Warning: Ongoing Sleep Deprivation is a Health Risk
Do you remember how good you felt after getting a good night’s sleep? You had plenty of pep, your thoughts were clear, and your mood optimistic.
Compare that to how you felt when sleep deprived. You woke up sluggish. Doing the simplistic things appeared challenging. And everyone and everything irritated you.
Sleep plays an essential role in your mental, physical, and emotional health.
Without sufficient sleep, you deprive your brain a chance to clear metabolites by propelling cerebral spinal fluid through the tiny space between neurons. You also your heart and blood vessels an opportunity to heal and repair.
Four common sleep problems are trouble falling asleep in a bed, trouble dropping off to sleep, trouble in staying asleep, and trouble with a snoring spouse. Fortunately, these problems can easily be remedied with a few practical solutions
What to Do If You Have Trouble Falling Asleep in a Bed
You may find it difficult to sleep in a bed if you suffer from mobility, balance issues, heartburn, restless leg syndrome, or other issues. Because of these health problems, you feel pain or discomfort when you stretch out fully.
A sleeping recliner would help you feel comfortable, and some models even have features like heat and massage to help you relax deeply.
What to Do If You Have Trouble Dropping Off to Sleep
If you go to bed all wound up after a hectic day, you might find it difficult to fall asleep. Although your body is exhausted, and you just want to forget about everything, your mind suddenly becomes alert.
You review scenarios in your mind, and you fret, fume, and fuss over issues that arose during the day. Your mind goes to work on all the problems you’re having with all the urgency of a wartime code-breaker trying to figure out the enemy’s next military advance.
There are a few things you can do to make you sleepy. You could de-stress and calm your mind by taking a hot bath or drinking an herbal tea. Sometimes, too, you may have to stop doing things that have made you restless, like drinking coffee or tea, consuming an alcoholic drink, or taking an over-the-counter medication.
What to Do If You Have Trouble Staying Asleep
Numerous factors, ranging from an upset stomach to stress could cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake thinking about things.
Here are some things you can do to make it easier to sleep through the night:
- Avoid eating a snack before bed.
- Stop using your computer, cell phone, or watching TV at least an hour before bed–because the bright screen sometimes inhibits the secretion of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
- Drink a cup of Chamomile tea.
- Take a hot shower or bath before bedtime.
- Listen to relaxing music before you go to bed.
What to Do If You Have Trouble with a Snoring Spouse
You may feel helpless if your spouse snores. You can only wake them up a few times before you feel guilty. You feel sorry for them because they’re not doing it deliberately and they need their sleep, too.
You can try using earplugs. If that doesn’t work, your spouse could try “snore strips” to improve their breathing. There are many other more expensive and elaborate solution. Unfortunately, many of them don’t work. If you can’t find a solution, you may have to sleep in separate rooms.
Make a Good Night’s Sleep a Priority
In conclusion, make sleep a priority. If you have difficulty with not getting enough hours of quality sleep every night, you have to find the reason why and then try out a few solutions until you find one that works.
It’s important that you take this problem seriously rather than just learning to live with it.
Ongoing sleep deficiency is the cause of many health problems. It increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. It can also affect your physical appearance, your cognitive abilities, your sex drive, and your body weight. When you start getting enough sleep every night, then everything in your life will start getting better, too.