Sleep mistakes: You should avoid these 5

Excessive heat, distractions and overeating – there are a few factors that can disrupt your sleep. We introduce you to the five most common mistakes.

Do you have trouble falling asleep or feel unrested after sleeping? Maybe it’s due to one or more of the most common sleep mistakes that many people make. From the ideal temperature to the right food and exercise in the evening – we present the five most common mistakes.

1. Your bedroom is too warm

If your bedroom is too warm, you’ll probably have trouble falling asleep. The ideal room temperature for sleeping is 15 to 18 degrees, although the subjective feeling can vary. It is recommended that you ventilate the room for about a quarter of an hour before going to bed.

The thicker your pajamas and blanket are, the warmer you will be. It’s worth avoiding synthetic pajamas and instead opting for natural materials. The same applies to your bed linen. It’s best to choose organic bed linen from organic farming. By doing this you are doing something good for the environment and your health.

2. You go to bed at different times

You will feel particularly refreshed after sleeping if you have a consistent sleep schedule. This means that you go to bed at the same time every night and wake up in the morning. This probably doesn’t always fit well into your everyday life. But the more you do this, the more awake and refreshed you will feel. The recommended sleep duration for adults is at least seven hours. However, the ideal amount of sleep varies from person to person and can change throughout life. A good indicator of whether we have had enough sleep is how awake and rested we feel in the morning.

3. Go to bed with a full stomach

Never go to bed on a full stomach! In this case, your body is too busy digesting food. If possible, only eat light, stomach-friendly food, such as steamed vegetables or warm soup.

According to the AOK, there is no fixed time by which you should eat in the evening at the latest, as this depends on your individual bio-rhythm and metabolism. It is therefore difficult to make a general recommendation. However, if you regularly suffer from heartburn or reflux disease, you should not eat anything at least three to four hours before going to bed to allow for optimal digestion. Especially if you have heartburn, it is important to keep this time between dinner and bedtime. In addition, a short walk after your last meal can help promote digestion. You can find more helpful tips for heartburn here: Home remedies for heartburn: What really helps

4. Exercise right before bed

Would you like to do sports in the evening? Generally this is not a problem. Finally, it can help you reduce stress and become more relaxed. However, make sure that you do your workout at home or in the gym at least three hours before going to bed, according to the AOK. Otherwise, it won’t help you fall asleep faster, but rather prevent you from doing so. After all, your body needs some time to come back down. An evening routine, for example, can also help you with this.

5. You use your cell phone before sleeping

If you spend a lot of time on your cell phone shortly before going to bed, for example through TikTok, Instagram stories or WhatsApp messages, it can make it difficult to fall asleep. Especially on Instagram, it can happen that you compare yourself to other users, which is mentally and emotionally upsetting and makes it harder for your body to calm down. The light from the smartphone screen also influences our sleep. The bluish light, which we perceive as whitish, is particularly bright and signals to the body that it is still day. This reduces and delays the release of the sleep hormone melatonin, which is normally released in the dark.

Notifications from social media channels such as Facebook or Instagram as well as new messages from WhatsApp or WhatsApp alternatives can also keep you awake and make it difficult to fall asleep. They can even keep waking you up while you’re falling asleep. To avoid this, you should ideally put your smartphone in airplane mode or turn it off completely so that you don’t receive any messages at night. Another option is to put the cell phone in another room.

It also helps to put your phone away an hour or two before going to bed. This way you can become more relaxed and fall asleep faster.

These measures will help reduce your digital stress – an approach also known as “digital detox”.

Read more on Techzle\.com:

• Painting the bedroom: Which colors ensure a good night’s sleep
• Bedtime for children: this is what parents should know
• Tips for falling asleep: Practical sleep aids

Edited by Melanie Grünauer

** marked with ** or orange underlined Links to sources of supply are partly partner links: If you buy here, you are actively supporting Techzle\.com, because we then receive a small part of the sales proceeds. More info.