Getting consistent nights full of wholesome, deep sleep is just as vital to your health, if not more so, as regular exercise and a healthy diet. 

As Matthew Walker, neuroscientist, sleep expert, and author of Why We Sleep, expresses:

"I was once fond of saying, sleep is the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise. I have changed my tune. Sleep is more than a pillar; it is the foundation on which the other two health bastions sit. Take away the bedrock of sleep, or weaken it just a little, and careful eating or physical exercise become less than effective, as we shall see.”

Likewise, according to the National Library of Medicine, there is a global problem of insufficient sleep, with serious public health implications. Without consistent nights of rejuvenating sleep beyond just a light sleep or 'cat nap,' you may find yourself in a world of hurt. Poor sleep quality over the long term can create a host of unwanted health issues—obesity and diabetes, among other severe health conditions. Without good quality sleep, cognitive ability, mood, cardiovascular health, immune system function, and other aspects of overall well-being, such as happiness, begin to decline slowly.

For this reason, focusing on the role of your mattress, your bedtime routine, and lifestyle choices can help or hinder your potential to get a good night's sleep. In fact, being mindful and sleeping well regularly is one of the most influential, important habits you can form to maintain, or even optimize, your health.

Now, if you're ready and newly enthused to discover a new, more promising sleep routine, then look no further. Next, mattress nerds and sleep specialists from Mattress World Northwest will emphasize a few top-notch sleep tips to help you get better rest, starting tonight!

Bedtime Routines & Sleep Environment

Establishing a bedtime routine around the same time every day helps deliver a signal to your mind and body that it’s time to relax and prepare for sleep around that time frame. Having uniform nightly habits can help reduce tension and stress, allowing you to unwind more quickly, fall asleep more easily, and improve how well you sleep. Likewise, certain factors contribute to creating an ideal sleep environment, helping you avoid disruptions and enabling you to experience deeper, more refreshing rest and beneficial sleep quality.

Sleep Consistency: Sticking to a Schedule

Get in bed and wake up or set an alarm at the same time every day, including weekends, to regulate your body clock, also known as a circadian rhythm. Also, if you travel, be aware of the effects of jet lag and the 'First-Night Effect.'

Develop a Relaxing Bedtime Routine

Establishing relaxing bedtime habits can lead to improving your sleep health. Approaches such as using a massage chair to boost circulation or alleviate back pain, enjoying a warm bath, listening to calm music, or practicing meditation can all help reduce mental stress and muscle tension before bedtime. Incorporating these routines into your nightly ritual can increase your chances of a restful, satisfying night's sleep.

Keeping a Dark & Quiet Bedroom

To sleep better, convert your bedroom into a peaceful haven by installing blackout-style curtains so no light peeks in. Welcome a calm, quiet sleep environment by silencing distractions—try saying so long to TVs and phones in the bedroom. With a serious approach of leaving your phone out of the equation and keeping the bedroom dark, you can more easily create an ideal atmosphere for relaxation, leading to rejuvenating sleep.

Maintain a Cool Temperature

A cooler room helps promote better sleep by supporting the body's natural temperature decline, which signals the brain to begin producing melatonin. These natural sleep cues signal the brain to produce melatonin, helping you feel sleepy before bed and stay asleep throughout the night. Melatonin, a well-known sleep hormone, helps maintain sleep consistency and efficiency by promoting deeper sleep stages.

An ideal bedroom temperature is often said to be between 60 and 67°F (15 to 19 °C). Lower temperatures reduce the risk of overheating-induced restlessness and encourage more time in deep sleep and REM Sleep.

Overall, a cooler sleep environment with more time spent in deep sleep cycles can lead you on a path towards better sleep quality, increased time in REM sleep, and the potential for improved metabolic health.

Avoid 'Non-Bed Activities' While In Bed

Sleep experts advise avoiding activities you usually do in other areas of the home—the living room or kitchen—such as eating, drinking fluids other than water, or working from bed.

Nutritionists and other experts suggest finishing meals at least 2 to 3 hours before bed to promote easy digestion and prevent symptoms like heartburn from acid reflux. Still, the ideal time to stop eating before bed may vary depending on your schedule and lifestyle. Protein-based snacks are usually fine if you're hungry before bed and can't wait until the morning. On the downside, if you do eat or drink high-calorie or sugary drinks close to bedtime, this late-night eating can disturb your natural circadian rhythms and affect blood sugar, which may interfere with restorative sleep.

Similarly, using a laptop, tablet, phone, or really anything with a screen in bed is detrimental to getting a good night's sleep. Blue light from screen activity suppresses melatonin production, stalling your ability to feel tired, also called sleep onset, making it hard to fall asleep. Technology in the bedroom can even disrupt your sleep cycles, extending past the bedtime routine and well into the night, primarily because blue light suppresses melatonin production.

Blue light from screens keeps your brain active, making it harder to relax. Scrolling or watching videos can make you more alert and lead to sleep problems. Too much screen time or napping at the wrong times can also raise your risk of anxiety, depression, and even physical discomfort from poor posture.

Be Mindful of Stimulant Use

Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can make it hard to fall or stay asleep. Many people think caffeine is the main problem, but research shows nicotine is often even worse. People who use nicotine often have broken sleep and shorter sleep times.

Caffeine is typically consumed during the day to enhance alertness or help us stay awake. It works by inhibiting the formation of sleep-inducing neurotransmitters—natural chemicals like melatonin and adenosine. On the other hand, nicotine is the leading disruptor of sleep cycles, leading to more extended periods of light sleep and significantly less time in deep sleep stages.

