Lifestyle changes can play a huge role in the management of sleep disorders. Most experts advise people to sleep dark, cool, and quiet.
Here's how to incorporate these three sensory adjustments in your own home.
Shutting off the lights when you go to sleep seems obvious. But streetlights, car headlights, and neon signs can all sneak in your window and steal your shuteye.
Even the subtle glow of an alarm clock or the indicator light on an appliance can interfere with sleep. And if you do shift work or live far north, natural light may keep you up.
If you're suffering from long-term sleep deprivation, be sure to close your existing blinds, shades, and curtains every night. If this doesn't help or you're already doing so, it's worth your while to buy room-darkening shades or curtains.
For immediate relief, you can tack up dark fabric over your bedroom windows. But switch to proper window treatments when you can afford them. A beautiful bedroom is easier to rest in.
Wearing a sleep mask is another fast fix. Be sure to choose a product that's comfortable and washable.
If you tend to feel chilly all day, you may be tempted to bundle up at night. But body heat builds up in your nightclothes and beneath the covers.
What felt comfortable when you crawled into bed can wake you up in a sweat several hours later. If you have insomnia, you may find it difficult to get right back to sleep after adjusting your bedding or clothing.
It's best to feel a little on the cool side when you get in bed. That way, as heat builds up throughout the night, you'll feel comfortable enough to stay asleep.
Try removing one blanket from your bed or lowering the thermostat by 1 to 2 degrees. Instead of heavy pajamas, wear loose socks to bed so you can slip them off easily if you start feeling too warm.
If you live in an apartment complex or group housing, or near train tracks or an airport, sleeping in peace can be a challenge.
But if you have pets, children, or adult household members who need special care, you have to be able to hear them when they need help.
Some people do well with earplugs or earmuffs that muffle noise without completely blocking it. A white noise machine can be a great help too.
Others may prefer using their phone and earbuds to listen to relaxing music or sounds. But be sure to use an app that blocks blue light so you won't be doing more harm than good when adjusting your phone in bed.
If your partner snores, you may want to consider asking them to pursue snoring treatment more seriously. As a last result, you may need to sleep in a separate room to avoid jeopardizing your health.
Heavy blankets have become uber-popular in the last couple of years. New brands continue to flood the internet, yet GnO remains a top seller of weighted blankets.
What sets GnO Weighted Blankets apart from the other therapeutic blankets you come across? Read on to find out.
Gal and Ouriel, the people behind GnO, have put quality first from the get-go. Not wishing to be just another online company, the pair set a goal of producing the best weighted blankets on the market.
The quality of a therapy blanket boils down to three main factors: the filler, the fabric, and the formation.
A good general guideline is that a therapy blanket should weigh about 10 percent of your body weight. Even the thickest, heaviest quilt can't reach therapeutic weight for an adult.
If you try to pile every quilt, blanket, and spread in the house onto your bed, you'll be sweating and unable to sleep in no time, which counteracts the purpose of a specially made heavy blanket.
Weighted blankets can be filled with a variety of materials that add pressure without making you feel too warm. The most common weighted blanket fillers are:
Grains and seeds, which are cheap, natural fillers, sound like a great choice. But if you think about it, you can't wash a blanket that's filled with rice or corn.
Plus, any moisture in the environment can cause these food fillers to grow mold and rot. Not so conducive to a good night's sleep or good health.
Also, these dried foods shift easily and make a lot of noise. Think about the fact that rattles are often filled with grains and seeds. You definitely won't sleep well under a blanket that sounds like maracas every time you roll over!
Minerals such as sand and pebbles are natural, inexpensive fillers that won't rot. However, sand tends to bunch together, and it's a nightmare to wash and dry.
Pebbles are a better choice, but they're noisy and may create uneven texture in your blanket. Sleeping under a bag of rocks isn't so appealing if you really think about it.
Metal beads or chains, another mineral-based filler, are durable and easy to keep clean. As you can imagine, though, metal is quite noisy. If you have trouble sleeping, you may awaken from the clanking of the filler when you change your position in bed.
Plastic pellets are a step in the right direction. They're cheap and hygienic. Unfortunately, even plastic pellets make noise when they shift, and their texture can feel somewhat rough, even through the blanket.
Also, depending on how the plastic is made, this filler may contain undesirable chemicals.
Glass is hypoallergenic, odorless, cost-effective, and quiet. Because glass is heavier than plastic, you can get the same weight in a blanket with less bulk.
But don't let the weight of glass put you off; glass microbeads are as fine as sugar or salt, so you get even distribution of pressure across your weighted blanket with the least amount of noise.
