10 Bad Sleeping Habits to Break Immediately

You’ve had another night of disrupted sleep, and you’re tired of being tired. We get it.

From irritability to weight gain to poor concentration, interrupted sleep has many adverse effects. Yet many people simply don’t know how to fix the cycle of poor sleep.

If this sounds like you, it may be time to take a look at your bedtime routine. The chances are you’re ruining the opportunity for a peaceful night’s sleep before your head even hits the pillow.

Keep reading to discover ten bad sleeping habits that could be spoiling your snooze time.

Too Much Screen Time Before Bed

How much time do you spend scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok before you hop between the sheets? If you’re anything like most, your phone is rarely out of sight, sitting next to you on your bedside table or even under your pillow when you try to sleep.

While browsing on your phone may seem like a harmless habit, too much screen time before bedtime can mess with your overall health. The blue light emitted from screens like phones, tablets, and televisions may stimulate the brain, affecting melatonin levels and the natural hormones we produce to help us drift off to sleep.

Try switching off all screens an hour or so before you snooze. If you’re really struggling to resist scrolling, try keeping your phone in another room. If you rely on your phone for your morning alarm, you can always try using a good old-fashioned alarm clock – remember those?

If you’re someone who needs something to do right before you sleep, consider reading a book (an actual book – not one on your phone or tablet!) or listening to some chill tunes.

• Eating Big or Heavy Meals Close to Sleep Time

While a little snack before bedtime is fine, wolfing down your dinner or large amounts of food before hitting the hay isn’t.

Eating a big meal can cause problems for your sleep if you’re heading to bed soon after. You may experience heartburn or indigestion as your body tries to digest a lot of food while you’re lying horizontally. As such, this can affect your sleep.

Not only does eating a lot before bed make it harder for you to fall asleep, but it can lead to acid reflux, too.

When your stomach is really full, acid can shift into your esophagus (hello, heartburn). Lying down compounds the issue since gravity can’t help keep the stomach acid in place.

Acid reflux is quite common in late eaters, and you can often notice the effects of acids on the teeth. You may see that your teeth are shiny and smooth with tiny ‘cupped out’ areas on the biting surfaces – not a good look.

Your body needs time to digest food before you lie down, so try to eat dinner, dessert, and any snacks around two to three hours before you go to bed.

• Drinking Coffee Too Late in the Day

We’ve all been there – you’re halfway through the workday, and you’re in that mid-afternoon slump. It’s time for a coffee.

While it’s tempting to grab a cappuccino to help you through the last hours of the workday, sadly, your mid-day energy boost may be affecting how you sleep hours later.

The effects of coffee can be felt up to eight hours after consumption. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system, causing increased brain activity and wakefulness. Of course, neither are helpful in you falling asleep soundly.

We’re not saying you need to cut out the caffeine completely, though. Just try avoiding coffee and other caffeinated drinks, like tea and sugary beverages, after 2 pm. This allows your body to metabolize caffeine, so it doesn’t keep you tossing and turning at night.

• Lying Awake in Bed

If you’re struggling to sleep, it doesn’t help to lie there awake for hours. If this happens regularly, as it may occur in insomnia, you may learn to link your bed with anxiety and having issues falling asleep.

Instead of lying there counting sheep, try a relaxing activity like reading or listening to music. If you’re still struggling to drift off, get out of bed for a bit, have a break from lying down, and try again a bit later.

• Overdoing the Night Caps

Some people turn to alcohol to help them sleep, but actually, this doesn’t help. While a couple of glasses of wine (or more) may make you feel drowsy, drinking alcohol disrupts your body’s ability to reach a deep, sleepy, restful state.

While alcohol may help you fall asleep quickly, it doesn’t mean it will help you stay asleep. You may wake up in the night and struggle to fall asleep once the effects of alcohol have worn off. What’s more, a glass of wine or cocktail may cause you to fall asleep earlier than planned, which can also disrupt your sleep schedule.

If you want to enjoy a tipple or two later in the day, be sure to drink a few hours before going to sleep. This gives you the right amount of energy to fall asleep at the right time.

If you drink beyond this time, your body won’t be able to digest the booze before you hit the sack, and you’ll disrupt your ability to sleep well.

Strenuous Exercise Before Sleeping

While exercising is a great way to stay healthy, vigorous training before bedtime can make it difficult for you to sleep. For example, going on a long night-time run.

Intense activity raises your body temperature and releases endorphins. It can also increase levels of cortisol.

Try to exercise any other time of the day. Keep those heavy-duty workouts at least one to two hours before bedtime.

Many people who exercise regularly find that they sleep better, so don’t cut it out of your routine.

Your core body temperature needs to cool down for you to sleep well, and all those endorphins whizzing around in your brain can keep you wide awake.

If you enjoy being active before bedtime, you can also consider some gentler exercises that can help you unwind, like yoga or some simple stretching. Meditation is another excellent alternative to heavy training before bed.

• Taking Long Naps

This one is a little controversial and may not apply to everyone. After all, some cultures praise the midday siesta, and many people swear by naps to help them get them through their day.

If you sleep well at night, napping during the day isn’t generally a problem.

But if you struggle to get your shuteye in, napping is a no-go. The last thing you want to do is worsen your problem by sleeping during the day.

Naps reduce your chances of falling asleep well at night. If you’re feeling exhausted during the day and in dire need of rest, this can suggest a disorder like sleep apnea.

• Skipping Unwinding Time

Sleep is a quiet activity, so it doesn’t make sense to transition from something the opposite, like intense exercise, as we mentioned above.

Our bodies don’t do well with abrupt changes, so it’s always a good idea to give yourself some time to unwind before bedtime. Think reading, listening to calming music, or sinking into an indulgent bubble bath. These activities all help us mentally and physically prepare for sleep time.

Although many of us are busy people, be sure to take the time to spend 30 to 60 minutes preparing your body and mind for bedtime.

• Using Your Bedroom as a Multipurpose Room

With many of us working at home, it’s not unusual to use your bedroom as both a place to rest and work. It can be tempting to grab your laptop and tip-tap away in bed, but this can make your body confused about the boundaries between work and downtime.

As such, this can make it difficult for your body to know when to sleep.

Likewise, if your bedroom is filled with televisions, computers, gaming stations, phones, and other gadgets, this makes it more likely that your brain will be stimulated late at night. While gadgets may be fun, they won’t help you sleep better.

Make your bedroom a calming and inviting space, used mainly for sleeping and relaxing.

• Having an Irregular Sleep Schedule

While a weekend sleep-in may feel great, it’s not so good if you don’t follow a regular sleep schedule. People who don’t have a regular bedtime or wake-up schedule have a higher risk of metabolic disorders and chronic health concerns like diabetes.

A weekend recovery sleep may sound heavenly in reversing a loss of sleep but know that getting different amounts of sleep each night can affect you more in the long run.

If you go to bed and rise in the morning at different times each day, your body will be confused about when it’s supposed to feel sleepy. Try fixing your wake time with an alarm and hit the hay when you start to feel tired in the evening to ensure you get enough hours in consistently.

Listening to relaxing, calming music is one way to help you nod off if you’re struggling to sleep. Discover our range of playlists here or by clicking bellow to help you drift off into dreamland.

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