3 Questions About a Good Night’s Sleep

A good nights rest is important for both our mental and physical well being. A lot of health and wellness focused books and guides all start with the same thing: get better sleep.

Here are three common questions about sleep that can help you get a better nights sleep.

1: How much sleep should I get each night?

Seven to eight hours is the right amount of sleep to get every night. Yet if you sleep for four hours and think it’s enough, it isn’t helpful at all. Worse still, if you skip an hour of sleep you won’t get it back. Sleeping on the weekends won’t help either. In any case, the amount of sleep you require from a newborn to an adult varies and decreases as you get older. But seven to eight is the norm for adults.

2: Does a phone and television affect sleep?

Screens from electronic devices disrupt sleep. It’s important to keep them out of the bedroom immediately. In particular, they disrupt our circadian rhythms and our body’s understanding of day and night. This includes e-reader, smartphones, iPads and TVs. In fact, don’t even charge these devices in your bedroom.

3: Which foods and beverages help and hurt a night’s sleep?

Two of the biggest culprits are caffeine and alcohol. The latter, in particular, disrupts sleep despite acting as a sedative initially. This will result in sleepiness the next day. Of course, there are beverages that can help. A couple of them are warm milk and tea with examples of the latter being decaffeinated tea such as chamomile. Milk actually contains the tryptophan which causes sleepiness.