Sleep is an essential component of a person's life. Unfortunately, it’s easy to take sleep for granted, neglecting our shut-eye to work, party, or binge-watch Netflix long into the night. Whether it’s lifestyle habits or chronic insomnia keeping you awake, a disrupted sleep cycle can significantly affect your quality of life.
To keep your immune system and body running with minimal problems, it’s important to get at least eight hours of sleep every night. Research shows that getting inadequate sleep is detrimental to your health — studies even suggest that people who get less than six hours of sleep are more likely to catch a common cold than those who get a full eight hours.
Maintaining a consistent sleep cycle is key to maximizing those eight precious hours of shut-eye. Let’s explore some effective tips to get your sleep cycle back on track.
In this article, we'll cover:
How to Restore Your Sleep Cycle
Here is a list of things you can do to restore your sleep cycle.
Adjust Your Bedtime
To restore your sleep cycle, you must readjust when you go to bed. A little basic math can help you calculate the perfect bedtime. An average sleep cycle is around 90 minutes long, and to be fully rested, you need four to five sleep cycles. This translates to roughly seven to nine hours of total sleep. To determine your ideal bedtime, count back from your wake-up time.
Avoid Napping if Possible
Napping during the day may be necessary to power up your afternoon, especially after a busy morning. Sometimes, it's normal to doze off when extremely tired or sleepy.
Ideally, take naps between 10 am and 3 pm to ensure you don't disrupt the sleep schedule you are trying to create. Just ensure you don't sleep for longer than 30 minutes. Similarly, if possible, avoid napping past 3 pm.
Set a Wake-Up Time and Stick to It
Consistency plays a psychological role in establishing a routine. After a few days of waking up at the same time, you may not need an alarm anymore to wake you up. However, waking up at the desired time will only be achievable if you have set a sleeping time. You should also ensure you don't snooze your alarm. Discipline is vital if you're intent on restoring a sleep schedule.
Avoid Exposure to Bright Light Before Sleep
Using bright lights in the evening prevents your body from properly transitioning from daytime to nighttime. Remember that melatonin is produced in darkness, so ensure your environment is slightly dimmer at night to support melatonin production to help you sleep better.
It would also help reduce screen time before bed. Smartphones, tablets, computers, and televisions stimulate your brain and can make it harder for you to sleep. To get enough sleep at night, it is advisable to avoid screen time for 30 minutes to an hour before going to bed.
Avoid Exercise Close to Bedtime
Physical activity is undoubtedly good for your health and also promotes sound sleep. However, when it comes to sleeping, it's best not to exercise close to your bedtime as this can make it harder for your body to wind down and fall asleep. If you have to exercise in the evening, ensure you finish your workout at least an hour before your scheduled bedtime.
Be Careful What You Eat Close to Bedtime
The time you eat dinner may affect your ability to sleep well. Eating right before your bedtime affects your sleep cycle because the digestive process can interfere with your body’s natural sleep process — instead of focusing on producing melatonin and serotonin (sleep hormones), your body is busy producing digestive enzymes and insulin.
Some foods are easier to digest than others. The longer the food takes to be digested, the longer it takes you to fall asleep. Besides being digested slowly, some foods are more acidic than others. Such foods may cause indigestion or heartburn, keeping you awake even longer.
Some of the worst foods and drinks to consume before bed include:
- Fatty foods like burgers, pizza, and fries
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- High-protein foods
- Sugary treats and beverages
However, there are a few sleep-friendly foods that are easy to digest and increase the production of sleep hormones like melatonin. Any of these would make for the perfect bedtime snack:
- Raw or cooked vegetables
- Almonds
- Cherries
- Oatmeal
- Apples with peanut butter
- Greek yogurt
Regardless of what you eat, the best time to stop eating is three hours before bed so you can give your body enough time to digest the food. If you eat your dinner early, a light evening snack can help prevent hunger pangs from disrupting your sleep.
Set the Sleep Mood
Setting the right mood for sleep comes down to sleep hygiene. Good sleep hygiene makes it much easier to fall asleep and leads to better sleep quality, so start by having a specific time for going to bed. Sleep experts recommend going to bed at 10 pm, but this rule is not cast in stone; once you feel sleepy at night, go to bed.
Create a Bedtime Routine
This is perhaps the most crucial element of restoring a sleep schedule. Once you've settled on an ideal bedtime, plan and stick to your routine of bedtime activities. You can start by taking a warm bath. Some soft, slow music might help relax you further. If you're still not feeling sleepy, you can read a book or do a less engaging activity.
Exposure to Natural Sunlight
Sunlight can be an effective sleep stimulant. If you're struggling to sleep, primarily due to a disoriented circadian rhythm or insomnia, you could try basking in the morning sunlight. The sun's rays are believed to promote the production of serotonin — a mood and sleep booster — while reducing melatonin production.
Nonetheless, if leisurely morning walks aren't practical, try to get smaller amounts of sun exposure by opening the car windows while driving to work or at the office.
Natural Sleep Aids
Natural sleep aids can also be effective in restoring your sleep cycle. For example, many people find that CBD helps them relax at night, fall asleep faster, and wake up feeling well-rested the next morning.
