by Jimmy Nightingale

Created on: August 26, 2009   Last Updated: January 05, 2010

Sleep is as essential to our bodies as eating and breathing and is vital to our emotional and physical wellbeing. While individual sleeping patterns vary, the average adult requires around eight hours of sleep each day. This means that we spend around one third of our lives sleeping. We've all heard the saying, "quality beats quantity", and that is certainly the case when it comes to sleep. One person may sleep for twelve hours and wake up feeling tired and irritable, however another can sleep for half that and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to handle anything.

We all want a good restful night's sleep. Achieving that can be as simple as avoiding a few things before you go to bed, including:

1). Your bed is for sleeping
Well, most of the time. The point being that doing other things in bed like reading, watching TV or studying teach your body bad sleeping habits. Your body may associate these activities with bed and send it the message that "Okay, we're in bed, it's time to study/read/watch TV etc". You want to make the association that your bed is for sleeping so that once your head hits the pillow, it's nitey nights, don't let the bed bugs bite. And for those with their minds in the gutter, sexual activity is fine and will help you to sleep (just skip the post coital cigarette);

2). Avoid late snacks and caffeine
Eating late at night means that your body is more occupied with digesting food than slowing down and going into sleep mode. Digestion is a distraction. The same sort of thing goes for caffeine. Strong coffee, cola and those caffeine laden energy drinks should be avoided late at night for the simple reason that caffeine is a stimulant and will inhibit your ability to relax. If you want a late night snack or drink, items containing tryptophan (a naturally occuring sleep aid that increases levels of seratonin in the brain and/or melatonin). These include things like milk, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds;

3). Drugs are bad
Yes, we all know that, but that doesn't mean the point should be left unsaid. We are not just talking about the stimulant drugs like amphetamines, nicotine and ecstacy; drugs of the prescription variety tend to interfere with normal sleeping patterns as well. Asthma treatments are a common one and you should check the prescription label to see what it has to say about sleep impacts (or ask your pharmacist or doctor). It might be possible to take medications earlier in the day so that your body has a chance to get used to the effects;

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