How to make sleep your friend not your enemy

Do you want to make sleep your friend? Why should you, you might ask? Lack of sleep is a problem for many people and the by-products of lack of sleep is moodiness, irritability, loss of productivity, and much more.

If you make sleep your friend, you win

When you get enough sleep, you can produce more at work, your relationships tend to be better with others, and you are overall much happier.

Why is it that we can’t seem to make sleep our friend?

There are many causes for lack of sleep. Some of it is purposeful because we have moved to lifestyles that don’t promote sleep as a value. People pride themselves on getting by with less sleep. If they sleep only 5 hours, they have more time to be productive.

This might be true for a short while but after time, it will cause more issues.

How do you make sleep your friend?

1. Start with a regular bedtime. Determine what works best for your schedule and then stick with it.
2. Try to sleep the same amount of time daily. Generally, a minimum of 7 hours is a good starting point.
3. Make sure your devices have Do Not Disturb turned on. I recently replaced my phone and had to fine tune my settings. Even if you think you are sleeping, hearing notifications when you are asleep will disturb your sleep qualty. Do Not Disturb will allow critical calls and your alarms but turn off notifications and calls outside of your favorites.
4. If you know caffeine affects you, don’t drink it after a certain time. I find that if I stay away from coffee after noon, I am better off.
5. Alcohol is not a solution to help you sleep. Most of the time, you diminish the quality of your sleep.
6. Smoothing music helps some people.
7. Leave the television out of the bedroom.
8. You can’t make up sleep. Sleeping more on weekends or when you had a short night, doesn’t add value.
9. Exercise more, even walking for just 10 minutes per day improves sleep quality. Too close to bedtime, exercise may interfere with sleep.
10. Deep breathing can help. Breathe in completely and slowly exhale getting rid of everything in your lungs.

There are many more tips to help you make sleep your friend but when you do, you will find that you are more productive at work and more fun to be around. I understand these sleep issues. You might have guessed that I struggle too but I know that I can’t exist on too little sleep.

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