Sleep Hygiene Tips

Feb 07 , 2023

Tips for Sleep Hygiene

Written by Dr.Mohamed Taryam

Lets talk about the management of Insomnia, we initially educate client with sleep hygiene, usually it takes average of 20-25 minutes normal to get a sleep, I suggest if its longer than that then wake up, and do read magazine, not with full attention, just scrolling till you feel your tired and try second time to go to bed.

I advise to reduce exposure to TV, computers and phones due to presence of blue light, once blue light reaches to your brain, your brain thinks its morning leading to disrupt in circadian rhythm. I suggest to deactivate blue light, you can use app to disable it or computer to automatically disabled it like 7: 00 pm till morning.Keep in mind smoking and alcohol increases insomnia, that I suggest reduce it or even better complete cessation.

Make Sure room is cold enough, and make bed comfortable as possible, individualized , some people love hard bed, and others prefer soft bed, try to identify which one you prefer.

Reduce Caffeine Intake, make sure last coffee you consume is around 4:00 -5:00 Pm, if still didn’t work I suggest to make it last coffee drink around 3:00 pm maximum.

Avoid Mobile during bed time, longer you expose light to your eyes, will make brain think its in the morning which suppress melatonin secretion leading to difficult to sleep.

Exercise is highly recommend, it actually helps improve insomnia, make sure you finish last workout schedule around 6:00 pm not after that time.

If your job occupation is like working in shifts or recent travel which call it jet lag, would suggest to use melatonin 2-4 mg 1 hour before sleep.

Have light exposure early in the morning, which also helps in adjusting sleep wake pattern and circadian rhythm.

Try to reduce naps to 10-20 minutes, going further like 30 to 180 minutes actually makes more difficult to sleep at night.

Make sure room is dark, quiet, and cold

I would be sharing references you can read in sleep hygiene: