5 Easy Tricks To Help You Have a Good Night Sleep

You know those suspiciously energetic people who walk around saying, I'll sleep when I'm dead? Yeah, we can't stand them either. Sleep is the best thing ever. But that doesn't mean we're going to quit our jobs because it requires us to get up in the morning, or that we're saying no to a weeknight concert because the opening band doesn't go on until ten. Fortunately, there's new research to support the idea that good sleep, like everything else, is more about quality than quantity.

* Determine how much sleep you need

Less than one percent of the population can get by on six hours of sleep per night. That means you are probably not one of them. Most adults do best on eight hours, but some need ten and others are fine on seven. To find out how much is best for you, take a weekend off from going out and set up your own personal sleep-monitoring clinic.

* Put in your earplugs

Judging by the racket they make in the predawn hours, it would seem that all birds are early ones. Eliminate ambient noise, which is the most common cause of sleep disturbances, with earplugs. Everyone's ear canal is a special snowflake, so you might have to shop around, but Howard Leight Max earplugs are a favorite of construction workers and sleep expert Joyce Walsleben, an adjunct associate professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine.

* Get some air on your feet

If you've ever spent a night with your little footsie peeking out of the covers, you were probably making your sleep better. Our bodies like to be cool during sleep, so getting overheated in bed can make for a restless night. Uncovering a foot or even two is a good way to cool down the body and keep you comfortably asleep.

* Take a bath

Your body temperature naturally drops as you fall asleep. You can make that drop more dramatic, and therefore more sleep-inducing, by heating yourself up first. Take a hot bath about an hour and a half before bed. While you're in there, mix in a quart of whole milk. Not only does the milky water just look dreamy, but the fats soften skin, so you'll wake up with a clearer mind and a smoother body.

* Don't freak out

On those nights when you can't seem to nod off, it's tempting to scream and cry and count the dwindling hours before you have to get up for work. Not only is this useless, it actually diminishes the quality of whatever sleep you do end up getting. When researchers told people they would get a financial reward if they fell asleep quickly, they slept for less time and woke up more frequently than people who had been given no sleep incentive.