Summary

The article provides tips for improving sleep quality when spending extended periods at home, emphasizing the importance of a consistent routine and avoiding daytime naps and screen time before bed.

Abstract

The article "Tips to sleep better when you’ve been home all day" addresses the common issue of disrupted sleep patterns due to increased time spent at home. It suggests that maintaining a regular schedule and creating a sleep-conducive environment are key to restoring quality sleep. The author recommends avoiding naps longer than 20 minutes and before 3:00 pm, reserving the bed for sleep only, establishing a nightly sleep routine, limiting exposure to screens an hour before bedtime, staying active during the day, and not sleeping in too late on weekends. These practices help train the brain to associate bed with sleep, reduce overthinking, and align the body's internal clock for better sleep hygiene.

Opinions

The author acknowledges the challenge of not taking naps, especially when at home, but emphasizes their potential negative impact on nighttime sleep.
Using the bed for activities other than sleep is seen as counterproductive, as it keeps the brain active and hinders the association of the bed with sleep.
A consistent sleep routine is highly recommended to train the brain for sleep readiness.
The author advises against exposure to blue light from screens before bedtime, citing studies that show its disruptive effect on sleep.
Staying active during the day is encouraged to ensure the body is ready for rest at night, but exercise should be avoided immediately before sleep.
The author suggests waking up at a consistent time every day, including weekends, to maintain a stable sleep schedule and biological clock.

Tips to sleep better when you’ve been home all day

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

One of the issues of being at home all day is not being able to sleep well. I think that most of us have lost control of our routine and schedule and this is because we are not used to spending so much time at home.

Even if you are not able to control all the factors that interfere with sleep, you can still adopt habits that promote better quality of sleep. Start with these simple tips.

1. Don’t take naps

I know this is a difficult one and that’s why I want to start with it. Is simple, If you are not getting tired enough because you are at home and on top of that you take a nap, it will be difficult for you to sleep at night.

I don’t want you to think that taking a nap is wrong, but you should do it as long as it doesn’t represent a problem later. For example, it’s good for the mind to rest and if you spend all the morning working or studying and you need to rest to keep doing stuffs, you should do it:

- For no more than 15–20 minutes (Trust me, is enough).
- Before 3:00pm, so it won’t be a problem later.

But if you don’t have to work or study, and you only take naps because you are bored, you probably are not going to sleep later.

2. Don’t use your bed during the day, and use it just for sleep

One of the greatest temptations to be at home is to spend the whole day in bed, but that is the worst idea you could have if you are having troubles to sleep. If you use your bed to watch tv, to work, to eat, when you use it for sleep, the brain will be active, so try to avoid all these things in bed.

Your brain, like your whole body, can be trained, so if you train your brain to use you bed just for sleep, it will eventually make you sleepy every time you lie down in bed.

I would recommend that you don’t even use your room during the day, but many of you are using a space in there to work. So if you work in your room, try to open as many windows as you can or turn on the light, so your brain is going to start feeling different during the day and night.

3. Create a sleep routine

Like I said before, your brain can be trained. So if you start doing the same things during the night before sleep, eventually your brain automatically will start getting ready for that moment of the day. I know that at home is difficult to make an schedule, but is the best option to you, not only during the night.

I recommend you to sleep at at the same time every day, and you can do a simple routine like showering, putting on your pijamas, reading a little, combing your hair and writing some notes.

Avoid read the news or watch videos that can activate your brain, because then you are going to overthink things and worry.

4. Avoid ALL the screens

Several studies reveal blue lights that comes from screen can affect you during the night, specially when the whole room is dark. So try to don’t use your phone, television, laptop, tablet, etc at least 1 hour before sleep.

You can use that hour to do your routine, talk, write your to do list for the next day, prepare your clothes or even listen to some relaxing music.

5. Stay active during the day

How do you want to sleep 7–8 hours at night if you spend the day doing anything?. During the day, try to find something to keep you busy and try to be active, I know that with the pandemic you probably don’t want to do something big, and you don’t have to be productive if you are worry and stressful with all the things that are happening, but if you want to spend the day watching netflix series, stand up every 20 minutes and walk.

But don’t exercise before sleep, what you will get with that is to activate your brain, another thing that is not recommended is to eat at least 1h-2h before sleep.

6. Don’t get up late

If you want to go to sleep early, don’t get up late, set an alarm.

Sleep no more than 2 hours later on weekend mornings than weekday mornings. Sleeping late more than that time will alter your biological clock and make it even more difficult to get up early on Monday morning.

Please tell me what others tips we can use to sleep better, and if those one helped you.