5 Ways to Help Improve Your Sleep

Sleep is incredibly important for everyone. Whether you're an athlete, entrepreneur, employee, or parent, sleep is essential. You need it to achieve goals, to be healthy, and it contributes to your mood. If you sleep well, it's easier for people to feel good, change their habits, and stay healthy.

Below are 5 ways to help you sleep well.

Method 1: Synchronize your biological clock

Your body has an internal clock. This clock is in charge of your hormone and energy production, your organ functions, your recovery capacity, chemical balances in the brain, and your sleep-wake cycle. Unfortunately, this clock cannot tell time. To direct the right processes in your body at the right times of the day, your body needs certain external stimuli. The most influential stimulus is sunlight. Your body needs a stimulus from sunlight to know 'what time it is'.

So, go outside as much as possible. Also at different times of the day, so your body knows 'what time it is'. This gives your body the opportunity to produce the hormones involved in sleep at the right times. For more information, you can read this blog.

Method 2: Turn your bedroom into a sleep oasis

The room where you sleep has a great influence on your sleep duration and sleep quality. Below is the sleep oasis checklist.

• Dark and quiet
• 16-19 degrees Celsius
• Ventilate your room during the day
• Do not decorate your room with unnecessary stimuli
• Keep electronic devices out of your room as much as possible
• Turn off your WiFi/router
• Use mouth tape when sleeping
• Ensure comfortable bedding
• Only use your room for reading, sleeping, or sex.

Method 3: Avoid artificial light before bed

We just talked about the biological clock not being able to tell time. Something that can severely disrupt the biological clock is exposure to artificial blue light. This light is basically in all your electronic devices with a screen.

Blue light itself does not, in principle, cause disturbances. Sunlight also contains blue light. The difference is that in sunlight, blue light is accompanied by other light frequencies, such as infrared light. Artificial blue light is not. If you spend all day looking at your screen, your body is 'told' that it is early afternoon on a summer day. This causes disruptions in your biological clock.

Therefore, avoid artificial blue light as much as possible, especially before going to bed. You can also get help from a blue light filter. We are fans of blue light filters from Loptimize.

You can use the discount code 'WERKATLEET' for a 5% discount.

Method 4: Wind down before going to bed

Nothing is as annoying as being caught up in your work when you're trying to sleep. That's why we shouldn't forget to wind down when we come from a strenuous/stressful situation. We need to be 'relaxed' before going to bed.

Of course, how we wind down varies a bit depending on the situation. For example, if you want to wind down after your office job, you can do the following:

• Tidy up your desk
• Turn off your computer
• Get some exercise
• Put on relaxing music
• etc.

This way, you can prepare yourself well for sleep.

Method 5: Check for nutritional deficiencies

Another important aspect that helps you sleep well is nutrition. You might wonder why. Well, it's like this: the hormones that help us fall asleep are all made from nutrients.

Below is an example to illustrate this.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that we must get from food. It is converted into the amino acid 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). Then, 5-HTP is converted into serotonin. Ultimately, this serotonin is then converted into melatonin. So, make sure you get enough tryptophan through your diet. Tryptophan is found in protein-rich foods such as milk, cheese, and chicken.