Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene is a variety of different behaviors and habits that you do during the day or just before going to bed that help you get to sleep sooner and minimize sleep interruption. With high quality sleep you will wake refreshed and be able to enjoy a full day of alertness. High quality sleep is important for rejuvenating your physical and mental health.

What might indicate you need to practice some better sleep hygiene?

If you:

• Are sleepy during the daytime, often wanting to take naps,
• Take too long to fall asleep,
• Find yourself watching the clock at night,
• Wake up during night with racing thoughts or indigestion,

Then practicing better sleep hygiene may help you achieve more efficient, refreshing and rejuvenating sleep.

What does sleep hygiene have to do with the assessment and mitigation of electromagnetic fields and radiation?

One of the most important intersections of EMF radiation and your health occurs in the bedroom. Healthy sleep requires being in bed for 7-8 hours a day – a third of your time on earth. Healthy sleep rejuvenates your body, supports the immune system, and prepares you for the psychological and environmental assaults of the next day. It is the most important battle ground for your health. If the battle is won here, then there is hope. The bedroom must be a sanctuary for your health – you must rejuvenate! EMF Care is dedicated to helping you secure, maintain and appropriately use your healing sanctuary.

Our specialty is identifying and mitigating EMF radiation in homes and especially bedrooms. However, even if we minimized the EMFs in the house and bedroom, but you did not have good sleep hygiene habits, you still might not get the restful sleep you need for health.

Sleep hygiene is comprised of habits you can develop for yourself, at virtually no cost, to help improve the quality of your sleep. See the EMF Hygiene Tab for similar, no/low cost habits with regard to EMF emitting devices that will reduce your level exposure to EMF radiation.

SLEEP HYGIENE TIPS:

Physical Foundations:

Have a Dark, Quiet, Cool Bedroom

• Use eye shades, or darken windows with extra sheets or blackout curtains, if light leaks in around blinds
• Eliminate or cover light generation from within bedroom
• Use ear plugs or “White” background noise to mask other disrupting sounds
• Don’t use any background sounds that can attract the attention of your brain, such as TV or radio.
• If pets disturb you with noise or awaken you, keep them outside the bedroom
• Make room a little cooler with thermostat or fan

Make your bedroom as EMF-free as possible

• Do not keep an electric clock/radio on night-stand near your head when sleeping. Use a battery powered clock/alarm to awaken.
• Keep cell phone out of your bed room or as far as possible from you at night, turn off or reduce the notification volume as much as possible. Solve the dilemma: Do you want to sleep, or be on call for your friends? And what about emergencies? Yes a dilemma!
• Make sure your wireless Wi-Fi router is not in the bedroom
• Turn the Wi-Fi router off at night
• Find out if there are any serious internally or externally generated EMF issues in your home, that may be interfering with your health and quality sleep.

Have a comfortable mattress that promotes health

(Most web sites offering tips on sleep hygiene suggest you should have a “comfortable mattress”. Geovital has taken that description 6 steps further, and not only determined the qualities needed for a mattress providing optimum health, but designed and build them!)

Comfortable Yes! By providing excellent adaptation to the body shape.

But also:

• It should be biologically neutral to reduce allergic responses.
• It should be Toxin free to reduce load on immune system.
• It should be metal free to not aggravate EMF effects.
• It should be air permeable so it aerates the skin as you sleep.
• It should have a removable, washable cover for hygiene.
• It should provide pressure relief of the inter-vertebral disks through a gentle traction.
• Click here for more information on GEOVITAL mattresses.

Psychological & Physiological Foundations:

Maintain a regular sleep routine. Try to retire and awake within a 15 minute window around the same time each day.

Get natural light and sunlight during the day whenever possible. This helps maintain a strong circadian rhythm.

Remove TV and other entertaining devices from bedroom. Your mind needs to have a strong association that the bedroom is for sleeping.

During The Day:

Avoid naps if possible:

• You want to be tired at night so you will sleep. Naps reduce this tiredness and make it harder to sleep.
• If you absolutely must take a nap, make it short: 20-30 minutes or less. They can improve your alertness, performance and mood.
• Try to wean yourself from naps. Think of them as transitional or emergency Band-Aid as you recover from some unusual activity, and develop your healthy sleep patterns.

Regular Exercise promotes healthy sleep

• Even small amounts of aerobic exercise will promote continuous sleep.
• Most people should avoid strenuous exercise within a few hours of their bedtime. Endorphins are circulated into the body and may retard the initiation of sleep. Some people may not be affected, so personal discovery may be needed to determine what is best for you.

Evening: A few Hours before going to bed

Avoid stimulants such as nicotine and caffeine at least a few hours before going to bed. (Coffee, some Teas, many carbonated beverages.

Moderate any alcohol use. It will help you sleep at first but compromise later stages of sleep.

Avoid emotionally and intellectually stimulating conversations, internet, TV, or books. Your mind will tend to hold on to these thoughts and ideas.

Avoid foods that may wake you during the night: Spicy, fried, heavy, fatty, or rich foods can cause sleep disrupting indigestion. Know which foods don’t work for you.

Be aware that some over-the-counter medications can disrupt your sleep and avoid these if possible before your bedtime.

Just before going to bed:

Establish a regular bedtime routine to help the body prepare to sleep.

• Perform your oral hygiene ritual
• Perform your EMF hygiene ritual (Turn off your WiFi router, as a minimum.)
• Take a warm bath or shower
• Have a quiet time with easy reading, light stretches or meditation etc.

If sleep won’t start or is interrupted:

Get out of bed and sit in a chair in the dark, if you cannot get to sleep, or wake up because your mind will not let go of the day’s events or ideas.

• You want your mind to associate your bed with sleeping, not thinking.
• Light at night can interfere with your melatonin production.

While in the chair, try not to identify with your thoughts, nor let the idea that you are not sleeping begin its own cascade of worry. Meditation is a wonderful tool at this point.

Return to bed when thoughts subside or you start feeling sleepy.

Repeat the process if needed during the rest of the night.

Try to maintain your sleep schedule and avoid naps so you will be very tired the next evening. The goal is to break into a healthy sleep regime, and this may be challenging at first.