The quality of sleep that we get every day is crucial to our health. Do you get enough sleep every night? At least 7 to 8 hours of sleep is vital for functioning properly for our daily tasks.
It is essential to have consistent sleep. Although waking in the middle of the night is unavoidable, you should know when the causes of your sleep interruptions are something serious.
Continued interrupted sleep will cause other illnesses such as sleep deprivation, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and other diseases or problems caused by insufficient sleep.
Knowing the causes and symptoms of your interrupted sleep will help you assess the situation and find solutions or treatments to prevent worsening the problem. Let’s find out the causes of interrupted sleep and what you can do to prevent or avoid it.
Causes of Interrupted Sleep and How to Deal with it
Using gadgets before bedtime
Using a gadget before bedtime is one of the most common reasons for interrupted sleep. If you are exposed for a long time to artificial light, it could affect the quality of your sleep.
The blue light coming from your gadgets such as laptops, smartphones, and other devices can mainly lower melatonin levels in your body, therefore, negatively affecting your sleep.
Solution:
Wear specialized glasses or filter the light coming from your devices using screens. Use night mode settings if applicable. But the best thing that you can do is avoid using gadgets for an hour or more before going to bed.
Everyday Distress
Things that you face every day can affect your sleep quality, such as the electric bill, taxes, payments, house/room rent. There are many things on our minds that mess with our sleep. We tend to think these things during bedtime.
Solution:
Write down all these things on paper and stick them to your room or door. Doing this can help you cut the stress and track your woes easily, allowing you to eliminate these thoughts during bedtime and sleep peacefully.
Your Bedroom
Your bedroom can also affect the quality of your sleep. Is it hot in your room? Does it lack ventilation? A snoring roommate, uncomfortable bed, and the overall ambiance of your room can interrupt your sound sleep.
Solution:
Ask your friend to look for a doctor to help them with snoring problems. If you rent a room, it is good to find other apartments or rooms with enough ventilation, safe, quiet, and comfortable. Make sure to use a comfortable mattress that will allow you to sleep comfortably.
Alcohol Consumption
Many people think that drinking alcohol helps them have a good sleep. At first, yes, it can help you to be sleepy and fall asleep. But soon, it will wake you up in the middle of the night with a headache.
Drinking alcohol can disrupt the REM stage of sleep, which is very important. It can also make you pee a lot, which means you’ll wake up several times at night to go to the bathroom.
Solution:
Do not drink alcohol when it is already late afternoon, especially in the evening or before bed.
Caffeine Consumption
Coffee, Chocolate, tea, and energy drinks contain caffeine. Even just the average doses could wake you up and mess your good night’s sleep, especially for older people. Drinking caffeine 8 hours before bedtime could still affect you.
Solution:
Avoid drinking caffeine in the afternoon, especially in the evening, and take note if your sleep is affected.
Eating at late night
Finishing a big hamburger later in the night will more likely affect your sleep and wake you up later. Eating late will mess your stomach if you sleep with a full belly, and the food will be much harder to digest.
Solution:
Prepare a meal with less salt, fat, and fewer calories, such as vegetables and grilled chicken. Eat your dinner earlier in the evening, so you have more time to digest the food before sleeping. Eat easy-to-digest foods only, such as yogurt or toast, if you feel hungry late at night.
Medicine or supplements
There are a lot of decongestants that contain pseudoephedrine, a stimulant that can interrupt your sleep. Many medicines can affect your sleep, such as drugs for heart disease, allergies, ADHD, Parkinson’s disease, and hypertension.
Solution:
Ask your doctor if you can change the time you take your medicine from evening to other times of the day. Or if you can switch to an alternative medication that will not disrupt your sleep.
Follow these solutions to your problem. Remember that sleep is essential for taking good care of your health. If none of these tips worked out, it would be wiser to seek professional help. Call your doctor for proper treatment.
