Some lucky souls sleep like a happy baby, and some suffer from insomnia virtually every night. Most of us are somewhere between these extremes. Lots of our restless nights are caused by the obvious malefactors: being sick, eating something that disagrees with us, too much caffeine, and stress related to our life problems can all cause us to miss out on sleep. Add to that list frequent traffic noise, thumping from the apartment above (don’t those people EVER sleep!?), a lumpy mattress, sirens or trains passing in the night, and that lovely person next to you who, to put it delicately, snores like a lumberjack, and it is a wonder any of us ever get a good night’s sleep!
In my years with Ear Plug Super Store, I’ve heard so many heart-breaking stories from people who suffer chronic sleeplessness that I want to offer a few tips that may help you, in the event that you are one of the afflicted. (Mind you, I am no physician and you really ought to check with your doc if you suffer from chronic sleeplessness!) Still, people are very complicated creatures and we frequently mis-diagnose our own problems, so my first piece of advice to you in getting a good night’s sleep is to address each and every one of these recommendations before you resort to pills or surgery or other extreme measures, like moving or divorce. These are tactics that should help most people who give them an honest try, and none of them are harmful.
1. Create a good set of bedtime habits. Reserve your bed for sleeping and, well, let’s call it intimate recreation. Don’t use the bed for watching TV or reading. For regular TV and Reading, do those activities elsewhere so you do not get yourself trained to associate those activities with your bed.
2. Cut out the afternoon caffeine. People have wide variations in their reactions to caffeine, but coffee, energy drinks, tea, soda pop, and even chocolate contain variable amounts of the drug, and it is increasingly easy to get more than we plan or think we are getting. Caffeine effects, though rapid in their onset, remain for hours, long after we have “come down” from the initial high that follows ingestion. If you fall asleep, only to wake in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, caffeine and/or alcohol are very likely culprits. Try eliminating all caffeine from your life after noon for a week and see if that helps your sleeplessness.
3. Reduce your alcohol intake. For smaller individuals, one drink a day (one ounce of spirits, or one beer or one 6 ounce glass of wine) is heart-healthy and will not normally affect your sleep. If you are a larger-statured person, one or two drinks are recommended by some for good health. If these guidelines are followed, you should not be affected negatively in your sleep patterns. But if you overindulge, what seems to happen is that once your body has metabolized the alcohol, which takes several hours, your sleep pattern is disrupted and you often cannot get back down into the deep sleep you need for complete rest.
4. Exercise, but not right before bedtime. Being fit will reduce the little aches and pains which will help you sleep better, but if you do cardio-exercise right before bedtime, your system will remain on high for a good while afterwards, making it very difficult to fall asleep. As an alternative to cardio-exercise, a few minutes of good stretching can help to relieve stress, ease your little pains and make your transition into sleep more comfortable… but don’t overdo it.
5. Don’t fight just before bed. Plan your arguments for early in the day. Going to bed angry is always a bad idea for sleep’s sake. Sometimes you can get your angry spouse to agree to postpone the discussion until morning or lunch the next day without either of you having to give in or lose the argument. As a bonus, if you can both agree to postpone the argument, it may even be less stressful when you finally do get around to it. At least you will both have had a better night’s sleep than you would have had if you kept at it until the fight was resolved.
6. Reduce your stress. At the core, all stress is self-induced. If you feel on edge all the time, worried about all sorts of things, or fearful of all manner of risks you have no choice but to confront, stress is most likely your frequent, if not constant companion. And living in a constant state of stress is no way to live a happy life. You will not sleep well, and your health will suffer. How to deal with stress? The first step in reducing your stress is to identify its sources and then begin methodically to remove or change those sources as best you can. I also suggest you buy a book or two on stress management. At the heart of all the stress-reduction strategies I have seen is the idea that, if you can gain control over your situation, your stress will be reduced. For example, if you are stressed by being too busy, find a way to cut down on some of your activities, so you can better manage the ones you need to handle. Try meditation, a long soak in a hot tub, a nice vigorous walk (but not right before bedtime), a soothing massage (both giving and getting massages will reduce stress), or get a hobby that takes you outside your daily grind. Nobody lives a stress-free life, but every one of us can work to reduce the level of stress we live with, and any reduction will help to improve your sleep.
7. Maintain a healthy weight. Yeah, yeah, you say, easier said than done. But the truth is that losing a few pounds will not only help you get a better night’s sleep, but if you snore, it will also do more to reduce your snoring problem than almost any other snoring solution will--especially if your snoring began after you gained a few pounds. Weight loss is not always the easiest solution, but it will make you more healthy, happy and stop snoring, so now you have even one more reason to lose the weight. You and your spouse will sleep better.
8. Make it dark while you sleep. Humans are hard-wired to function in the daytime. Accordingly, we do not do well trying to sleep when it is light outside. (Those of you who have worked the night shift know about this in dreadfully real terms.) When light hits our eyes, they are designed to open, ending anything resembling useful sleep. More than a simple discomfort, exposing your eyes to bright lights while trying to sleep can seriously decrease the quality of sleep you get throughout the night. Your best sleep will always happen in the dark. If you cannot darken your windows with shades, try wearing a sleep mask. As a bonus, wearing a sleep mask to bed will make you look like a movie star.
9. Eliminate or reduce the noise in your bedroom, and try to stop that snoring. Just like we will always sleep better in the dark, we will sleep better when it is quiet, too. This is a difficult one for many people, especially those who live with a snoring spouse or roommate. My best advice to you is to try the above tips on this list first: most of them will help with snoring as well as with getting a good night’s rest. Once you have tried these and the snoring persists, there are a world of snoring remedies available--but be wary. These options fall roughly into three categories: sprays that lubricate the mouth and throat areas, drugs and supplements that reduce blockages in your airways, and mechanical devices or surgeries that open up your airways. Some of these remedies may help some people, but none of these will help everyone--and our customers tell us that all of these snoring “miracle cures,” even the surgeries, eventually fail as long-term solutions. Always be careful with drugs and unregulated “food supplements,” which can be downright dangerous.
10. When you can’t eliminate snoring and other noises, defend your ears. For the noises you cannot get rid of, you can use earplugs or a sound masking solution to help you ignore the noise while getting the rest you need. The best earplugs for sleep are the disposable foam kind. Look for an NRR rating of 30 or higher, and most importantly, get some plugs that are comfortable for you. Ears are as different as fingerprints, so keep trying different plugs until you find some that you like. Important: if you use foam earplugs, be sure to change them every day; do not reuse them or you may get ear infections. Too, master the process of properly inserting the plugs so that you get the full rated performance the plug has to offer. The other option for defense against the noises in your bedroom is a white noise machine. You may be one of the millions of people who sleep with a noisy fan going in their bedroom at night. If so, you are already familiar with the concept of white noise; that is, a masking sound that drowns out the irritating noise. Running a fan is fine in the summer, but folks tell us they prefer a white noise machine in winter. The benefits of a white noise machine include more choices of masking sound, better volume control, less cost to operate than a fan, more portability, and more flexibility, since you can use a machine to pipe the masking sound directly into your ears for the maximum benefit. Just be careful not to turn up the volume in your earphones so loud that it hurts you hearing!
So, there you have it, my top ten recommendations for getting a better night’s sleep. I hope some of these suggestions help you improve your life through better sleep. Drop me a line if you have questions or other suggestions that have worked for you. tom@earplugstore.com
Be well... and do the right thing.
--Tom “The Got Ears? Guru” Bergman
