You all must have heard and known about cooking healthy, eating healthy, exercising healthy but has anyone ever told you about sleeping healthy? Probably not! Most of us pay attention to all the activities associated with our daily routine and health such as eating, walking, cooking, and exercising and so on but sleeping is one essential task that is often taken for granted.

Lets be honest to ourselves. How many of us include sleeping.. in fact not just sleeping but sleeping healthy in our daily to do list? Most likely it is the last thing that we think is important but this is actually not true. Indeed, sleeping well should receive importance equal to that of any other health related aspect of ours.

There are numerous benefits of sleeping right. It keeps you active and energized for the entire next day and helps maintain a good concentration level. It also keeps your body systems healthy as they get to relax after toiling hard for the whole day. Taking a sound sleep is also very essential for a glowing skin. The list can go on endlessly.

So let us promise to ourselves that from today onwards we would sleep healthy every night and avoid these 10 sleeping mistakes :

1. Getting into bed too late – Most of us have schedule for the next day already preset. Getting up in time, rushing to work and keeping ourselves engrossed in something or the other for the entire day. For staying active and energized all day, a proper sleep is a must. While if we do not sleep in time and keep awake till late, then we would not be able to give ourselves that complete 8 hours of sleep as a result of which we would feel lethargic the whole day.
2. Midnight munching especially caffeinated foods — Having coffee or other caffeinated foods such as dark chocolates etc. can hinder your sleep and even cause insomnia if done habitually.
3. Drinking alcohol just before bedtime – Apparently alcohol does seem to help you in falling asleep but afterall, all that glitters is not gold. It might appear to you that your nightcap is helping you but in reality it blocks sound sleep as well as dreams. Such disruptions will cause drowsiness the next day. However if you feel like drinking something then herbal tea is a great option since it has sedatives and will help you sleep sound.
4. Using gadgets at bed – We are living in the modern world which is full of technology. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, playstations etc. have become our companions not only for the day but for the night as well. But from health point of view, taking your gadgets to bed is highly undesirable. The lights and radiations emitted by these gadgets defer sleep inducing hormones and are also not good for our brains and eyes.
5. Forgetting to switch off the idiot box before dozing off – Most of us like to watch T.V. at night and what could be a place better than our bedroom for doing this. Pleasure of watching the idiot box transcends to another level while we lie on our comfortable bed and lean on the soft pillows. Sounds delightful! I know it does. But do not forget to switch that off too while you proceed into sleeping mode.  Because at slumber time, the ambience of your bedroom should be calm, dark and peaceful. Its easier for body and mind to relax and thereafter fall asleep with no lights and sounds in our surroundings. However, a television switched on doesn’t allow any of these to happen. The constant emission of light and sound prevents production of melatonin, the sleep inducing hormone.
6. Allowing your alarm to snooze over and over again – Another five minutes and I will get up! Chances are that you would not be able to, however firmly you decide. Moreover, any sleep that you will get after putting your alarm to snooze will come to you in pieces and will be of a poor quality. This will lead to your body feeling lethargic the whole day.
7. Turning to sleeping pills – For some, taking sleeping pills is a good way of sleeping sound and in time but trust me this is the worst thing that you could resort to for a healthy sleep. There are not one but many harmful effects of taking sleeping pills. Initially things may seem to be working fine but as time passes by, you would get addicted to them. Quitting them appears to be becoming impossible and with the never-ending side effects they pose on you, its not advisable to continue them for a prolonged period. In addition to all this, there is another ill effect that those who take sleeping pills do not get up fresh the next morning and remain drowsy the whole day.
8. Taking a heavy or protein rich dinner – Having a heavy dinner and foods rich in protein can also hamper our sleep. Our digestive system has to work very hard in order to digest such food. So if our internal organs are working hard at the time they should be relaxing, our sleeping would not provide a complete and wholesome rest to our body. This will also hinder with the functioning cycles of our body organs.
9. Getting anxious about completing those 8 essential hours of sleep – It is essential to have a proper and sound 7-8 hours of sleep every day as a habit for our mind and body both. But sleeping is not to be treated as a burdensome task too. Lets suppose that every night you doze off at 10 but tonight its already 11:30 and you just can sleep. You have done everything you could to force yourself to go off asleep but nothing seems to be working out. Calm down! Getting anxious will be of help only in delaying your trance even further. So the better idea would be to take a 2 minute walk in the lobby, then stretch to your bed again and take a few deep breaths.
10. Schlepping your pets to your bed – Research shows that accompanying your pets in bed could result in a sleep that is lower quality. Initially you may love the company of your cuddly buddy but eventually as the night passes, he may start kicking or making noise which can disturb your precious sleep. Moreover, it may aggravate or even induce allergies in you. So its better to keep them in a separate room. In situations when your pet is not keeping well, you should rather keep them under observation of a vet.

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