It is recommended that every person gets between seven to eight hours of sleep per night. It doesn’t matter which medical professional you speak to, they will all highlight the importance of a good night’s sleep. However, achieving that is easier said than done for many people
This can lead to a range of negative effects, from higher levels of anxiety and stress, to serious physical and emotional health problems and if you are someone who struggles to sleep and/or stay asleep, then you have clicked on the right article.
Here are four ways in which you can help improve your sleeping pattern.
1. Deep Tissue Massage
Massage is known for its relaxing effects. You would be surprised at just how effective massage can be in controlling your sleeping patterns, particularly in the case of deep tissue massage.
Essentially, a deep tissue massage serves to calm the heart rate, lower the blood pressure, and relax the muscles, with all three components coming together to serve as the basic wind-down procedure before the body goes to sleep.
Try such a massage, and if you do feel more relaxed afterwards, you could consider regular sessions.
2. Consider Talking Therapy
Now, nobody is saying that dreams are a metaphorical manifestation of your hopes and desires. Rather simply a series of images your brain has recorded throughout the day, but when it comes to the reasons why your sleep is disturbed, this could be due to an embedded emotion or unresolved mental conflict.
If you do suspect that your reasons for irregular and light sleep could be due to such a factor, then your best bet is to contact your GP to arrange for an assessment, usually done through MIND on the phone, to see if talking therapy could benefit you.
3. Holistic Approaches
In addition to ensuring you check in regularly with your GP, you could also try your own ways and means of improving your sleeping patterns by applying a more holistic approach.
Some of the leading and reportedly effective holistic treatments and therapies you may want to look into for your sleep disorder include, medical cannabis UK. Medical cannabis is available on prescription to treat some cases of insomnia. To be prescribed this, you will have to have tried other treatments first. Other examples of holistic approaches include:
- Acupuncture
- Meditation and deep-breathing techniques
- Melatonin supplements
4. Ban Electronics in the Bedroom
The fourth and final tip to improve both the quality and duration of your sleep will also have multiple other health benefits. This is to stop using your mobile phone, laptop, and tablet in bed.
Not only is such an activity stimulating for the brain and very often plants images of a troubling or controversial nature ready for when you enter REM, but the blue light emanating from the screen can cause issues.
Blue light can damage the retina of the eye and then begin to affect the vision in both eyes, which medical professionals refer to as macular degeneration, a the leading cause of loss of vision.