According to research, getting enough sleep is associated with improved self-control, which can make it easier to stick to your New Year’s resolutions. Sleep is the driving force when it comes to accomplishing more. In this article, we’ll share more on why a resolution to sleep better can set you up for a productive and even happier 2023.
How Good Sleeping Habits Can Help You Do and Be More
Here are 6 reasons why you should prioritize good sleep this coming year:
1. Better Socio-emotional Health
We’re irritable, grouchy, moody, and absent-minded when we’re sleep-deprived. There’s a reason why this happens. Sleep deprivation can stunt your capacity to manage emotions and socialize with others.
Furthermore, perennially sleep-deprived people are more likely to stay away from social events and feel lonely, creating a vicious cycle of bad sleep and bad mental health.
Prioritizing sleep can help you strengthen your relationships with others so that you can enjoy deeper and healthier bonds.
2. Easier to Concentrate
Sleep deprivation happens more often than you think and can significantly ruin the day you had planned. One of the main symptoms of sleep deprivation is brain fog.
Sleep deprivation has a negative impact on cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance. It slows down cognitive function and increases mental fatigue.
On the other hand, did you know that good sleep can enhance academic performance, problem-solving skills, and memory recall in children, adolescents, and young adults?
Overworked physicians were studied to assess burnout and mishaps related to sleep deprivation. The study revealed that doctors who had moderate, high, or very high sleep-related impairment were 54%, 96%, and 97% more inclined to report clinically significant medical errors!
3. Faster Healing
When the body responds to any type of injury, it has a generalized catabolic response, which means it breaks down complex substances into simpler ones. In other words, the body must work harder to repair tissues and fight infection. The greater the severity of the trauma, the harder your body has to work.
When your body is healing, getting sufficient quality sleep is critical. During sleep, your body goes through a series of changes that allow healing and restoration which are crucial to your general health.
The brain triggers the release of hormones that promote tissue growth and blood vessel repair. It helps muscle restoration, wound healing, and tissue repair while increasing white blood cell production to fight off infections, bringing down fevers, and giving your body a break by promoting relaxation.
4. Aids Weight Loss
Did you know that people with less than 7 hours of sleep each night have a 41% higher risk for obesity?
Sleep deprivation, for example, raises ghrelin levels (which boosts our appetites) while decreasing leptin (the hormone that signals when we’re full).
5. Lower Risk for Depression and Anxiety
One of the biggest benefits of good sleep is that it can safeguard your mental health. Sleep and mental health are intrinsically linked. If one suffers, so does the other. Depression and other mental health issues are highly linked to poor quality of sleep and sleeping disorders.
One study with 2,672 participants discovered that those who had anxiety and depression had lower sleep scores than those who did not have anxiety and depression.
In other studies, people with sleeping disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea had higher levels of depression than those who didn’t.
So, if you want to keep depression and anxiety at bay, consider getting better, more restful sleep.
6. Stronger Immunity
When your body gets enough sleep, your immune cells and proteins get enough rest to combat illnesses such as colds or the flu.
Sleep deprivation has been found to impede immune functioning. A study found that participants who had fewer than 5 hours of sleep each night were 4.5 times more likely to catch a cold compared to participants who had more than 7 hours of shut-eye.
New Year Resolution 2023: How You Can Practice Good Sleep Hygiene
Good sleep hygiene is key to restful and restorative sleep. Here are some ways to practice proper sleep hygiene:
1. Minimize Screen Time
Devices and their screens emit blue light which can throw our circadian rhythms out of whack. When we get exposed to it, blue light prevents the hormone associated with sleep (melatonin) from being produced by our bodies. This can make us feel less sleepy and take longer for us to doze off.
Shut off electronics and minimize screen time at least 30 minutes before bed. If you must check your gadgets, use a blue light filter to reduce the amount of blue light that reaches your eyes.
2. Create a Cozy Atmosphere
Ever notice how you’re much more relaxed in a spa? Our bodies respond to our environments. If you want to get a good night’s sleep, it’s important to make our bedrooms conducive for rest and relaxation.