Are you interested in trying CBD for sleep? Our FOCL CBD products are professionally formulated and third-party tested to the highest quality standards. Our calm sleep gummies are designed to boost sleep quality significantly, relieve stress, and reduce pain and inflammation.
Our CBD + CBN Sleep Gummies are a powerful sleep aid that combines the sleep-improving properties of CBD and CBN to help you doze off quickly and wake up feeling well-rested. Each gummy has 15mg of CBN and 25mg of CBD to provide a gentle punch that gets you sleeping in no time. Our customers say its the best gummy for improving sleep quality.
Or are you more interested in a sleep aid that you dispense with once and for all and get on with your night's activities? FOCL Night Stack is what you're looking for. Our natural sleep aid is packed with organic botanicals and sleep-promoting ingredients, including:
- Valerian root
- Passion Flower
- Ashwagandha
- Hops Cones
- Magnesium
- 5-HTP
This powerful blend of herbs and adaptogens supports rest, recovery, and a better night's sleep. Better yet, combine our Night Stack with one of our CBD sleep products and drift effortlessly into slumberland.
Why Sleep Schedule Is Important
A consistent sleep schedule ensures better quality sleep and a healthy body. Conversely, an inconsistent sleep schedule is bad for your health. It is a recipe for heart attacks and other diseases.
Other risks associated with an erratic sleep schedule are:
- Hypertension or high blood pressure
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Obesity
A regular sleep schedule means sleeping within a 30-minute window of your average bedtime. If you usually go to bed at 11 pm, but sometimes you sleep at 11:28 pm, you are still within your regular sleep schedule.
People with chronic sleep deprivation tend to have a slower metabolism. Moreover, insufficient sleep inhibits HGH secretion, a growth hormone that helps burn fat and build lean muscle mass.
The body naturally produces the growth hormone during sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, less of this hormone is released, leading to a slower metabolism and unhealthy side effects like weight gain.
Having good sleep hygiene means you get adequate, quality sleep, which leads to better health. Besides good health, people who sleep enough tend to have an easier time making decisions. Adequate sleep is also associated with good moods, improved learning, and increased cognitive performance.
Why Is My Sleep Schedule So Inconsistent?
An inconsistent sleep schedule, also known as an irregular sleep-wake syndrome, is when you sleep without having an actual sleep schedule.
While some people can sleep all through the night, those with the irregular sleep-wake syndrome wake up several times during sleep, so they don't typically sleep for the recommended 7-8 hours. Due to the disruptions, they may sleep for 4 hours or even less at a time. Further, they may have 2-3 sleep sessions within 24 hours.
Persons with this syndrome are not considered sleep-deprived. They get enough sleep — just spread over 24 hours instead of being consolidated within 8 hours, as should be the case. In this case, sleep schedule could be erratic because the circadian rhythm responsible for regulating sleep and wakefulness is disoriented.
Another reason your sleep schedule may be inconsistent is if your melatonin levels are low. Melatonin is the hormone that makes you sleepy. Its secretion is higher at night, especially when it is dark, which explains why you need to dim the lights as your sleep time nears.
Causes of Sleep Disruptions
Sleep disruptions can be caused by different reasons, but the result is always a disorganized sleep-wake cycle. Some of the most common causes of sleep disruptions are:
- Medical issues like sleep apnea
- Physical disturbances or pain, e.g., headaches, arthritis, fibromyalgia
- Environment issues, e.g., too much noise, too much light, a snoring partner, or a colic baby
- Psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression
Causes of short-term or acute insomnia include life stressors. For example, being in a stressful job, losing a loved one, moving houses, or environmental issues like extreme temperatures.
If you cannot sleep at least three times weekly for three months or more, you may be experiencing chronic insomnia. Factors like chronic stress or depression may cause this.
Other causes of sleep disruptions are:
How Long Does It Take to Change a Sleep Schedule?
Starting and sticking to a sleeping schedule can be an uphill task, especially in the first ten days. The most important thing is consistency. If you stick to the plan, you will be right back on track in roughly two weeks. The idea is to have the same sleep and wake-up time daily. Overall, it takes approximately 10 to 14 days to change a sleep schedule.
When creating a sleep schedule, there are a few fundamentals. For starters, ensure your bed and bedroom are comfortable. Some people use the bedroom as a home office or a study room.
However, to create a good sleep environment, let the bedroom be used for sleeping only. Ensure the room is quiet, dark, and decluttered. And, of course, get a comfortable bed and bedding.
Restore Your Sleep Cycle With CBD
Resetting an irregular sleep cycle can do wonders for your overall well-being, but the process won’t happen overnight. Getting your sleep back on track requires a commitment to changing your bedtime habits, maintaining a consistent routine, and creating a sleep-friendly environment.
Remember, natural remedies like CBD can support your transition to a stable sleep cycle by promoting evening relaxation and helping you fall asleep faster, without causing morning grogginess like traditional sleeping medication. FOCL offers a range of CBD sleep products to explore, so take a look at our collection to find your perfect sleep cycle support.
