Top 5 Sleep Mistakes

Are you having trouble sleeping? Well you’re not alone! Counting sheep or listening to lullabies can only get you so far… So we’ve put together these common sleep mistakes that you probably don’t know you’re making!

Caffeine 

Morning coffee, check! Lunchtime coffee, check! Then comes the 3pm slump and suddenly all that caffeine adds up. Caffeine is a stimulant and in moderate doses can help block sleep (hence why we drink it throughout the day!)

Watch out for that bar of chocolate just before bed too!

Napping

As we get older, a Sunday nap sounds like the perfect weekend treat. Unfortunately, this is a short term gain because when bedtime comes around your body may not be ready for it. Mid-morning naps are less likely to affect your regular sleeping pattern, but a ‘mid-morning nap’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it…

If you do settle down to an afternoon nap, be sure to set your alarm for 45 minutes!

Sleeping with pets

No matter how snugly and cuddly they may be, sleeping with your loving pet could be seriously affecting your sleep! It’s bad enough sleeping with a partner sometimes, let alone a dog or cat jumping under the covers at 2am.

Try keeping your pets in a different room with a blanket or two – although they may not like it at first, you’ll soon reap the benefits!

The snooze button

*Beep, Beeep, Beeeep* 6am, 6.30am, 6.45am, 6.55am and finally 7am! We know so many people who like to ‘ease’ their way out of sleep, but actually your harming your quality of sleep. Instead of an hour of high quality sleep, you are having an hour of fragmented sleep which doesn’t actually help you in the long run. You are also preparing the body for a new sleep cycle that you won’t have time to finish.

Technology

Step away from the phone, laptop and tablet because these devices emit blue light, which is said to delay the production melatonin – a sleep inducing hormone. We have set ourselves a little challenge to ban electronic devices in the bedroom, safe to say it’s bigger challenge than we first thought!