Although sensitivity to caffeine varies from person to person, sleep experts recommend avoiding both substances for at least a few hours before bedtime.

Regulate Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol can make you feel relaxed at first, and it might help you fall asleep faster. But as your body processes alcohol, its effects wear off, and your sleep becomes more broken. Alcohol also reduces the time you spend in REM sleep, which lowers your overall sleep quality.

Alcohol increases your time spent in light sleep and decreases your time in deep or REM sleep, which is important for mental and physical restoration. Alcohol is also terrible for those with sleep apnea, as the sedative effect relaxes throat muscles, which can make snoring and other symptoms of sleep apnea even worse. The diuretic consequence of alcohol also results in 'midnight' awakenings, disrupting the body's natural rhythms and sleep cycles, leading to inferior, restless sleep.

Alcohol increases the amount of time you spend in light sleep while reducing the time you spend in deep sleep and REM sleep. Both deep and REM sleep are important for mental and physical healing.

Alcohol is especially harmful for people with sleep apnea because it relaxes throat muscles, making snoring and other symptoms worse. It also acts as a diuretic, causing you to wake up more often at night and disrupting your sleep cycles

Late Night Munchies? Snack Smart & Try 'Sleepy Foods'

If you're looking to improve your sleep quality and decide to eat close to bedtime, consider enjoying healthy, protein-rich foods or those high in magnesium and potassium, such as bananas, almonds, or tart cherry juice. As well, chamomile and mint teas can be both hydrating and calming, helping you feel sleepier, more relaxed, and ready to sleep.

Relaxation Devices

Sleep-related relaxation devices can significantly improve your sleep health by reducing stress with soothing sounds, such as pink noise, brown noise, white noise therapy, or nature sounds. Other gadgets provide guided relaxation through massage vibrations. Others, like mindfulness routines via apps and meditation therapy, can also help you prepare for sleep in a more relaxing way.

Some relaxation devices help calm the sleep environment with light therapy, which calms the nervous system, allowing you to get to sleep more quickly and stay asleep more easily. By fostering a peaceful state of mind, these devices also help block out unwanted distractions.

Adjustable Beds

Adjustable beds, also called adjustable bed bases or adjustable bed frames, can undoubtedly help you look forward to your bedtime routine once again. An adjustable bed can help you find comfort and de-stress before bed by presenting the ability to customize positions that are ideal for your health conditions or comfort for your body type. 

For instance, the Zero Gravity position reduces pressure points and invokes a sensation of weightlessness. Similarly, massage vibrations soothe sore muscles, and ergonomic positions with ideal angles for the human body ease pressure on your back and neck while relieving joint pressure.

Adjustable beds are a helpful sleep solution for anyone experiencing back pain, or symptoms of acid reflux and sleep apnea. Adjustable beds enable you to sleep better by customizing positions to relieve pain, improve breathing, facilitate better digestion, and boost healthy circulation. An adjustable bed can be the missing piece to your 'sleep-well puzzle', creating a pathway towards deep, rejuvenating sleep by reducing sleep disruptions from discomfort and lessening restless movements.

Custom positions, such as zero-gravity, can ease back pain, swelling, and heartburn. Adjustable beds also make breathing easier, and features like massage modes help you relax and get better sleep.

Overall, with an adjustable bed and your mattress, you can create a luxurious sleep system that relaxes you and eases aches, pains, and other discomforts. Even better, if you've decided to get an adjustable base, replace your mattress too, for the ultimate luxury sleep system. Design your own personalized comfort zone with an adjustable bed frame to promote a relaxing, effective wind-down routine, where you'll start to notice a positive boost in your sleep quality.

Massage Chairs

Massage chairs help you relax before bed by easing tense muscles, lowering stress hormones like cortisol, and boosting feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. This calming routine tells your body it’s time to switch from being alert to getting ready for sleep.

Having a massage chair at home can help you prepare for a good night’s sleep. It relaxes your muscles, lowers stress, and boosts your mood. Using a massage chair before bed can make it easier to fall asleep and enjoy peaceful rest.

Last But Not Least: A New Mattress

Updating your sleeping surface will renew the comfort and support for your back and body. If your mattress is over 7 years old, investing in a new one can help you improve your sleep health by promoting healthy spinal alignment and sleep posture. Getting a new mattress can also help with muscle relaxation and pressure relief, helping to alleviate discomfort in sore areas of the body.

Sleep Is a Pillar Of Health & Wellness

Sleep is a pillar of our health and wellness; it gives us the chance to survive and thrive! So, the mattress nerds, sleep geeks, and experts at Mattress World Northwest encourage us to start treating it that way.

Matthew Walker's expression "sleep is the bastion," mentioned at the beginning, means that sleep isn't just rest; it's the fundamental pillar supporting all health. Sleep is bedrock for mental and physical well-being— impacting memory, immunity, mood, and preventing diseases like cancer. 

Sleep deprivation can lead you on a path to significant deficiencies in the functions of the mind and body. Truly, sleep is essential for life, not a luxury. Walker, a neuroscientist and sleep expert, highlights sleep as a universal superpower and life-support system, far more important than many people often realize.

That said, it's best to act as soon as you can and take charge of your sleep health! Next, shop at local mattress shops with excellent reviews, like Mattress World Northwest, to find the best and most viable sleep solution for you.

At one of the best places to get a mattress from, you'll find some of the best solutions to help you sleep better, like an OCHO M8Neo massage chair or a new Avocado mattress, all confidently chosen just for you with the guidance of helpful and professional sleep experts from Mattress World Northwest!