If you often find yourself waking up over the lights suddenly gleaming on your window, car noise, or the footsteps of a family member passing by your bedroom, then you might be a light sleeper.
People respond differently to their surroundings and sleep disturbances, but for light sleepers, getting a quality shut eye can be more challenging. Imagine the frustration of not being able to fall asleep over things that are out of your control.
If you are a light sleeper who is so tired of losing sleep over the subtlest noise or slightest inconvenience in your bedroom setup, here are some tried and tested tips to help you achieve a deeper, sounder night’s rest.
Are You a Light Sleeper?
People who are light sleepers wake up easily due to subtle movements, noise, or changes in their sleeping environment, such as:
- Sudden smells like smoke or when someone is cooking
- Changes in light, such as when there is a car passing or when the streetlight hits the window
- Subtle sounds like footsteps or the breaking of the mattress
- Light movements such as the tossing and turning of your partner
While a heavy sleeper needs an impactful stimulus to wake up, like an alarm clock, a light sleeper tends to wake up with the slightest disturbance. Small disturbances can greatly affect the sleep quality of a light sleeper.
A compromised sleep quality doesn’t only lead to irritability in the morning but can also have a significant impact on your physical and mental health, including:
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Memory problems
- Higher chance of injury
- Effects on your productivity
- Higher risks of getting chronic health problems like high blood pressure and heart diseases
Did we also tell you that a lack of quality sleep can also affect your appearance? When you are sleep deprived, your body tends to look and feel tired. Swollen eyes and dark undereye circles are also common in sleep-deprived people.
Sleep deprivation can also affect your appetite. Sleep-deprived people also feel more hungry and less full compared to those who get eight hours of sleep. All in all, sleep deprivation can affect how you enjoy life.
What Causes Light Sleeping?
While there are distinct differences between light sleepers, researchers are still in the process of determining what makes someone a heavy or light sleeper. Some common aspects that may contribute to being a light sleeper can be genetics, lifestyle choices, or undiagnosed sleep disorders. Sleeping environments and old age can also be the causes.
Some studies also indicate that differences in wave activity during sleep can make someone a light or heavy sleeper. One also found that a person who produces more sleep spindles (brain rhythms that help consolidate memory) can sleep easier through distractions. But we still need further researches to confirm the results.
How Can You Improve Your Sleep as a Light Sleeper?
To attain restful, sound sleep, it’s important to be thoughtful about your sleep routine and habits. Here are some things that you can do to sleep better.
Follow a Consistent Sleep Schedule
If you are a light sleeper, small changes in your environment and routine can greatly affect the quality of your rest. Creating a consistent timetable for preparing and sleeping helps your body adapt to a system to achieve healthier rest. This creates a sense of familiarity that allows your body to associate certain times and routines with resting.
When it’s already time to sleep, your body will begin to wind down, which makes it easier for you to fall into slumber.
To create an effective sleeping schedule, train your body to rest early, even on weekends and holidays. Your consistency is the key to creating this healthy sleeping habit. If it’s hard to shift your sleeping schedule, you can gradually build one by adjusting your sleeping time some minutes earlier until you reach your target sleep and wake-up hours.
Block the Distractions
Light sleepers are more sensitive to sensory input than heavy sleepers. This means that a small interruption can already affect the quality of your rest. To prevent this, minimise all possible disruptions that can wake you up at night. Instead of letting yourself welcome random loud noise, try playing white noise to eliminate intrusive sounds. Block off lights with a blackout curtain to control the amount of light that might enter your room. Aside from blocking harsh lights, a dark sleeping environment can help increase your body’s melatonin production.
Formulate a Relaxing Bedtime Routine
One of the key steps to ensuring your best sleep quality is to prepare your body and mind to snooze. From journaling to meditation to following a nightly skin care routine, the habits you associate with sleep can help your body reach a restful state, which helps you doze off easier.
Reading a book, journaling, or prepping your bedroom can also work as de-stressing activities as they keep your mind off some tasks or worries that you have for the day.
Reduce Your Stress
In line with creating a relaxing bedtime routine, you have to give yourself some time to release your stress before going to bed.
If you’re worried about your busy schedule the next day, it will help to make a to-do list so you can systematise your plans and lessen your worries. Other methods, like meditation and yoga, can also help you relieve your stress before you go to sleep.
Carefully Choose Your Mattress
Sharing your bed with your partner? As a light sleeper, nothing’s more disturbing than the frequent tossing and turning of your partner. To prevent motion from transferring from one side of the mattress to yours, choose a sleeping solution with a motion isolation feature.
In addition, a cooling mattress can help your body stay relaxed during slumber.
Somnuz presents a specialised collection of pocketed spring mattresses designed to reduce motion transfer and benefit light sleepers and mattress sharers. Each of our mattresses does a good job of distributing weight and motion, so you don’t have to worry about the disturbance when your partner tosses and turns.
Talk to a Sleep Specialist
It’s true that it’s not easy to be a light sleeper. If you’ve already tried to formulate a healthy routine and upgrade your mattress, there may be an underlying reason for your sleeping problem. In this case, it’s best to visit a medical professional to determine the cause of your sleeping trouble.
Conclusion
We hope that the tips that we listed above were of help in improving the quality of your rest. If you are ready to take your comfort to the next level, visit our experience centres and try out premium pocketed spring mattresses, or shop our collection online to see the quality for yourself.