9 Pre-Bed Activities You Should Give Up For A Deep / Delicious Sleep

This one’s hard, especially if you work 9 – 5 and get your workout session in after a day’s work. Exercising raises adrenaline levels and body temp – two things not conducive of a good night’s sleep.

Before you try using this as an excuse to skip the gym, bottom line is, getting exercise at a less-than-optimal time is better than no exercise at all, and if you can get it done in the morning, your day will be better for it.

You’ve read this one before, no doubt. Lots of studies indicate the blue and white light phones emit stop your brain from releasing melatonin, the crucial hormone that tells your body to pack ‘er up boys and go to sleep.

Before you skip this one and screech ain’t nobody got time for that, there’s a solution.

If you’ve got an iPhone with iOS 9.3.1 or newer, there’s a feature called Night Shift. It changes the backlight of your screen to a yellowish tinge, which is far easier on the eyes. You can activate it like so:

You can adjust what time it starts up in settings, then set and forget.

3. Popping sleeping pills 

Sounds counter-intuitive this one, doesn’t it? 

Of course, if the doctor has prescribed medication for insomnia or other conditions, disregard this advice. But if you’re borrowing a pill or two from someone cause you can’t seem to get to sleep, it might do you more harm than good. Sleeping pills can have a host of side effects, like muscle aches and memory loss.

It’s a bit like getting around enemas / laxatives on the reg – better to try let your body do the work for you.

It might be easy to doze right off after night on the turps, but the quality of your sleep will be sorely compromised. 

Your need to pee could increase, meaning you’ll either do a piddle in the bed or have to wake up to locate the porcelain throne…. Neither are optimal.

What’s more, alcohol twacks out your REM and deep sleep cycles, meaning you get less REM, and will therefore wake feeling a little exhausted.

No tips on how to avoid this doozy, apart from drinking less earlier in the night.

If you’re lucky enough to have a special someone you text on the reg, try and set yourself a time to shut things off.

The best among us have let the anticipation of a return text stop us from getting some shut eye. You can chuck your phone on Do Not Disturb if you know your honey’s gonna start drunk-dialling.

Eating undeniably delicious foods right before you sleep is not an A+ idea. If the food’s of the greasy variety, it’ll mean your tummy will be working in overdrive to break it down and digest it. You wanna avoid sugar as best you can too, as it can cause your blood-sugar levels to spike and subsequently plummet, disrupting your sleeping pattern.

If you’ve gotta have a something before bed (join the club), cherries have melatonin and studies show eating em before the sack is beneficial. 

A little self-loving is a primo way to relax. And since you’re in a bed, hopefully alone, what better time than now to give it a red hot go? 

Men’s Health says it’s unbeatable, and we want to congratulate them on that pun, and agree with them.

Caffeine, it’s self-explanatory this one. Try and have your last one before 5pm. 

If you must have a hot drink, give a herbal tea a whirl. There’re a bunch of ‘nighttime teas’ out there, and although there’s not much evidence to say they’re actively helpful, teas like chamomile and spearmint taste / smell goooood and supposedly have relaxing qualities. 

This one’s the same as the iPhone, in that the light is bad for you. But the very act of working can inhibit your ability to relax and get to sleep.

To get around the bright screen woes, try out f.lux  – it’s a software you can download that’ll sort out those white and blue screen woes. 

And there you have it. 

Go ahead, enjoy that bed.