It's Time to Ditch These 5 Sleeping Habits

Did you know that roughly 16 million UK adults suffer from sleepless nights due to sleeping disorders or other issues?[3] We’ve all struggled with getting enough quality sleep at some point or another. 

But, if you’re trying to constantly grapple with sleep, you might unknowingly be doing these five sleeping habits that could be hindering your ability to sleep deeply. What are they and how can you fix them? Keep reading to find out.

Habit To Break: Having an irregular sleep schedule.

This one is a doozy. If your sleep schedule is all over the place, you’re not only misaligning your natural body clock, studies show you could also be setting yourself up for sleep disorders and chronic health problems down the line. For example, one study found that an irregular sleep schedule might lead to obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.[2] 

What’s The Fix?

Consistency is the answer!

Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night, so make sure you are setting aside ample time for enough sleep.[4] Go to bed at the same time every night to align your body clock and circadian rhythm for optimum rest. 

Habit To Break: Skipping the pre-bedtime routine. 

There is a ton of value in a bedtime routine. If you’ve ever sat in bed whilst having a hard time falling asleep, hoping that closing your eyes for long enough will help, your bedtime routine might need some sprucing. As creatures of habit, the human body and mind need time to detox from the day, separate the day from the night, and associate certain activities and times as precursors for sleep.[5] 

What’s The Fix?

To prepare for sleep, we recommend finding a personal routine that helps your nervous system, body, and mind calm down the most. Here are a few ways to get started perfecting your pre-sleep ritual[5]: 

• Try easy meditation, such as deep breathing or personal reflections.
• Write your thoughts in a journal.
• Go on a short, slow, and quiet walk.
• Do some light stretching or gentle yoga.
• Experts suggest a cool and dark environment for the best snoozes, so just as it’s important to prep yourself, you should be preparing your bedroom, too. Adjust your thermostat to the mid-60s Fahrenheit range. Surround yourself with low lighting during your routine, and before you hop in bed, make sure to use blackout curtains if you have them. Enjoy a soothing scent with some essential oils on your linens to experience ultimate relaxation. 
• Set your bed up for success. Fluff your pillows and blankets. Make sure you have bedding that is soft and airy for optimum comfort—We recommend starting with our Luxury Bamboo Down Alternative Duvet and our Luxury Weighted Blanket.
• Decide on a set bedtime for yourself. You can begin your routine about 30 minutes or 2 hours before bed, but make sure you are consistently hitting the hay at the same time. 
• Ditch the electronics once your pre bedtime routine begins. 
• If you’re one to take snoozes on the sofa or around the house, you’ll need our Everyday Fleece Blanket. Made with 100% microfiber polyester, our hypoallergenic blankets are designed with a fleece finish for superior softness and cleanliness. They can be used on beds - or even as a cuddly spare blanket for couch time and hosting guests.
• Listen to soothing music, ambient noise, or white noise.

Habit To Break: Eating before bed. 

That midnight snack might be doing you more harm than good. Sleep experts say that eating before bed can cause the body’s metabolism to slow down, affect your body’s insulin sensitivity, and even lead to weight gain. Plus, going to sleep right after eating can cause heartburn and indigestion, plus an onslaught of other digestive ouchies like acid reflux that can wake you during sleep and ruin your sleeping patterns, sleep latency, sleep quality, and more.[6,7]

What’s The Fix?

To allow your body time to digest food before rest, wait at least three hours after you’ve eaten before going to sleep. 

Habit To Break: Sleeping in on the weekends. 

Despite what you’ve heard, you can’t “catch up” on your missed sleep from the busy week on Saturday or Sunday. Trying to pay off your sleep debt on the weekends can lead to things like a lower sleep drive and lower sleep quality, a disruption in your circadian rhythm over time, and social jet lag.[8,9,10] 

What’s The Fix?

No matter if you are struggling to get enough sleep during the week or grappling with oversleeping on the weekends, there are a lot of ways to combat both of these issues. Let’s check some of them out:

• Get into a pre-bedtime routine that calms your nervous system. Don’t lie in bed awake! If you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, do something calming until you feel sleepy, like reading or listening to soft music.
• Make sure your sleep environment is cosy, cool, and dark. 

