Sleep isn’t something that we just have to do every night. In fact, it’s the key to success, happiness, and joy in our lives But there’s a problem: far too few of us get enough of it. And it’s not just because we’ve got “hectic lives.” Part of the problem is our bodies themselves. They were designed for a very particular environment: nature. But the world we live in today is so different. In the natural world, we were on the move all day long. It was exhausting. We used our muscles to their maximum capacity. And then when the sunset, we finally settled down around the fire before going to sleep. In the modern environment, we’re lucky if we do more than one 10-minute brisk walk every month!
Then there’s the fact that few people lived to be older adults while we were evolving: people in their 50s and 60s. Today, now that we can live to those older ages, thanks to medical technology and the fact that our survival isn’t dependent on our physical ability to work, we see new age-related sleep problems. It turns out that when humans age, they naturally produce less of the sleep hormone melatonin. This, in turn, reduces the length and quality of sleep.
So what can you do to maximise your chances of getting a solid 8 hours of sleep every night?
Alleviate Pain
A big sleep killer is pain. According to the data, around 86 percent of people will suffer from some kind of back pain during their lives, and this can reduce the quality of sleep, or prevent people from sleeping altogether. For those suffering from sleep problems, it’s important to find a great mattress, something sites like mattress.review can help with. Having a supportive mattress can make a big difference to how deeply you sleep at night, and how refreshed you feel in the morning.
Get Smart About Nutrition
Finally, what you eat can have a significant impact on how well you sleep. Caffeine and nicotine can make you feel hyper. Big meals at night can rev up your digestive system. Too many liquids late in the evening can lead to nocturia and so on.