Sleep Hygiene Habits That Lower Risk of Heart Disease
- Kaylee Mak-lin
- Nov 9
- 3 min read
Sleep hygiene may be one of the most overlooked daily habits, but it is in fact one of the most important. Good sleep can affect your day to day life without you even knowing it, quality sleep is essential for good health and functioning.
So what is sleep hygiene? Sleep hygiene consists of practices done during the day and before you sleep that allow you to get the quality sleep you need. Sleep is important for giving your body a break from everyday life, it allows for emotional and cognitive renewal, and boosts your immune system. If you don't get good quality or quantity of sleep, there is an increased risk of; high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, stress, anxiety, and depression.
How can we then avoid this and refresh our sleep hygiene?
Set up a good sleep schedule and stick to it
Make sure you set a regular bedtime and stick to it. Plan this around your everyday life to reach a goal of 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Your body will get used to this and will naturally get into the routine of sleeping at this time, this will reinforce your body’s internal clock, or your sleep cycle. Disrupting this schedule disrupts your body’s routine by sleeping at varying times each time and does not allow for quality sleep. Sticking to a consistent schedule may also help reduce daytime sleepiness - reducing the need for mid-day naps.
Create and control your own calm sleep environment
Keep your room a peaceful place, limit the amount of sounds and lights where possible, keeping it dark and quiet. Most people tend to sleep better in a cool place, this can be changed by a fan in the room, or changing the room temperature to what best suits you. If you are a light sleeper and little sounds of the night keep you awake, try a white noise machine or good earplugs. Your bed should also only be used for sleep and intimacy. As tempting as it may be to do work on your bed, eat, or talk on the phone, you should try to limit it only for sleep and intimacy in order to strengthen your brain's association between your bed and sleep. In doing this, you will have a much easier time falling asleep and maintaining your sleep schedule.
Limit food and substances taken right before sleep
Food or drinks containing caffeine ingested around the time of sleep can negatively affect our quality of sleep since caffeine is a stimulant and will keep our brain awake. A large meal right before sleep can cause discomfort, on the other hand you also shouldn't sleep on an empty stomach as the same issues arise. Other substances such as nicotine, alcohol or other drugs can negatively influence your sleep hygiene, although it might make some feel sleepy, its effects may kick it a few hours later and disrupt your REM sleep - a vital stage of sleep for mental health and cognitive function.
Manage your screen time before bed
As much as I’m sure you’ve all heard, we shouldn’t go on our phones or screens right before sleeping. This is very real and has been proven by experts that blue light can affect the hormone melatonin in our body. This hormone is what helps us fall asleep at night, and blue light specifically blocks this from working. Blue light should be put away a few hours before bed. In the meantime, it is best to do calming activities such as meditating, yoga, reading a book, or cleaning up and setting up for bed.
At the end of the day, everyone's routine is different, but cater your life and routine so that you get the quantity and best quality of sleep for you. Sleep hygiene depends on maintaining these important sleep habits so do your best. It is also helpful to not think about stressful things before sleeping as these can keep you up. Think about calming and happy things, the stress can always be dealt with the next day!
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