Sleep deprivation is a huge problem in our society.  Most people don’t leave themselves sufficient time to sleep, instead restricting themselves to five or six hours of sleep a night, and sometimes less.  In addition, many people suffer from insomnia, and are unable to get enough sleep because it takes them so long to fall asleep, or because they wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep.

Unfortunately, not getting enough sleep can have pretty serious consequences, from reducing your work performance to causing you to fall asleep at the wheel.  Here are a few suggestions for increasing the amount of time you sleep, or at the very least improving the quality.

• Stick to a regular schedule.  If you’ve ever had a dramatically different schedule every day, you know how much that can affect you.  While you may not want to give up sleeping in on the weekends, trying to minimize how much your sleep schedule changes from day to day can actually help you not only get to sleep faster, but also can help your body regulate your sleep patterns better.
• Exercise during the day.  Although it may seem counterintuitive, staying active actually helps you to get more restful sleep.
• Don’t go to bed hungry or having to go to the bathroom.  Any physical problem like that will only serve to keep you awake.
• Be mindful of what helps and doesn’t help.  Some people sleep better if they play soft music or some kind of white noise, while others do better with silence.  Some people like to read in bed to help them relax before they turn out the lights, while others find that it makes it harder to sleep.  Know what helps you, and what makes it harder.
• Be sure to see your doctor about any chronic problems.  If you have something like sleep apnea, you’ll need to get the proper treatment — usually a sleep apnea machine and mask, like the one in the video below — before you’ll see any improvement.  Also, although I’m not a big fan of taking drugs to help you sleep — they actually tend to disrupt your sleep patterns, so although you sleep it may not be quality sleep — some people have insomnia so badly that they do need sleeping pills to get any sleep.

Good luck and sweet dreams!

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