MDIS Blog

Main Menu

  • Business & Management
  • Engineering
  • Fashion & Design
  • Health & Life Sciences
  • Media & Communications
  • Psychology
  • Information Technology
  • Tourism & Hospitality
  • Nursing
  • Languages
  • College
  • Events
  • MDC
  • + Become A Contributor

logo

Header Banner

MDIS Blog

  • Business & Management
  • Engineering
  • Fashion & Design
  • Health & Life Sciences
  • Media & Communications
  • Psychology
  • Information Technology
  • Tourism & Hospitality
  • Nursing
  • Languages
  • College
  • Events
  • MDC
CollegeFeatured BK GridFeatured Full Width Slider
Home›College›Improving Sleep Hygiene

Improving Sleep Hygiene

By Gayathrii Nathan
9th February 2018
215
0
Share:
mdis college

Have you heard of the term ‘sleep hygiene?’ While it might sound like it refers to sleeping in a clean environment, sleep hygiene actually refers to good habits that we should engage in to ensure that we have a good night’s rest.

While sleep hygiene might be easier to achieve for those of us who have fixed daily routines, it is actually more important for those of us who have irregular daily routines. Students usually have irregular daily routines due to lesson schedules or project/assignment deadlines to meet. Students might find themselves sleeping at different times each day to make up for sleep deprivation on longer school days.

Prolonged sleep deprivation affects our heart rate, blood pressure, immune system. It can also affect our moods and memory. This would impair our social and cognitive functions at school and work. Thus, developing good sleep hygiene would enhance the quality of our sleep. How do we do it? Read on to find out!

Develop a sleep routine

The best thing about good sleep hygiene is a consistent sleep routine. All of us have different circadian rhythms – biological sleep systems that secrete hormones, regulate body temperature and respond to light in the environment. Based on signals from our circadian rhythms, our bodies know when to awaken and fall asleep. Irregular sleep habits cause our circadian rhythms to get confused, preventing us from falling asleep when we want to. Resetting our body clocks with a consistent routine would help us achieve quality sleep.

chamomile tea

For example, you can develop a habit of having a warm cup of chamomile tea, followed by a bath before bedtime. In time, your body would adapt to this routine and your circadian rhythms would take into account these nightly repeated behaviours, allowing you to not just to fall asleep easily but to have a quality night’s sleep as well.

Put phones away before bed

Some of us might already have a consistent nightly routine. We wind down before bedtime, snuggle into bed and… use our phones for the next couple of hours. In this regard, our mobile devices hold us, hostage, keeping sleep at bay.

The blue light emitted from mobile phones affects our circadian rhythms, causing us to be more alert. Blue lights prevent the release of melatonin as well, a hormone associated with sleep.

blue light phone

Try to put the phones away before bed. If you really have to use it, good sleep hygiene practices would include dimming the lights on our mobile devices or, if we’re reading on our phones, switching to night mode so that the screen would not be as bright. There are also apps that can be downloaded to reduce the blue light emitted.

Don’t stalk the clock

Even with a good pre-bedtime routine that involves putting our phones away, there is one more important presence in our rooms that can affect our sleep hygiene – the clock. It stares at us with unforgiving eyes, reminding us of how fast time is passing and how quickly we have to wake up. If you find yourself tossing and turning in bed, thinking ‘I only have 5 hours left before I need to wake up…I only have 4 hours left before I need to wake up…’, you’re not alone.

sleep hygiene

The trick to falling asleep, in this case, is to not focus on the idea that you HAVE to fall asleep. Rather, just believe that you WILL and try not to think about it.

With these tips and tricks up our sleeves, we’d be able to achieve quality sleep that would lead to improved physical and psychological health and an enriched life. Sounds like a great way to start the new year!

TagsLifestylequality sleepTips for good sleep hygiene
12
Shares
  • 12
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Gayathrii Nathan

Gayathrii, a teacher of 6 years, believes that education shapes lives. She applies her knowledge from her B.Psych and M.Ed courses to differentiate instruction and maximise learning for her English, GP and Literature students.

Related articles More from author

  • Fear
    CollegeFeatured BK RowFeatured Full Width Slider

    Fear x Disinterest: The Power Couple We Must Defeat

    11th April 2018
    By Gayathrii Nathan
  • Fashion Retailers
    Fashion & DesignFeatured BK GridFeatured Full Width Slider

    7 Tips on Customer Experience for Retailers

    30th September 2017
    By MDIS
  • MDIS Membership
    Events

    August: A month of adrenaline rush for our MDIS Members

    30th September 2017
    By MDIS
  • Singapore Botanical Garden
    EventsFeatured BK RowFeatured Full Width Slider

    Enjoy greenery and stay healthy with MDIS Membership

    6th January 2018
    By MDIS
  • Negative thoughts
    Career ManagementFeatured BK Grid

    Negative Thoughts in the workplace and how to fight them

    15th February 2018
    By Eugene Lau
  • career management
    Career ManagementFeatured BK GridFeatured Full Width Slider

    Managing Millennials at the workplace

    4th January 2018
    By MDIS

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

You may also like

  • fashion design
    Fashion & DesignFeatured BK Row

    The creative process of fashion design

  • Engineering job
    Engineering

    Is Engineering the future proof job?

  • Digitalisation
    Featured BK GridMDC

    Building Your Online Presence

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Yakult factory Singapore

    MDIS Business students industrial visit to the Yakult Factory Singapore

    By MDIS
    20th December 2017
  • thor cancer gen

    Superheroes and Cancer Genetics?

    By MDIS
    23rd January 2018
  • SOT

    MDIS School of Technology

    By MDIS
    24th January 2018

Follow us on Instagram

Archive

  • 19th April 2018

    MDIS Football and Badminton clubs participated in PSB’s inter-school tournament

  • 18th April 2018

    EAT 4 DEAD!

  • 17th April 2018

    What Lies Behind those Numbers?

  • 16th April 2018

    The creative process of fashion design (Cont.)

  • 13th April 2018

    Stress and Your Addictive Behaviours

Subscribe to Our Blog

Name *

Email *

TAGS

  • MDIS fashion
  • cooking course
  • MDIS Students
  • City of Glasgow College
  • F&B industry
  • MDIS Events
  • psychology guide
  • MDIS Business School
  • language learning tips
  • cookery
  • MDIS College
  • Fashion Design
  • fashion guide
  • MDIS Business Club
  • MDIS membership
  • culinary course
  • Travel Guides
  • technology
  • learning language
  • language guide
  • culinary in singapore
  • Gary Maclean
  • MDIS
  • MDIS Event
  • school of language
  • language skills
  • English language
  • fashion
  • Lifestyle
  • MDIS Courses
THINK SUCCESS. THINK MDIS.
Copyright© 2017. MDIS Blog. All Rights Reserved.
      
Where lifelong learning begins