Sleep hygiene - Hormone Wellness Center

What is sleep hygiene?

Sleep hygiene refers to the recommended practices and habits that help promote high quality nighttime sleep. Good sleep hygiene is vital for both physical and mental health. By following some basic guidelines around sleep habits, we can set ourselves up for feeling rejuvenated and refreshed when we wake up.

Getting inadequate or poor quality sleep can negatively impact our mood, focus, productivity, and overall wellbeing. We may experience increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, lowered motivation, and even impaired immune system functioning when we don't get enough quality zzz's.

Some key components of sleep hygiene best practices include:

• Sticking to a regular sleep schedule: Going to bed and waking up at consistent times helps regulate the body's internal clock for sleep.
• Creating an optimal sleep environment: Factors like darkness, quiet, and cool temperature in the bedroom can all contribute to better sleep. Consider using blackout curtains, a white noise machine, or keeping temperatures around 65°F (18°C).
• Avoiding screens before bed: The blue light emitted from phones, tablets, and computers can disrupt normal melatonin production and make it harder to fall and stay asleep.
• Winding down before bedtime: Activities like light reading, gentle music, taking a bath, or light stretches help transition both the mind and body into relaxation for sleep.
• Avoiding large meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bed: These can all interfere with the quality of sleep.

In addition, factors like age, medications, underlying health conditions, and hormone balances can all impact someone's sleep. If you continue having sleep problems despite good sleep hygiene, consult your doctor or providers like Hormone Wellness Center to explore whether hormone optimization could help improve your sleep. Proper hormone levels play a big role in regulating healthy sleep-wake cycles.

Hormone Wellness Center provides customized care including nutrition planning, hormone testing and replacement therapy using cutting edge protocols to help patients address issues like sleep disturbances, low energy, and weight management. I highly recommend checking out their website if sleep troubles persist despite your best sleep hygiene efforts!