Could Your Sleep Pattern Be Making You Sick? How to Adjust Your Sleep Cycle

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 out of every 3 adults doesn’t get the clinically recommended amount of sleep necessary to remain in top health. You’re not alone if you don’t feel that you have the best quality of health that you could hope for, but even if you are struggling for shut-eye, it doesn’t mean that you have to resign to a fate of never getting a full night’s rest again.

Though an improper sleep pattern is one of the most prevalent health problems in the nation by far, it is also one of the simplest and least expensive health problems to remedy. Though not all issues with proper sleep stem from the same root cause, the following sleep cycle readjustment solutions collectively form a pool of potential resolutions that can almost universally aid all people suffering from improper sleep in their attempts to become better rested at regular hours.

Keep your room cool

One of the easiest and most immediate ways that you can set your sleep cycle back into a natural flow is to simply keep your room temperature cooler. Studies have indicated that sleeping in a cool room can act as an effective countermeasure against the risk of sleep onset insomnia, in which the body’s core temperature is normally too high to fall asleep as quickly as those without it. Another thing to consider is buying a cooling pillow. This type of pillow can make you fall asleep more easily and can decrease some types of insomnia.

Fast for 15 hours before your desired waking time

One of the peculiar things about the human circadian rhythm is the fact that it’s strongly linked to the time that we eat our first meals of the day. Your breakfast is what jumpstarts your metabolic functions for your waking hours, and when that happens, your body will naturally associate the metabolic boost with the time of day that it’s expected to “boot up”.

If you want to have your body associate your desired waking time with the hour that it interprets as the morning, then your best bet is to fast for about 15 hours before your waking hour. If you want your natural waking hour to be 5 am, for example, then your last meal before 5am should be 2pm on the preceding afternoon.

Taking 15 hours to fast will give your metabolism time to cool down into a state at which it’s on standby and prepared to be restarted again with more energy. Set an alarm for the time that you want to wake up after your fast, and when you do, have a nutrient-dense breakfast immediately. After the time spent idle, the sudden reintroduction of fuel will wake your metabolism up and send a message that the current hour is the natural hour of your body’s natural awakening process.

Steer clear of evening caffeinated beverages

The closer to your bed time that you’re consuming any kind of energy drink, the less able you’ll be to get to sleep and wake up at the time that you need. It can be a difficult habit to cut down if you’re highly conditioned to getting a cup of coffee to cap off the day, but for the sake of your sleep quality, you absolutely must make an effort to have that habit done away with as soon as possible.

Cut off all artificial light as your bed time gets closer

The more photon stimulation in your eyes from light, the more your body is going to associate the time that you’re exposed to that light as a time that’s meant for being awake and vigilant. The best chance that you have at fixing your sleep cycle hinges upon breaking down your body’s association of sleeping hours with wakefulness, and so naturally, you’ll want to refrain from giving it an unnecessary reason to believe that nighttime is daytime with unnecessary light stimulation.

Try to form a habit of cutting off all artificial light from cell phones and mobile devices at least an hour before bed time. The effect may not be immediate, but a few days of repeated commitment to being LED-free before bed will eventually trigger a fundamental change in the way that your circadian rhythm is primed.

Commit to regular sessions of vigorous physical activity

Regular exercise is both a natural booster of daytime energy and promoter of high-quality rest. You don’t need to train as hard as professional athlete in order to give the full benefit of exercise to your circadian rhythm, as just 2.5 hours a week will suffice for getting your body into a better frame for proper sleep cycle alignment. Also, you can consider a healthy diet and home remedies for a good night’s sleep.

For the best possible results, it’s ideal to schedule your exercise sessions at an earlier time in the day than at a later time. Exercising too close to the time that you want to sleep can result in your heart rate and adrenaline levels remaining elevated while you’re in bed, which can make it more difficult to relax until things settle down back to the baseline.