13 Simple Tricks That Can Give You an 30 Extra Minutes of SleepFrom eating walnuts to reading and laughing, these quick tips will help you sleep longer and better.
ByRose Leadem•
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As much as you might try to get seven to eight hours ofsleepevery night, the truth is, sometimes it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day. Fromproductivityto food cravings, sleep impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. That's why it's more important than ever to keep it a priority.
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Of course that's easier said than done. Whether it's worries from work or an attachment to your phone, there are a number of things that might keeping you up at night. However, the good news is, with a few quick tricks you'll be well on your way to zonking out and even tacking on a few more hours to your slumber every week.
To learn how, here are 13 simple tricks that can give you 30 minutes of extra sleep time every night.
Don’t use your phone before bed.
尝试关闭你的电子至少一个小时before hitting the hay. According toresearch, the blue and white light that gadgets such as laptops, phone screens and tablets give off prevents our brains from releasing melatonin, which is the hormone responsible for helping us fall asleep.Don’t exercise at night.
Getting exercise is a key ingredient to a restful night of sleep. However, it's important to take into account the time of day you're exercising too. According to theNational Sleep Foundation, if you're trying to get an intense workout in during the day, it's best to do it in the morning or afternoon because a hard workout too late in the evening can actually keep you up at night. Intense workouts raise your body temperature, increase your heart rate and stimulate your nervous systems -- all things that will prevent you from getting some proper shut-eye.Have a snack.
Don't feel guilty indulging in that late night snack. However, instead of opening up a carton of ice cream, opt for walnuts or almonds. According toresearch, walnuts contain their own source of melatonin, the hormone responsible for inducing asleep.Almondsare rich in magnesium, a mineral that not only helps you fall asleep but stay asleep.Read a physical book.
Lose the Kindle, and instead, opt for an actual book. According to theMayo Clinic, by making reading a bedtime habit, your body will begin to treat it as a relaxing routine that signals to your mind it's time to go to bed.
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Avoid afternoon naps.
Not only can you wake up feeling groggy after a two-hour nap, but it will likely affect your ability to fall asleep at night too. If you're tired, theNational Sleep Foundationrecommends 20-minute naps early in the day, but by the time the afternoon rolls around, its best to avoid naps altogether.Write out your to-do list the night before.
Writing out your to-do list the night before is an incredible way to take a load of stress off yourself, which can help ease your mind and get you snoozing quickly. Arecent studyby Baylor University found that people who wrote down their to-do lists the night before were able to fall asleep much quicker than people who did not.喝的茶momile tea.
Chamomile tea will not only help calm an anxious mind, but will also induce it to sleep. That's why a cup before bedtime is the perfect thing to help you fall asleep fast. According toresearch, an antioxidant called apigenin is a common ingredient in chamomile, and apigenin binds to specific receptors in the brain that initiate sleep.Go to bed at the same time every day.
Going to bed at the same time every night will help you cut down on the amount of time spent tossing and turning. Research shows that maintaining a regular sleep schedule can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes you to fall asleep. Onestudyfound that people who shifted from irregular to regular sleep patterns got a whopping 45 minutes more snooze time every night. Anotherstudy, which examined a group of college students, yielded similar results -- students with irregular sleep patterns took almost twice as long to fall asleep than people with regular ones.Have a good laugh.
Laughing is not only linked to happiness, but a link between giggles and sleep has also been discovered. Onestudyfound that when people laughed, their melatonin levels increased, making it easier for them to drift off to sleep.
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