Driin driin drinn… the alarm goes off, it’s time to get up and, like every morning, how hard it is to get out of bed! It feels so good wrapped in the sheets. If you could you would sleep for a while longer, but commitments are calling and there is no point in putting your head under the pillow. Too bad that even though you’ve slept enough, your body doesn’t seem to have rested at all. Not to mention the always confused head and heavy eyes.
In short, even this night it is as if we had not slept at all! Still, you’re also striving to go to bed earlier and sleep at least 7 hours a night. The facts speak for themselves: it is not a quantity problem, it is a quality problem! If you want to improve the quality of sleep:
- try the titrated dry extracts of Valerian, Escolzia, Hop and Linden, whose synergistic action improves both the quality and the duration of sleep;
- prepares a cozy and relaxing sleeping environment;
- avoid using smartphones and PCs before going to bed, because the light emitted by their monitor interferes with the sleep-wake rhythm;
- before going to bed do some breathing exercises;
- during the day practice yoga or meditation, useful for calming the mind and for finding the right connection with the present moment.
These have just listed are just some of the many natural remedies that exist to improve the quality of sleep.
The perfect environment for quality sleep
The environment where you sleep is also important if you want to enjoy a restful and quality sleep. For example, the bedroom should be cozy and the room temperature should be neither too hot nor too cold.
A couple of hours before going to bed it is a good idea to open the windows for a while, so as to allow the air to change.
The bed should also be long enough and wide enough to allow the body to move and the mattress firm enough to support its weight. Soft mattresses, even if at first they may seem more comfortable, in reality they are not always and over time they could favor the appearance of widespread back pain.
But will it not be the fault of the mattress if you wake up in the mornings with the feeling of “broken bones“?
To improve sleep quality, avoid PCs and smartphones before bed
Another bad habit that has a negative impact on the quality of sleep is to go to bed with your smartphone and keep scrolling through WhatsApp messages and Instagram stories until the moment the eyes close, if and when they close!
The light from smartphone and PC screens affects the quality of sleep because it affects the sleep-wake cycle, tricking the brain about the time of day and keeping it more active than it should.
After dinner, smartphones, tablets and PCs should no longer be used. If you really can’t sleep in bed at night, you can replace their company with that of a relaxing piece of music, or with a good read.
Breathing exercises to improve sleep
Doing breathing exercises every day helps to release emotional tensions and enter a phase of deep relaxation.
If this is your first time doing breathing exercises you can try this exercise:
Lie on your back or back and assume a relaxed position. If you want, you can stretch your legs and even your arms, which you can keep resting along your body or on your stomach. If the position is bothering your back, you can leave your legs bent.
Once you are in a relaxed position, start breathing by inflating your abdomen, as if you were inflating a balloon. With each inhalation the belly swells and with each exhale the belly deflates. You can check your breathing by placing a hand on your abdomen.
When you exhale, do it slowly and try to eliminate all the air, all the negative thoughts that crowd your mind and all the tensions you have accumulated during the day.
You can repeat this exercise 4 more times or in any case until you feel your body completely relaxed and ready to fall asleep.
If you want you can also add a visualization: every time you exhale, imagine throwing a black stone on the surface of a deep blue and relaxing lake. The stone, when it touches the surface of the water, makes circles, which slowly disappear. Each stone is a negative thought that you got rid of, or freed from.
You can continue until your head feels lighter and your mind clear of thoughts and completely relaxed.
Practice Yoga to calm the mind
If you’ve ever taken a Yoga class. Yoga is an ancient oriental discipline focused on breathing.
Pranayana – which means breath control – is a set of breathing techniques useful for becoming aware of one’s breath, through which it is possible to receive oxygen and prana. Prana in Sanskrit means life energy.
Compared to other activities, Yoga requires a lot of concentration and can be difficult the first few times, however, once you have learned how to breathe correctly and never force your body to do more than it is able to do at that moment efforts made to enter and maintain the asanas will more than pay off!