As you can see, each material has some benefits, but GnO believes that glass is the ideal filler for its weighted blankets.
The next step in building the perfect blanket is to pick the right fabric to pair with the ultrafine glass particles.
The material of a weighted blanket can make a huge difference in your all-night comfort. Fabrics that feel too warm or too cool can disturb your sleep. Fibers that have been treated with chemicals may help you sleep but can harm your health in other ways.
Like any bedding, weighted blankets come in a variety of synthetic and natural fibers. GnO has chosen eco-friendly cotton and bamboo for its weighted blankets.
Cotton can vary in quality and softness. GnO uses 400 thread-count cotton to cover its weighted blankets.
Thread count indicates the number of threads per square inch and, hence, the tightness of the weave. The higher the thread count, the smoother the fabric.
Not all weighted blankets come with a separate cover. Even washable weighted blankets like the GnO Weighted Blanket shouldn't be washed as often as regular bedding.
To keep your blanket clean and fresh, we've added a removable, machine-washable Duvet Cover in 100 percent bamboo.
Bamboo is a sustainable source of fibers, and bamboo fabric has a silky texture that's as beautiful as it is touchable.
Bamboo also feels cool and soft against your skin, adding an extra measure of soothing comfort to your weighted blanket.
Beyond all this, every material used by GnO is certified Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex. This means no harmful chemicals are used to make your weighted blanket. The fabric dye used for the cotton weighted blanket specifically is considered 100 percent safe and nontoxic.
Last, the key to putting fillers and materials together in a durable weighted blanket lies in quality construction.
You probably won't find many weighted blankets that aren't sewn in sections. That's because sectioning is the key to even weight distribution.
Imagine what would happen if the heavy filler wasn't encased in small sections. First, gravity and movement would pull the filler to the edges of the blanket, leaving only a fraction of filler—and weight—on top of you.
Second, if the blanket should happen to get damaged, all the filler could leak out one hole, leaving you with a mess and a useless blanket.
GnO adds an equal amount of glass to each section and sews the blanket securely with durable thread. With normal use, your GnO Weighted Blanket should last a lifetime and feel just as good years from now as it does on your first night.
If all this wasn't enough, you should know two more things about GnO blankets.
First, our manufacturing methods follow the Business Social Compliance Initiative, which shows our dedication to social responsibility. This initiative guarantees that all the workers involved in making our products are treated with compassion and fairness.
Finally, your blanket comes in a luxuriously soft bag. This special packaging makes for a lovely gift presentation or convenient storage at home.
Not all weighted blankets are the best weighted blankets. Many manufacturers offer mediocre products in an attempt to corner this booming market. However, GnO Weighted Blankets are always made with quality and your feedback in mind.
Like many people, you may be tempted to reach for quick fixes such as prescription drugs or over-the-counter sleep aids when you suffer from insomnia. While medications have their place, they're not ideal long-term solutions for sleeplessness.
Changing the environment in which you sleep can make an enormous difference in your sleep quality. Giving your bedroom a makeover and minimizing sensory input can have you waking up more refreshed almost immediately.
One of the top recommendations for insomnia is to make over your bedroom with restorative sleep in mind.
These steps don't have to cost a lot of money. If you're on a tight budget, create a plan for the next few months and address one change at a time. Work with items you already own to make restful improvements.
If you have trouble sleeping, you should reserve your bed for sleeping and sex. Associating your bed with any other activity is setting yourself up for a rough night.
If you have space, add a comfortable chair and a low-wattage lamp to your room. When you can't sleep, get out of bed and move to the chair so you can read a light book or write in a journal. Only move back to your bed when you start feeling sleepy.
Once you're out of bed for the day, limit bedroom activities to dressing and grooming.
Laundry, papers, and other items that don't belong in your bedroom create visual and mental clutter that interferes with relaxation. Do your best to move items not related to sleep, sex, and dressing to more appropriate areas of your home.
Never put your home office in your bedroom. This makes it virtually impossible to separate business from rest. The same goes for a TV.
If your space is limited and you can't move your office space or entertainment center, invest in a folding screen to visually block off your desk and electronics when it's time to rest. Be sure to unplug electronics or turn off power strips at night to minimize electromagnetic radiation.
Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow tend to energize, as do bright colors and loud patterns.
Cool colors like green, blue, and purple tend to soothe. Pastels, muted tones, and neutrals like gray, beige, and white are conducive to good sleep too.
Sleep is a vital, often neglected, component of every person's overall health and well-being. Sleep is important because it enables the body to repair and be fit and ready for another day.
