Sleep well! - For many, the kindly-meant remark in the evening is an unfulfilled wish: 20 to 30 percent of Germans suffer from sleep disorders. Those affected struggle to fall asleep, lie awake in the middle of the night or feel exhausted even after nine hours of sleep.
But restful sleep is not just about quality of life and boosting performance. A lack of sleep increases the risk of depression and promotes obesity. Reasons enough to do everything possible to get a good night's sleep.
- Caffeine takes a few hours to be broken down in the body. Avoid drinks containing caffeine from lunch onwards.
- If you use appetite suppressants, test whether giving them up has a positive effect on your sleep.
- Even if he appears to be relaxed and tired: avoid alcohol as far as possible and never use it as a sleeping aid. It prevents deep, restful sleep and can lead to bad dreams, especially in the early hours of the morning.
- Exercise regularly. Two hours before going to bed, for example, take a 30-minute walk or a 10-minute brisk walk. This prevents your blood pressure from dropping too low during the night and stops your body from waking up.
- Instead of going to bed at full steam, let the day wind down. Finish your work on time. The closer you get to bedtime, the less strenuous your mental and physical activities should be.
- Make sure that there is a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the bedroom. For example, avoid things that remind you of unfinished tasks, such as unread work papers on the bedside table or ironing in your field of vision.
- Do you have a personal, calming bedtime ritual? Cultivate it. Five minutes looking at the surroundings from the balcony, watering the potted plants in the apartment, reading a chapter in a book ...
- Make sure that you feel safe. A quiet crack will remain an insignificant crack if you can rely on the security devices in your "four walls". Alarm systems that detect burglars at the property boundary and are connected to a 24/7 security control center provide extra security.
- If you wake up during the night, don't look at your alarm clock or wristwatch. This almost always leads to dissatisfaction in people with sleep problems and makes it more difficult to get back to sleep. Instead, tell yourself phrases such as "Everything will be fine" or "Tomorrow is another day".
- As a sleep phase is quite exactly 90 minutes long, set the alarm clock so that the time until it rings is roughly a multiple of 90 minutes. For example, 7 1/2 hours instead of 8. In the transitional periods between two sleep phases, sleep is light and being woken up is much more pleasant for the body. "Broken" sleep phases can last a whole day.
