Sleep hygiene

Sleep hygiene (hygiene of Greek υγιεινή [ τέχνη ], Hygieine [ téchne ], " the health beneficial Art ") is the use of certain habits and behaviors in order to enable a healthy, restful sleep or promote and to avoid sleep or fix. Sleep Hygiene measures include the design of the sleeping environment, practicing the rituals of sleep or relaxation techniques. Also, every day ( including weekends ) regular stand-up and ins - Bettgeh times ( max. deviation 30 min ) to comply with one of the measures: regularity (not only in relation to the sleep times, but also eg meal times ) is a necessary condition for is that the various biological rhythms of the body can vote on each other. Adherence to a regular get up time is most important, because the get up time for our biological rhythms of the anchor point. In addition, the bed times should be reduced to the amount necessary for sleep.

Various psychological and physical stress can disrupt your sleep out of balance. This includes external influences such as light, noise, room temperature, confining sleeping clothes, improper mattress or a bad bed. Besides eating the wrong foods as well as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine consumption sleep can trigger or exacerbate existing problems. Especially shift workers or people with very irregular working to develop insomnia, and this often after frequent changes of the sleep -wake cycle for a long time is the case.

In the search for the causes of sleep problems and appropriate countermeasures should be noted that people differ in how susceptible they are compared with the above mentioned disorders and how much sleep they need at all. One has slept enough when you wake up rested and powerful. Even the attempt to sleep longer than is actually necessary (for example, due to the belief eight hours are a mandatory minimum ), can trigger the long term sleep disorders, which are manifested in frequent awakening or poor sleep quality. Children who are sent to sleep regularly, even though they are not tired yet, get used to sleeping alien activities and may later develop a tendency to sleep.

Advice and help

In sleep laboratories can be determined whether sleep disorders have a medical cause. Most health insurance companies offer brochures on sleep hygiene.