Tips to keep your sleep-cycle on track

While on certain days, when you have to complete your work within the demanded deadline, you have ample reasons to burn the midnight oil, on others, you simply are a couch potato and spend hours in front of the television compromising on sleep. Result? You wake up in the morning feeling tired and exhausted. And, a day that begins with fatigue can never end on an energetic note.

It is often suggested to retire to bed at least one hour before midnight. One of the fundamental necessities of human life, lack of sleep can cause a variety of physical and mental problems like heart diseases, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and insomnia. Lack of it also affects our cognitive processes like learning and thinking. Medical experts have always advised to sleep before midnight to give ample rest to the brain and body. To attain this successfully, you need to finish your dinner early and give your stomach at least three hours to digest the food.

The following are a few steps to help you get your sleep-cycle on track:
- Set your body clock and follow it religiously. For instance, if today you sleep at 11 pm at night, make sure you get up by 7 am the next morning. And even if you sleep after 11 pm the next night, get up at 7 am in the morning. This way, your body will get used to the 11-7 routine and no matter what time you hit the sack, you will get up at 7 am.

- Don't use your mobile phone or laptop at least an hour before you go to sleep. Refrain using social networking sites for an hour prior to your bedtime. Once you get hooked on your profile, it is often difficult for users to close it.

- You can listen to light music when you get inside the sheet. It will help you fall asleep and will also relax your mind.

- Have very light food at night. If you have a stomach full of food, your stomach will take longer to digest it. If you sleep before your stomach digests it, you will wake up feeling bloated. This often leads to gastritis.

- Stress causes poor sleep. Research shows that insomniacs not only have poor appetite but they also they brood over a simple incident more than those who sleep well. More recently, researchers have discovered that good quality sleep the night before a stressful event can protect you from negative health consequences. Even though you will still encounter stressful events in your life, good quality sleep gives you better brain chemistry to deal with those events.