Lots of people are groggy and tired after they wake up. They don’t feel fresh and energetic. That is no way to live.
Your sleep quality determines how well you feel the next day, and if you’re tired after 8 hours of deep rest, you did something wrong.
So here are things you need to do so you can get quality sleep:
- Drink water before going to bed: Drink around half a liter of water before you go to bed. This will ensure that you don’t get dehydrated through the night. Dehydration is one of the main reasons why people feel tired in the morning. Adequate hydration will ensure that your body can conduct its internal processes efficiently – which means better toxin removal, better hormone management, and more energy.
- Ensure the right temperature to aid deep sleep: As nighttime approaches, our body temperature naturally drops, signaling that it’s time to slow down and get some rest. By keeping your bedroom cooler, you’re reinforcing your body’s natural instinct to sleep. If the room is too hot, it could potentially block that signal and cause it to take longer for you to fall asleep. People sleep better in colder temperatures. From my experience, 24 degrees Celsius is perfect for a good night’s sleep. People living in colder countries sleep better at around 18 degrees.
- Get a quality pillow: I recommend getting a memory foam pillow (India, USA). I used to have some neck pain after sitting for ~12 hours a day – a good memory foam pillow really helped. Memory foam pillows are not too expensive, especially if you live outside of the USA. And they’re worth every penny. Memory foam gives you much more support than an ordinary cotton pillow. Memory foam smells a bit like petroleum at first, but that goes away within a week. If that turns you off, look for alternatives such as natural latex pillows.
- Sleep in a dark room / buy blinders: The greatest enemy of deep sleep is light. Humans are meant to sleep in the dark. Light triggers a natural response in the human body to start releasing hormones to wake you up – not good. Ensure that the room you sleep in is completely dark. Get thick curtains and window blinders if you must.
- Sleep early: If you want to sleep a full 8 hours, you need to go to bed early. If you wake up at 7 every day and go to bed at 1, you only slept for 6 hours. Go to bed early. This is the only way to ensure you get sufficient quantity of sleep.
- Exercise: People who exercise regularly sleep better at night and feel less sleepy during the day. Exercise also helps regulate the hormones of your body. Strength training is the best, but feel free to jog and get some cardio too.
- Avoid sugar and caffeine at night: Go to Starbucks in the evening, and look at the eyes of the people drinking coffee. You’ll see that these people haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. Sugar is a slow poison, destroying your body one bit at a time. Caffeine is a powerful drug that helps keep you alert – I recommend a cup of coffee in the morning – not in the evening.
And there it is – your guide to quality sleep.
“I’ll start tomorrow” – NO, you start TODAY.
Go and do likewise, gentlemen – and within a week you’ll feel much fresher in the morning. It’s the start of your day, and wake up to kick ass, not with your ass kicked.