While you’re sleeping your body is doing much more than simply regenerating your energy. Sleep is a complex process, where your body is busy repairing your tissues, balancing hormones, detoxifying and even storing your memories and regulating emotions. It goes without saying that sleep is essential, but furthermore having a good quality sleep is just as important.

So, what is a good quality sleep? A perfect sleep is defined as the following:

1. You fall asleep easily, within 10 minutes
2. You sleep all the way through the night, without waking
3. You have dreams, and you remember them when you get up in the morning
4. You wake up feeling refreshed, like you’ve had a good night’s sleep
5. You ideally sleep between 9-10pm and 5-6am

Anything outside of this means that you’re not giving your body what it truly needs to function at its peak. Poor sleep will eventually catch up with you and can lead to all kinds of problems and even disease. Thankfully, there are many things that you can do to help you sleep better.

5 tips for a better sleep

1. Ditch the caffeine

It surprises me how many people with sleep difficulties drink caffeine later in the day. Caffeine stimulates the release of cortisol, your ‘awake’ hormone from your adrenal glands – so having it too near to bedtime can severely impair your sleep. Try not to have coffee, tea or dark chocolate after 1pm or consider ditching it altogether if you want to fix your sleep.

2. Put a stop to screen time

The light that is emitted from screens such as your television, computer or smart phone stimulates your pituitary and disrupts your sleep initiation cycle. Make a rule not to look at any screens – especially while in bed. Try reading a book instead of playing Candy Crush in bed before you sleep.

3. Set regular bed and wake times

Your sleep cycle is dependant on regularity – when your bedtime is irregular it throws off your body clock and you’ll disrupt your sleep. The best time to go to bed is 9pm – it is between 9pm and 1am that your body does most of its healing and repairing, so if you’re a night owl you can severely impact your body’s ability to self-regulate. Set an alarm and wake up at the same time every day.

4. Dim the lights

The natural reduction in light as it gets dark helps to give your body cues that bed time is nearing. Opt for lamps and soft lighting in your home in the evenings rather than harsh fluorescent lighting, or perhaps light some candles instead.

5. Wake up to bright lights

Like the tip above, waking up to bright light it will help reset your body clock and help your sleep cycle. Make a habit to wake up as soon as your alarm goes off (no snoozing!) and turn your lights on right away. This lets your body know it’s awake time and will help to improve your sleep over time.

Sleep is such an important part of your day so don’t take it for granted. Try these tips and you’ll be sleeping like a baby in no time.