Create a cozy atmosphere by pulling down the blinds, lighting a candle, putting on some relaxing music, and dimming the lights. Get comfortable bedding like down feather comforters, a cooling pillow side sleeper if you sleep on your side, and soft bedsheets to really get a great night's sleep.
Indulge in relaxing activities like reading a book, taking a warm bath, or speaking to a loved one.
3. Don’t Go To Sleep Immediately After Dinner
If you have the urge to go to bed immediately after dinner, resist it. After eating, your body needs time to process what you ingested. Going to sleep after a heavy meal means risking indigestion, upset stomach, heartburn, acid reflux, and other digestive issues.
Eat dinner at least 2 to 3 hours before you sleep. Moreover, skip coffee after 5 PM. Since caffeine is a stimulant, any beverage that has it can make it harder for you to fall asleep.
4. Reserve Your Bedroom for Sleeping
Teach your body to recognize your bedroom as a place for rest and sleep. This means not going to bed to watch TV, work, fiddle around with your smartphone, etc. Go to bed only when it’s time to catch some zzzs.
5. Maintain a Regular Sleep Schedule
While it’s tempting to stay up late on weekends, doing so can ruin your sleep-wake schedule. You may find yourself struggling to fall asleep on Sunday night because your body dozed off at a later time the night before.
The best thing to do for good sleep is to sleep and wake up at around the same time every day. After practicing this consistently for a few days, you’ll notice that you’ll start waking up and sleeping more easily during the appointed times.
Good sleep hygiene means shutting off electronics and minimizing screen time at least 30 minutes before bed. Creating a cozy atmosphere in your bedroom, pulling the blinds, lighting a candle, drinking lavender tea, or purchasing a cooling pillow side sleeper can all help. Give yourself time to wind down before you go to bed, read a good book, or speak to a loved one.
More Tips for Achievable Goals
In addition to good sleep hygiene, here are other ways to ensure that your goals are achievable:
1. Be Specific With Your Goals
Vague New Year’s goals help no one. If your goal is to “exercise better,” create a specific plan for it. Instead of “exercise better,” you can write, “I will exercise more by getting up and going for a 15-minute walk around my neighborhood every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.”
The more specific you get, the easier it becomes for your brain to stay motivated!
2. Make Them Relevant
Make a New Year resolution that’s relevant to YOU and your personal life. If your friends are going off to university and you don’t want to do that, don’t feel pressured to accomplish the same goal. Perhaps you want to work more before attending college — that’s perfectly fine!
Find New Year goals that make sense for your personal growth and benefit.
3. Make Them Achievable
Make your New Year resolution goals as realistic as possible! They need to at least feel achievable in your head. Writing down “buy a house” might not do you any favors. Break down the steps you need to achieve to get the house like upping your credit score, investing your savings, finding a realtor, etc.
4. Make Them Time-Bound
Short-term New Year goals are much easier to achieve than long-term ones. Breaking down your long-term goal into several, more manageable, and time-specific short-term goals is much easier. For example, “In 15 days, I’d like to finish putting my work portfolio together.”
5. Measure Them as You Go
Your New Year resolution should be easy to monitor as you go. This will help you ensure that you’re on the right track and that you’re constantly putting in effort toward your goals. Whether you use a spreadsheet, a notepad, or Post-It notes, make the effort to gauge where you are and where you’re going. That way, at the end of the year, you can look back and see all that you’ve accomplished.
How Sleeptone Sets You Up for Better Sleep
Sleeptone understands the importance of sleep. That’s why we manufacture high-quality, innovative, and comfortable sleeping products and bedding. With over 40 years of experience, our sleep experts are known for crafting the best pillows and sheets so that you can enjoy all the benefits of good sleep.
We also cater to specific needs like offering the best mattress for couples with different preferences and the innovative cool pillow which maintains a comfortable, cool feeling as you sleep.
Visit Sleeptone.com for rigorously tested quality products that are designed for comfort, relaxation, and rest. Sleeptone has over 40 years of experience in the industry. Fortune 500 companies and countless businesses regard us as a trusted supplier. We also work with several humanitarian organizations that help the homeless and donate products to people in need. When you purchase from us, we donate a portion of our sales to end homelessness.
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