The importance of sleep
Sleep plays an essential role in our health and wellness, accounting for one-quarter to one-third of the overall human lifespan. No scientist knows for sure the reasons why we need sleep. But some researchers have connected sleep with physical recovery, alongside improved brain function, mood, memory and metabolism.
It has also become well-known that a lack of sleep can cause many harmful effects. It can make you fatigued and significantly impair your judgement, memory, attention span and ability to complete everyday tasks.
With more people than ever before experiencing low quality and quantity of sleep then ever before, here are 6 tips on improving your night’s rest to stop you from yawning throughout the day.
Creating a friendship with your inner clock
Before diving into sleeping tips, it is important to understand the impact of your inner sleep clock. Known as the circadian rhythm, this clock controls when you feel awake and sleepy over a 24 hour day. It is impacted by a range of external and internal factors, especially light. Finding a better night’s sleep is all about appeasing this daily rhythm.
Tips on how to get better sleep
Create a restful environment
Your sleep can be significantly impacted by your environment. This makes it highly beneficial to optimise your environment’s temperature, noise, light and general cosiness.
At the end of each day, your body drops in temperature to prepare for sleep. A cool room that sits around 18.3°C allows your body to settle into this phase, helping to prevent any disruption from feeling too hot or too cold.
It is also recommended to minimise light and external noise in your room. Darkness before bed increases melatonin levels – this is your body’s natural sleep hormone that helps you feel drowsy. You can do this by dimming your lights an hour before bed.
If there is one thing that your brain is great at, it is making associations. So making sure that your bedroom is restful and used for sleeping can be very influential.
Reduce blue light in the evening
For many of us, our phones are one of the last things we see before bed. Sadly, this is in fact damaging your body’s natural sleep rhythm. The blue light that is emitted from phones and other devices such as televisions, computers and gaming consoles make us more alert by blocking the melatonin that makes us sleepy.
Reducing this blue light before bed can make a big difference in your sleeping habits. Some recommended ways to limit blue light include:
- Reducing screen time a few hours before going to bed.
- Using an orange light in your bedroom.

Find ways to wind down before sleeping
Sleep is often misunderstood as an instant process of one moment being awake and being asleep the next. But, this isn’t quite the case. Getting ready to go to sleep is like a yoga class. You can’t expect to do your best if you don’t stretch beforehand.
A winding down routine is the perfect way to stretch your sleep muscles. It involves doing the same calming activities at the same time before bed every night. This helps tell the body when it’s time to start preparing for sleep. It can also allow you to collect your thoughts, so you don’t find them running laps in your mind when you are in bed.
Bedtime routines are different for everyone. Some potential activities include:
- Having a snack.
- Reading a book.
- Reflect on your day with a journal.
- Practice stretching.
Create a sleep schedule
As part of your winding down routine, it is recommended that you also decide on a regular time to go to bed and wake up. Thanks to circadian rhythms, the brain is a creature of habit that thrives under these regular conditions.
It is recommended to take only small steps a day to make these changes, with a maximum of 1-2 hours per night to make the patterns long lived. It is like learning to drive. You can’t expect to immediately get behind the wheel without assistance.
Limit caffeine and alcohol
Caffeine and alcohol are some of sleep’s biggest enemies. As a stimulant, caffeine can disrupt your sleep and cause sleep deprivation by blocking adenosine receptors – a sleep-promoting chemical that influences your inner sleep clock. Avoiding coffee, energy drinks or other caffeinated drinks in the evening or even in the afternoon can make a big difference to your sleeping habits.
Alcohol can often make you fall asleep quicker, but it does not help your sleep patterns. It is in fact connected with a reduced overall quality of sleep, especially when consumed in excess. It can also cause more tiredness during the day.
Look for signs of a sleep disorder
Sometimes, your troubles sleeping can be because of an underlying sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea. Just like symptoms, using the above steps may not help make a true impact. Speaking to your doctor and seeing a sleep therapist may help you overcome problems with sleeping.
Contact the team at Brisbane Counselling Centre today for information about sleep disorders and how we can help you to manage them. We look forward to hearing from you.