• Go to sleep at the same time each night, and get up at the same time each morning, even on the weekends.
• Don't take naps after 3 PM, and don't nap longer than 20 minutes.
• Stay away from caffeine and alcohol late in the day.
• Get regular exercise, but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime.

Talk with a doctor if you continue to have trouble sleeping.

Habit To Break: Going weeks without cleaning your bedding.

Good sleep hygiene is crucial for the best night’s rest each day. Your dirty sheets can be a breeding ground for lots of unwelcome guests, and most of it you can’t see—thousands of dead skin cells, bodily secretions, sweat, animal dander, and dust, among other bacteria.[1] 

What’s The Fix?

You should be cleaning your bedding once every week or every two weeks. We suggest using colder water when washing your sheets to save energy, time, and money.[11]

You should be washing your sheets even more frequently if you:

• Have allergies or asthma and are sensitive to dust
• Have an infection or lesion that makes contact with your sheets or pillows
• Sweat excessively
• Let your pet sleep in your bed
• Eat in bed
• Go to bed without showering
• Sleep naked

You’ll also need our Luxury Bamboo Bed Sheets. Our fabric is a unique bamboo viscose blend that is naturally hypoallergenic, meaning it stays looking, feeling, and smelling fresh all while warding off common household non-living allergens (we’re even talking to the night sweaters and overheaters out there). 

Enjoy less laundry and more sleeping with our other premium bed sheet options, our Luxury Pillows, Pillow Protectors, and optimal sleep hygiene bedding necessities like our Bamboo Mattress Protector. 

Looking for more ways to boost your nighttime routine? Click here to treat yourself to quality essentials without breaking your budget.

What are some habits you need to break? What are some ways you make sure you’re getting the best sleep? Let us know in the comments below. The Cosy community loves hearing from each one of you!

We've gone ahead & enclosed a 10% off coupon below for you to use if you'd like to take the plunge and try out our sheets for yourself! To shop our collection & get 10% OFF Use the code 'BLOG10' at checkout.

Resources:

1. Santos-Longhurst, A. (2019, June 24). How often should you change your sheets? plus, why it matters. Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/how-often-should-you-change-your-sheets#how-often 
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2019, June). Irregular sleep patterns linked to higher risk of metabolic disorders. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2019/irregular-sleep-patterns-linked-higher-risk-metabolic-disorders 
3. plc, A. (2017, October 27). Sleepless cities revealed as one in three adults suffer from insomnia. Aviva plc. Retrieved from https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2017/10/Sleepless-cities-revealed-as-one-in-three-adults-suffer-from-insomnia/ 
4. How much sleep do we really need? Sleep Foundation. (2022, August 29). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need
5. How to build a better bedtime routine for adults. Sleep Foundation. (2022, September 20). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/bedtime-routine-for-adults 
6. Kinsey, A. W., & Ormsbee, M. J. (2015, April 9). The health impact of nighttime eating: Old and new perspectives. Nutrients. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425165/ 
7. Is it bad to eat before bed? Cleveland Clinic. (2022, June 29). Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-eating-before-bed-bad-for-you/ 
8. What is circadian rhythm? Sleep Foundation. (2022, August 29). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm 
9. Casjens, S., Brenscheidt, F., Tisch, A., Beermann, B., Brüning, T., Behrens, T., & Rabstein, S. (n.d.). Social Jetlag and sleep debts are altered in different rosters of night shift work. PLOS ONE. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0262049 
10. Christopher M. Depner, Edward L. Melanson, Robert H. Eckel, ..., Ellen R. Stothard, Sarah J. Morton, Kenneth P. Wright, Jr. (2019). Ad libitum Weekend Recovery Sleep Fails to Prevent Metabolic Dysregulation during a Repeating Pattern of Insufficient Sleep and Weekend Recovery Sleep. Cell - Current Biology. Retrieved from https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(19)30098-3 
11. Catherine-Furze. (2022, April 26). Cost of living: Can you wash your clothes in cold water to save money? ChronicleLive. Retrieved from https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/laundry-lower-cold-temperatures-energy-23790441