How to Get Deep Sleep at Night?
Do you feel that you have slept well last night? If your answer is yes then, probably it is not so. Scientific research on deep sleep showed that due to the new age lifestyles where not only the people who are suffering from insomnia but also a majority of the people don’t sleep better every day when compared with the people a century ago. If you are slightly irritated while waking up in the morning, then you have a lack of deep sleep.
After analyzing a few of the research papers, I came up with some of the astonishing facts about deep sleep. I am very much interested in sharing a few of these tips, so you can also benefit from them. (For More Tips Read also How to Fall Asleep Faster at Night?)
Deep sleep is completely an involuntary process. Therefore, the only thing we can do is to support and strengthen the qualities that lay the basis for deep sleep.
A carpenter cannot fly an airplane, if he does, then probably he is unaware of the scientific laws behind it. So knowing the real truth behind every phenomenon gives better control over it.
Stages of Sleep
Our body needs to remove the toxins collected in the brain and body where sleep is a biologically driven natural phenomenon to carry out it. The inevitable human regenerative activities and human growth hormones are also released during sleep.
There are three stages of sleep such as the light sleep, REM sleep, and deep (N3 – N4) sleep. Deep sleep is associated with slow-wave sleep where the regenerative activities and growth hormone reach their peak. The rate of deep sleep decreases with the increase in age because the regenerative activities and growth hormone slows down while aging. (Read also How to Stay Looking Young?)
1. Have a Regular Sleep Schedule
We are biologically triggered in nature. If we work against it, then it adversely affects us. There is no way other than having a regularly scheduled sleeping habit to improve the quality of life – I mean to lead a healthy life.
Sleep studies showed that healthy sleep can help us to keep away a major percent of health issues related to weight gain, brain damage, diabetes or high blood sugar level, phobia, the risk of cancer, weakness, decreased cognitive activities, retard concentration level, and poor mind control.
It is recommended to sleep before 11 pm where the change in the body activities commences. So, we have to prepare the ground for it. It is important to consider sleeping at the same time than waking at the same time.
If one has lost the sleep previous night. Then, sleeping for 1/3 or 2/3 of the lost sleep along with regular sleep can compensate for the lost hours. For example, if one usually sleeps for 7 hours daily then sleeping for 10 to 11 hours will compensate for the lost hours of that person. Here, only the significant deep sleep counts will be recovered by reducing the time of other stages of sleep. This is the scientific fact that the lost hours of the significant deep sleep required for both days will be totally compensated.
While having a day job, some people have a separate sleeping schedule for the week of days. They usually postponed their regular sleeping time to late at night thinking that the next day is the holiday. It is common among people to sleep at different times. Besides, today’s lifestyles add to this. But occasional changes don’t affect much in the sleeping pattern where regular sleeping stages are resumed easily.
2. Keep Your Mind Off Negative Emotions
Keeping away wavy thoughts and negative emotions not only helps one to sleep quickly but also helps one to have a deep sleep. When one is pondering over the unresolved issues or something that bother that person while on the bed, and later when fell asleep one’s subconscious mind picks up the issues and gives signals to the mind as dreams. Hence, the duration of the REM stage will be increased. As a result, the deep sleep stage will be decreased. Sometimes one will have weird or scary dreams. This hidden subconscious mind activity makes one feel bad while waking up unaware of the case where probably most of the dreams will be erased from the conscious mind.
If you have a few unresolved issues or disturbing thoughts, write them down on a sheet of paper. The studies showed that writing down eases one’s mind and the subconscious mind doesn’t consider it as a threatening issue.
3. Meditation to Relieve Stress and Anxiety
Anxiety and depression are the enemies of deep sleep. The studies showed that there is no other better technique to relieve anxiety and stress than meditation. Don’t expect much from the meditation at the beginning. Anyhow, one will feel the difference. The advanced form of meditation is effective in eradicating stress and anxiety. (Read also How to Practice Kundalini Meditation?)
4. Food for Good Sleep at Night
Food items containing a sufficient quantity of magnesium and amino acid can improve sleep quality. Magnesium acts as a tranquilizer for sleep. For those people having minor sleep issues, herbal tea or green tea can be used as an alternative to sleeping pills.
For a night of deep sleep, it is better to avoid over-eating and foods that cause stomach disorders at night. Scientific research has shown that alcohol and drugs may help one to fall asleep instantly at night but they cannot ensure one with better sleep.
5. Sleep and Digital Devices
High-frequency blue light emitted from the digital screens not only lag the sleep but also affects the natural balance of the sleep hormone melatonin influencing the different stages of sleep. Thus it leads one to poor quality of sleep at night.
Nowadays, it seems impossible to avoid such digital devices at night. Therefore, it is better to use the blue light-emitting glass or F.lux app that can be installed on your computer or mobile phone. The radiation produced by the devices will also affect slow-wave sleep. So, it is recommended to keep such devices four feet away from the bed.
6. Have Pleasant Moments During the Day
If the days are filled with greater levels of happy emotions then the quality of sleep also increases. Walking in the garden or being with nature for some time makes one’s mind a pleasant feeling. Have fun times with others where laughter can help you to sleep better at night.