If you have chronic insomnia or having trouble to get a good night's sleep, you can take several steps toward finding relief.
Because insomnia is a widespread problem, innovative products are appearing on the market to help people sleep. Weighted blankets originated in clinical therapy and can give great results at home too.
Surely, you'll find more novel items for rest and relaxation in the near future. Keep your focus on quality and long-term results, and you'll find the combination of sleep aids that works for you.
You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money renovating your bedroom to get a better night's sleep. But some improvements will take a minor or moderate investment of time or money.
You'll certainly need to commit to a program of good sleep hygiene. With a little more attentiveness to where and how you sleep, you'll start seeing a difference in all areas of your life.
By changing your attitude toward sleep and committing to improving your general health, you can put yourself on the path to happier days.
If you feel off when you don't get enough sleep, know that your experience is valid. You shouldn't have to apologize for needing a lot of sleep, and you're not a complainer or weakling if you're often fatigued.
Besides making you feel sick and tired, sleep deprivation can make you feel lonely, anxious, depressed, and all sorts of other unsettling emotions. In fact, healthy people who go one full day without sleep can experience symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia!
Not to mention that driving while exhausted can be just as deadly as driving while intoxicated. The same goes for operating heavy machinery or any other task—administering medications, caring for animals or children—in which grave mistakes or accidents can occur.
Taking medications to get to sleep isn't without risks either. Some of these drugs have dangerous side effects or cause long-term adverse health effects.
Still, insomnia is a common problem in many countries today. Read on to find out why. Acting on these insights may help you have fewer sleepless nights.
Although insomnia can be lonely, as you lie awake in the dark while the rest of your household is resting peacefully, you're certainly not alone.
A full one-third of American adults are getting less sleep than they should—sometimes by choice, but often because they simply can't. Additionally, one out of 10 adults in the U.S. has regular insomnia lasting for three months or more.
Similar statistics are reported in other countries. For example, an Indian study in 2015 indicated chronic insomnia in 33 percent of sampled adults. A 2017 study showed an insomnia rate of 15 percent in China.
Most people over age 18 need seven to nine hours a night. Teens need eight to ten hours of sleep every 24 hours. The requirement continues to increase in inverse proportion to age.
So why aren't people achieving this most basic health need? The reasons are varied and complex.
The reasons behind sleeplessness vary from societal pressures to physical ailments. Read on to see which factors may be affecting your own ability to sleep well.
Going way back, industrialization and the availability of electric lighting in households had a significant effect on people's normal living and sleeping patterns.
Today, a map of reported sleep times in the U.S. shows that the eastern part of the country is most prone to shorter stays in dreamland. It's probably no surprise that the states showing less sleep are often the most populous in the country. More people make more light and noise.
Traveling across time zones and doing shift work also interfere with normal, healthy sleep rhythms.
Especially among younger people, there's almost a cachet associated with sleeping less.
Whether that extra time gives you more time to party or to slave away at your start-up, your peers probably view you as more successful and desirable than your "lazy" friends. After all, more waking hours give you more time to accomplish things.
Busy lifestyles and high expectations spur people to skip sleep in the name of getting things done. The irony is that these folks could probably do just as much or more if they were fully rested every day.
An honest look at how you spend every hour will tell if you're really doing as much as you think you are. If you're eating up your longer days by chugging coffee, scrolling through social media, or zoning out in front of the TV, you're only fooling yourself.
Another epidemic, obesity, is correlated with sleep apnea, in which a person stops breathing while they're asleep. People who suffer from sleep apnea usually snore. They wake up many times during the night and face the day feeling unrested.
GERD, also related to obesity, is a condition in which stomach acid backs up into the esophagus. The burning sensations can prevent sufferers from getting a full night of deep, restorative sleep.
Menopause, which occurs naturally in mature women or as a result of certain surgeries, can cause women to sleep poorly. Hormonal changes affect the sleep cycle, and hot flashes can wake women in the middle of the night.
Insomnia is also common in people who have:
A number of mental health disorders are related to poor sleep. These include:
In many cases, the mental health condition, such as depression, can cause insomnia. Yet insomnia can cause depression. It's important to treat both sides of the coin to break the cycle.
Ironically, if you're being treated for a health condition, the prescription and over-the-counter medications you take can interfere with sleep.
Regardless of your general health, you're more likely to suffer from insomnia as you get older. Middle-aged and senior adults in the U.S. often report unrestful sleep.
Women are more likely than men to have sleep problems. This is especially true during times of hormonal fluctuation, such as pregnancy and menopause.