The following post is going to be a big one and is going to discuss some serious sleeping tips that will change your life, which is if you choose to try them out. I have no doubt that if you follow these tips you will get a great night’s sleep every night.

We have talked about some good sleep tips before for those who can’t sleep at night, but this reference is going to have bigger and better sleep tips then most web pages you will find online.

How to Sleep

Yes a very funny question indeed, just how do we really sleep? Well sleeping is completely controlled by our brains and there is nothing we can do about it really. Our biological clock tells our brain when to sleep, how long to sleep and what stage of sleep to go into. For those of you who are wondering, there are 5 stages of sleep. Here they are for you to use as a reference and get to know and understand.

1. 1. The first stage of sleep that you experience is not really sleep at all but more the door or gateway towards sleep. When you are lying in bed or dowsing off on the couch you are in stage 1 of sleep. Our brain exhibits lower waves called Alpha brain waves. Ever notice how good it feels to lay down and close your eyes when you are tired?
2. 2. During stage 2 of sleep we experience sleep spindles which are jolts of brain waves. Many people believe that this is when the brain tries to power off or enter sleep mode. This is when you are sleeping but maybe someone wakes you up but it doesn’t seem like you have fallen asleep when really you have. This is very light sleep and you are easily wake able here.
3. 3. Stage 3 and 4 are called deep sleep and as the name implies this is when we are truly asleep. We exhibit delta brain waves and our brain is at its lowest activity point. Muscle repairs and other similar activates take place in this stage of sleep.
4. 4. REM sleep is stage 5 and boy is it something. This is the stage where we dream and our brain exhibits the highest brain waves. REM stands for rapid eye movement which means that our eyes actually move while we are sleeping! If you are awakened in this stake you will most likely awake with a very vivid dream recall in your mind.

Now that you now the 5 stages of sleep you can start to understand why we sleep and get to know the body’s purpose of turning off at night. Our body goes through each cycle a couple times each night we sleep. It first enters deep sleep after light sleep for the longest period and then moves to a short period of REM sleep. As the night goes on our deep sleep decreases and our REM sleep increases. This is why you remember most dreams later on in the morning instead of earlier in your sleep.

Along with the 5 stages of sleep our bodies also have a biological clock that I mentioned earlier. This clock is made to help our body know when to sleep and when to be awake. Mastering and controlling your biological clock is the secret to learning how to sleep well at night.

The two most factors that control our inner clock are temperature and sunlight.

As the day goes by our body has a temperature cycle that it follows. As it gets warmer we become more awake and as it gets cooler we start to get sleepy. When we wake up we start off cool and gradually work towards a rising temperature. Once we hit the afternoon there is a little drop which suggests that by nature we are supposed to take a nap at this time. This is why you may feel tired at around 1-2pm on most days. After this our body temperature rises to its peak in the evening where we are truly the most awake and then cools down for bedtime.

Now you know how our body temperature works we can look at the greatest factor that will control how you sleep at night. Sunlight!

Sunlight is very important because it controls our body temperature. When we get sunlight our eyes are telling our body to be awake, and when we don’t we are being told to enter sleep stage 1. Our body temperature reacts to what our eyes are telling us as well. When it is sunny out our temperature will rise, the opposite will happen when we are getting no sunlight in our eyes.

As you can see the only person who truly controls how you sleep is yourself but most people do not know this simple sleeping tip.

Tips for Better Sleep

Now that you took our little crash course about how sleep works we can start to get into what sleeping tips will actually help us sleep better at night.

1. EXERCISE. Lots and lots of exercise is very important. Since our bodies feel more awake while we are experiencing a rise in temperature, it makes sense to exercise as much as our muscles will allow us right? Going for a run or hitting the gym can really decline the drop in our temperature which will allow us to feel more awake during the day.
2. SUNLIGHT. Since sunlight is the number one thing that controls our inner clock you need to get it from the moment you wake up. Open the blinds, go outside and take off those sunglasses. Want to test this theory? Sit in front of a TV for 1 hour and see how tired you get, then go outside and do the same.
3. WATER. Drinking water is important because it helps our body work and keeps our energy levels up. Dehydration is a huge problem and many people in today’s society aren’t even aware of it. You should aim for 9 cups a day and stay away from sugar, caffeine, and salt as these 3 things will keep you feeling lazy and tired.

These three tips I swear are all you really need to know if you want to sleep better at night. If you practice them then you can start to strengthen your sleep clock and you will be a strong sleeper in no time. It does take time to get your clock going though if it is weak. A sign of a weak biological clock is not being able to sleep for extended periods of time and random tiredness throughout the day.

Sleep hygiene is important. If you are not aware of the side effects of sleep deprivation, you should make yourself aware so that you can recognize the issue and fix it right away.