is affecting your health.

What disturbs sleep?

Many things cause night-waking and broken sleep cycles. Bone fide sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, Lyme disease and delayed sleep phase syndrome, often require consultation with a doctor to properly address. But for most of us, the two main challenges to quality sleep are poor sleep hygiene or an unhelpful sleep environment .

Sleep hygiene is the set of sleep habits you’ve developed. Do you generally go to bed and rise at the same time each day? Do you abstain from caffeine and alcohol before bed? Do you leave your worries outside the bedroom door? Brushing up your sleep hygiene now can help you before you’re ready to tuck in.

Sleep environment is your bedroom. Is your sleep environment designed specifically to help you get the best night’s rest you can get – or has it become an active living space filled with distractions? Investing in a supportive sleep environment is critical to achieving your best night’s rest.

During Better Sleep Month we’re going to concentrate on how to get the high quality sleep you need. The Better Sleep Council says it best: ‘A good night’s sleep, just like proper diet and exercise, is essential to your mental, emotional and physical health.’ And we all deserve a great night’s rest.

Read all our Better Sleep Month Posts

• Better Sleep? What does that mean?
• Time to get a new mattress?
• Natura’s Bed for Your Head™ Philosophy
• Sleep Hygiene: Tackling bad habits that harm sleep quality

Are you in need of a sleep health reboot? What could you do for yourself to get a better quality night’s rest? Visit www.naturaworld.com for ideas.

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