One given morning, you wake up and realize that something isn’t right. You feel more tired than before you went to bed, and only wish for one thing: to slide back under the sheets to sleep for three more hours. Unfortunately for you, it’s Monday so that’s not possible. This situation seems odd: your vacation wasn’t that long ago, and you haven’t gone on a drinking binge either. In a nutshell, your weekend was far from being a remake of The Hangover.
That’s when you decide to google: “How to avoid feeling like crap after a night’s sleep?” Which doesn’t result in anything useful. You rephrase your question into: “How to sleep better at night?” And then bam, you magically find our guide. You’re now in good hands: at Polysleep, our job is to make sure our customers sleep WELL. That’s why we do more than design innovative foam mattresses, we also write guides like this one, to give you tips on how to feel completely refreshed after sleeping. So, feel like sleeping better? Just keep reading!
How do I know if I’m tired due to lack of sleep, and not tired since birth?
We live in a 2.0 society, in an era of instant communication and social media. We’re asked to become Usain Bolt and to beat every record all the time. Not so easy!
And with all this, we need to rest, and we even go so far as to manage our sleep performance. But before managing however, we must recognize the signs of lack of sleep. There are many of those, starting with having a hole in your stomach. As a matter of fact, your hunger will equate to that of a competitor in a pie eating contest. Your brain, if not rested, will need to recharge its batteries somewhere else, more specifically with food.
That happens in your body through an increase of the hormone that transforms you into an ogre, the ghrelin (often called hunger hormone). The latter will make you feel like eating sugary and fatty foods. Lack of sleep can also disturb your leptin secretion, the hormone that signals the feeling of satiation. And since you’ll feel like eating the worst junk food out there, you’ll most assuredly gain weight. Bye bye six-pack abs, and hello beer belly and dad bod!
Well then, how do I get a high level of sleep, and wake up rested?
Unfortunately, in this matter there are no miracle solutions. But there are several factors that’ll improve your sleep significantly. And that starts by not being drunk before going to bed. Obviously, if you’re in an ethylic coma, it’s not the same. You’ll sleep well, but it’s not the best for your health, right? So maybe avoid that. More seriously, if you drink alcohol before you sleep, you’ll be thirsty during the night. Alcohol is rapidly metabolized and causes dehydration. Which means it’s quite likely that you’ll need to get up in the middle of the night to drink.
Also, avoid drinking soft drinks and eating fried food, because either might cause stomach cramps and acid reflux. If you’re not a fan of the taste of your own gastric juices, skip those! Other things you should avoid eating are too much protein and ice cream filled with sugars and fats. In both cases, your body will focus on digesting instead of going into sleep mode to recuperate.
Do not take any stimulants, such as caffeine. The latter affects your body between two to four hours after you drank your cup, and the effects vary depending on the amount ingested. Fragmentation of your sleep, light sleep and inability to go back to sleep if waken up: caffeine will be your worst enemy after 5 p.m.!
Another thing you should avoid is to sprawl out in front of an electronic device if you want to sleep well. Really, your smartphone, your tablet or your TV screens generate the same blue light that stimulates your vision. The latter then interferes with your internal clock on top of slowing down your production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
Since we’re talking about 2.0 sleep, an attractive solution is to follow your sleep patterns through one of the many apps to this purpose on your smartphone, or directly from your smartwatch. If you like maths even during your sleep, with the latter, you’ll get your money’s worth! These apps allow you to check your different sleep cycles the morning after, including the famous paradoxical sleep cycle, also called REM sleep cycle. They’ll also be able to wake you up at the most opportune time, allowing you to start the day in fine form!
But a good foam mattress, such as those from Polysleep, makes all the difference!
Before investing a fortune in a new smartphone or smartwatch on the pretext of watching your sleep, go back to the basics: invest in a good foam mattress, such as those from Polysleep. We’ll never say it enough, your mattress should provide you with just the right amount of support and softness to make you comfortable, while easing your pressure points. In the same vein, you’ll need to choose the right bed size so that you don’t need to fold yourself in half to sleep.
On top of that, the temperature at which you sleep is also very important. If you’re too cold, you’ll sleep badly, but the same also goes if you’re too warm! There’s nothing better than a foam mattress like our Zephyr mattress; some of its layers are made of ventilated viscoelastic foam, for better air circulation.
Ultimately, I need to eat well, wake up at the right moment and own a good mattress!
So, to sleep well, no need to be Houdini. In short:
- Don’t eat foods that contain too much fat, sugar of protein!
- Don’t drink alcohol or soft drinks before going to bed!
- You can check your sleep like Robocop and improve it with dedicated apps on your cell or your smartwatch.
- Above all, you need a good mattress with the right support and size as well as one that breathes!
Here you go! You’re now ready to have the best possible nights and as soon as tonight, thanks to Polysleep!
If you liked our blog article, please don't forget to Share it with your friends by clicking the button below!
