There is nothing more important to our health than getting a good night’s sleep. I know when I get less than what my body needs, my entire next day is completely thrown off. I mean, how can I properly concentrate on my deadlines while barely keeping my eyes open the next morning? The lack of sleep each night can really sabotage your performance, drive, and ability to function.
The good news is you can completely reverse sleep-related health conditions by changing your sleep habits. To change your habits, though, means you need to understand what causes you to lose sleep in the first place. Once you figure out what robs you of those precious Zzzs, it’s easier to devise a plan to get the optimal rest you need to function at your best.
Here is a list of ten reasons you can’t sleep I’ve put together to help you figure out the changes you need to make in your sleep schedule:
Reason #1: Losing Sleep Forces Us to Sleep In
This one is a drag. I’m sure most us hit our alarms at 5:30 AM every morning and mutter how much we can’t wait for Saturday so we can sleep in. Maybe we even stay up late Friday night painting the town. It’s become a tradition, week in and week out. But little do we realize how badly this throws off our internal clock.
Essentially, sleeping in Saturday morning sets off a chain reaction of inappropriate sleeping conditions the rest of the weekend. We stay up later Saturday night, knowing once again we can sleep in Sunday morning. So what happens on Sunday? Our sleeping habits have been reprogrammed. We stay up later Sunday night and then feel like garbage Monday morning when 5:30 AM rolls around again.
To fix this, try to keep to a regular sleep schedule, even on the weekends. Even if you decide to stay up late Friday night, wake up at the same time every morning. Try taking a quick 3-minute nap in the early afternoon to make up for it.
Reason #2: Inconsistent Sounds
For me personally, I cannot sleep without a fan blowing somewhere in the room. I need that white noise sound to lure me to slumber. I’m not sure where that need came from, other than growing up in the deep south where there were fans on all the time and it stuck with me. All I know is if I stay at someone’s house and there is no fan, I cannot sleep. Period.
If you’re stuck in a place where sleeping conditions are the opposite extreme of what you desire, a fan or white noise machine might do the trick, even if you prefer silence, suggests Thomas Roth, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Reason #3: Allergies
According to Alan Goldsobel, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Jose, CA, your bed has a pest problem. As many as 10 million could be sharing your sleep space, who leave behind a nasty residue known to trigger allergies.
If you are prone to allergies, especially at night when you go to bed, this may be the case. Luckily, there are ways to reduce this disgusting problem. Other countermeasures include cleaning regularly by dusting and vacuuming, as well as opening a window, which is one of the most effective ways to cut down on mites.
Reason #4: Food Intake (or lack thereof)
This one can go both ways. If you have a habit of eating a large meal before hitting the sack, as most of us are probably guilty of at times, the food digesting in your gut can keep you awake. This is especially true for high-protein foods, as they require more time and energy to digest.
Fatty and spicy foods, along with anything else that disagrees with you, can cause gas, heartburn, and discomfort, which are all things to avoid if you hope to fall asleep peacefully. And of course, do I need to mention staying away from caffeine? It’s a major stimulant that will make sleep difficult.
Reason #5: A Work Room
Stress can be caused by even the smallest of situations. Do you use your bedroom as an office? Is it a big ‘ole pile of papers and messy? It’s said a cluttered room/office is a cluttered mind. It’s this overworked mind that keeps working, and turning, and churning. Reality is, using your work space as a sleep space does not work. What you associate at one time of the day as a stressor, full of deadlines and overdue bills, can’t easily be shut off at night to become this amazing place of rest.
According to the American Psychological Association, stressors are the top cause of short-term sleep and waking up frequently in the night. This means if you keep your stress in the room with you, you’re going to struggle getting the sleep you need. When you remove all that stress, you begin to associate your room once again with sleep and intimacy.
