It can be puzzling when you keep fit, manage stress well, and live a healthy lifestyle yet still have trouble with your sleep. Sometimes, this is due to an illness like sleep apnea or depression. But if your doctor eliminates a health problem as the cause of your insomnia, does that mean there is nothing more you can do?
Of course not. For many people, a less than ideal sleeping environment causes them to have a less than restful sleep. For example, many people buy the most expensive bed they can afford and then leave it at that. But is your bed really comfortable? If you are past your physical prime, you may be sleeping on a firm mattress to get enough back support to prevent a chronic backache. You may have reconciled yourself to your less than ideal situation. But there is actually something you can do to make things better. You can put a memory foam topper pad on top of your mattress to make it much more comfortable.
This is not the same as just placing a soft, thin cotton-filled mattress on top. If you just add a soft, thin mattress, you will lose the spinal support provided by your firm mattress. But a memory foam topper is made from a special material called memory foam. This special foam molds itself to conform to your bodyshape. It thus spreads out the force you feel over the usual pressure points where your body normally contacts the bed. At the same time, it continues to support the raised parts of your body like the small of your back (if you sleep on your back) or your waist (if you sleep on your side).
But what if your bed is already perfect for your? Well, one more major cause of sleep disruptions is an uncomfortable bedroom temperature. You may think that setting the thermostat of your heater or air-conditioner is enough to keep your bedroom at your ideal temperature. Unfortunately, even the best heater or air conditioner cannot maintain your bedroom at a single temperature. All that can be done is keep the room hovering within a certain range of the temperature you set. So if you set your bedroom at 68 degrees, a good air conditioner will activate when the temperature rises to 70 degrees, and keep on working until the temperature drops to 66 degrees. Lower-quality heaters or air-conditioners have a wider range, and so do many newer “energy-saving” systems. But how do you find out how effectively your bedroom heater or air-conditioner is working? A simple way is to buy a cheap (around $25) recording thermometer and let it record how your bedroom cools down or heats up throughout the night.
There are many ways your environment can disturb your sleep. If you want to sleep better at night, you will just have to buckle down and investigate these possibilities one by one.
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