In this the concluding article in the present series on getting a better night’s sleep, we look at the issues of using alcohol as a sleep inducer and the importance of daily exercise in getting a good night’s sleep. But you can’t just exercise at any time, so read on!
6. Give the nightcap a miss
Although alcohol is a well known muscle relaxant and it does make you more relaxed, it sounds like an excellent sleeping aid, right? Wrong!
Alcohol is often used to unwind at the end of a long and stressful day but unfortunately taking alcohol before bedtime leads to shallower and more fragmented sleep. People who regularly use alcohol in order to get to sleep have poor quality sleep with frequent arousals during the night. Hence regular nightcappers often report that they feel like they haven’t been to sleep at all when they wake in the morning. This is because of a disruption to REM sleep caused by the alcohol. While alcohol does result in a person falling asleep faster, the length of time asleep is punctuated by frequent wake-ups, leading to that “drained” feeling in the morning.
Of course, regular use of alcohol for the purpose of getting off to sleep results in tolerance to the substance, whereby more and more alcohol is required to achieve the desired effect. Alcohol also contributes to snoring because of its known muscle relaxant effects, which can lead to frequent sleep apneas, where the body stops breathing for many seconds, before warning systems wake the person. Repeated episodes every night lead to chronic exhaustion and even falling asleep at inappropriate times during the day.
A better solution to alcohol is honey, milk and chamomile tea. Honey can stimulate serotonin production and chamomile tea relaxes. Having honey in chamomile tea increases the effects. Also warm milk contains tryptophan, another chemical which aids sleep. Honey is warm milk is used in mental hospitals to assist patients to sleep, even those on heavy doses of sleep-inducing drugs.
7.Exercise regularly
Daily exercise is a must for good sleep and is often overlooked as an aid to better sleep. Not only does exercise work the muscles and cause the body to become naturally tired, something that sitting in a office chair all day cannot deliver, but it helps to release calming endorphins that promote feelings of calm and wellbeing.
Solo exercise such as walking, running or swimming also encourages problem processing to occur while at the same time letting out physical tension associated with those life problems. In fact, exercising has staved off many a nervous collapse in many people. Sitting thinking about problems, or worse, mulling about them in bed, does not allow for the release of stress hormones which accompanies such thoughts. Exercising is the perfect way to process and release, in one step. One proviso is to not exercise heavily close to bedtimes as it will have the effect of putting your body clock back. Instead exercise early in the morning or just before dinner in the evenings.
Contact Beth McHugh for further assistance regarding this issue.
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