Column Chronicles: Overcoming bad-nights' sleeps

Overcoming bad-nights' sleeps

Frank Cotolo
April 4, 2019

We have all had bad nights of sleep. We toss, we turn and sometimes we even roll off the bed. The amount of hours of actual sleep can be counted on one finger. You know that the next day will be spent in a cloud of weariness. How can you stop having nights where all-important rest is thwarted? Here are some tips.

Your body has what is known as an "internal clock" (when you die, your body has an "eternal clock"). If you go to bed the same time each night you will probably wake up the same time each night because you set your internal clock and get used to the routine. That cycle will help you sleep well during the hours between going to bed and getting up. If you die in your sleep, your eternal clock will take care of the rest.

Come lunchtime, take a stroll. In fact, eat while you walk, that way you can burn off the energy as you eat it. By bed time, after you have eaten another meal (usually called dinner), you will be raring to doze off.

During the day, it is good to have a cup or two of coffee because the caffeine is good for you in some ways but if you have too much during the day the caffeine will be bad for you in other ways.

Too much coffee during your stressful work hours could make you edgy, nervous and even violent. Have your coffee in the morning to help wake you up and then maybe a cup for lunch but don't drink more than that. Maybe one or two little cups will be okay but not late. And don't bring a cup of coffee to bed with you and sip it while you close your eyes to try to sleep.

Improve your sleeping hours with an exercise plan during the day. Exercise stimulates a hormone called cortisol, which helps keep you alert. So don't exercise before going to sleep because when you are sleep you want to be unconscious, not alert. "Alert sleeping" can keep you up hours.

Limit the number of naps you may want to take during waking hours. Naps, no matter how you define them, cause sleeping and your internal clock may get all unwound.

Don't drink alcohol, even though after a few belts you become drowsy. Once your body processes the alcohol, it automatically wakes you up. Some people then go back to drinking to become drowsy again but those kinds of people usually become alcoholics and that's an entirely different issue that needs fixing.

Speaking of the dinner meal, don’t eat late, that is, don't eat close to when you have to go to bed. Not only that but don't eat heavy, greasy foods and then expect to get a sound night's sleep because your stomach will be working extra hard to digest that crap and when the body is hard at work digesting crap it screws up your internal clockwork.

We hope you learned something about getting a good night's sleep and that you can live thorough a healthy daily routine that doesn't give you headaches, weariness or causes vomiting.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.