Sleeping hygiene

Making the sleep restful

Sleep hygiene is a young branch of "science". It describes habits, behaviors and facts that support and promote restful, healthy sleep.
 If you go back in time, you will notice that the ideas of how to sleep "properly" differ significantly from today's opinion.
Thus, in the past, people spoke of the first sleep and the second sleep in one night. In between, people smoked a pipe, ate something or talked.

Today we generally assume that for adults an undisturbed sleep of 7-9 hours produces the best rest.

Sleep rituals
 
Cultivate habits that promote sleep.

We fall asleep more easily when we adjust physically and mentally to sleep. This promotes relaxation and inner peace. This makes the transition from wakefulness to sleep much easier.
You should dedicate the last hour before sleep to your rituals:

  • Review the day in your mind or write down the events that moved you.
  • Fill your bedroom with the pleasant, soothing scent of lavender. A fragrance lamp is just as suitable as a lavender sachet or an inlay with lavender in an eye pillow.
  • Do not use your cell phone, tablet or laptop for the last hour before sleep, as they contain high levels of blue light and delay the release of melatonin.
Lavendelfeld - Wissenswertes
Schlafendes Kind - Wissenswertes
  • Read your children a good night story that will bring about beautiful dreams or sing them a lullaby.
  • To fall asleep for yourself, it is also suitable to read a relaxing book.
  • Use the time at the end of the day for meditation, silence and mindfulness. This helps to calm your thoughts and you can fall asleep faster.
Light and darkness

Light and sleep do not go together.

Darkness is needed for restful sleep. Only in darkness is a hormone released that is indispensable for falling asleep without any problems and sleeping through the whole night, melatonin.

There is a special receptor in our eyes. It recognizes only blue light. It is not used for vision. Its task is to signal to the body when it is day or night. It is the clock for our internal clock. This discovery was even awarded a Nobel Prize in 2017.

 

Studies have shown that the use of digital media for an hour before sleep is particularly disturbing because they have a high blue content. Smartphones, followed by tablets, are at the top of the list. These are held at the smallest distance in front of the face. As a result, more (blue) light reaches the receptor than, for example, with a TV set that is further away. Here, less is clearly better than more.