Health & Fitness: Ten Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep

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1. Exercise regularly in the late afternoon. Exercise for at least 30 minutes at least six hours before bedtime. Such a regimen will cause your body temperature to rise when exercising, but drop by the time you're ready to sleep. This cooling effect has been shown to promote sleep.

2. Establish a sleep schedule. Reinforce your natural sleep rythyms by going to bed every night and getting up at the same time each morning (including weekends) Disrupting your natural rythyms can lead to insomnia.

3. Reduce the stress level in your life. Stress-related problems and issues can affect both the quality and quantity of sleep you get. To the extent possible, get control of your life. Put things into perspective. On the other hand, if such stress-related factors are leading to restlessness in bed, try relaxation techniques to induce a more peaceful, serene state of mind (i.e., try imagining yourself in a relaxing place, such as lying on a tropical beach).

4. Lower the temperature in your bedroom. As a rule, keep the temperature in your bedroom slightly lower than in the rest of the house. Furthermore, when it's hot, don't be reluctant to use your air conditioner, as needed, to bring the temperature down far enough. Research indicates that people who have trouble sleeping often aren't warm enough during the day or cool enough at night.

5. Restrict your intake of liquids before bedtime. Try to avoid drinking any liquids for at least two hours before you go to bed, so that your bladder doesn't fill up and wake you in the night. If you want to drink something, try a glass of warm milk. It contains a substance (tryptophan) that promotes sleep.

6. Avoid snacking on heavy, spicy, or high-fat foods before bedtime. Such foodstuffs can cause acidity and heartburn while you sleep and interfere with the quality of your sleep.

7. Reduce your intake of caffeine. Drinking (i.e., coffee, soft drinks, etc.) or eating foods (e.g. chocolate) that contain caffeine within six hours of going to bed can keep you awake. Caffeine is a stimulant that can delay the onset of sleep. Caffein has also been found to disturb that phase of sleeping during which dreaming usually occurs.

8. Avoid alcohol near bedtime. While alcohol may help you fall asleep more quickly, it may also lead to you awaken periodically during the night. Furthermore, as the effects of alcohol wear off, your brain actually becomes more alert.

9. Don't catnap during the day. Taking naps to catch up on lost sleep only tends to make you less sleepy at night.

10. Be wary of using sleeping pills. Not only do they not solve whatever underlying problems that may be disrupting your sleep, sleeping pills can have serious side effects (even over-the-counter preparations). Furthermore, their use poses several health-related risks. For example, once you use them, it is possible to become addicted to them.

Courtesy of ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal