Have you ever wondered why some people sleep so calmly at night like their little monsters are locked in a steamer trunk inside their closets? 

What Makes For a Better Sleep?

As if they do not have a single thing that worries them?

The Top 5 Afternoon Activities For a Better Sleep

Well, if you want better sleep, that isn’t quite as challenging as people think it is. It may, however, come with the price of giving up some old habits after 5 p.m., and replacing them with healthier ones discussed herein.

1. Exercise

Research by Mayo Clinic revealed the benefits of exercise in getting a calm sleep at night. Moderate amounts of swimming and stretching after 5 p.m. gets the blood flowing through your muscles, relieves tension in targeted areas, and helps to soothe your body in preparation for sleep.

The state of relaxation that takes overcomes your body after a moderate exercise session will send you to slumberland before you can say, Jack Robinson.

2. Meditation

You’d have to be living on an isolated island if you haven’t heard of meditation and its positive impacts. Top influential people like Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson swear by it. Meditation involves paying attention to the present-the here and now.

All you need is a pair of functional lungs to breathe and a mind to think and focus. Besides being regarded as a cure to almost all ailments, meditation helps to reduce stress levels, decrease depression, increase focus, and improve sleep. In a 2015 clinical trial, researchers found out that meditation resulted in enhanced sleep quality for adults with moderate sleep disturbance problems such as sleep paralysis.

3. Turn Off Electronics

The use of electronics before bedtime is associated with disrupted sleeping patterns. They stir up neurons in our brains hence stimulating us and keeping us awake. Removing electronics from your room will help send valuable signals to your brain to prepare your body for sleep.

You can replace electronics with calming activities such as mediation or taking a warm bath. This added to creating a regular bedtime routine will see you only open your eyes to the sound of your ringing alarm.

4. Journal Your Feelings

In today’s busy world, journaling can be quite a challenge. Most people are so worn out by evening that the last thing they can think about is putting down their thoughts in writing. But what if this could be your solution to a calm and peaceful sleep?

 Besides giving you clarity about your personal decisions, journaling helps to clear your emotions. It increases stability and focus, helps you hold your thoughts still to change and integrate them, and helps you to release pent up emotions. The calmness and clarity that usually ensues the journaling process will soothe your body, clearing it of all negative emotions that are common disrupters of sleep.

5. Plan for the Next Day

Have you heard the saying failing to plan is planning to fail? Sometimes having no clear plan for the next day may plague you with anxiety throughout the night, especially if the things you intend to accomplish are a little bit complex or out of your ordinary routine. It’s easier to become overwhelmed when you begin thinking of everything that you have to do but still haven’t done or had no idea how you’ll do them.

Planning beforehand is a sure way of getting rid of anxiety, worry, and other negative emotions about the immediate future. When you write down a detailed to-do list about the following day, sleep will come easily and linger longer.

We All Want a Good Night’s Sleep

The benefits that come with it are immense, from enhanced productivity levels at home and at work, better relations, and more energy, to mention a few. To most adults, a peaceful night’s sleep doesn’t just happen. You have to purposefully create an evening routine that will help you sleep easier and calmly.

Exercise, journaling, turning off electronics, and planning for the next day aren’t too much to engage in exchange for some good quality sleep. If your sleep is constantly interrupted or not as satisfying as it ought to be, perhaps it’s high time you tried at least one of these activities.

Rest assured, only the sound of your ringing alarm will remind you it’s time to wake up.

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