Energy drinks or coffee can’t give you all that. What’s important, then, is to find ways to inject more sleep-friendly practices in your schedule. These tips will show you how.
1. Have a regular sleep routine. Check if your habits before dozing off help or harm your sleeping pattern. No coffee after 6 PM, and no alcohol three hours before you sleep.
Try reading at least two chapters of a book each day instead of watching Conan or PBA replays. (No reading on the bed, which is reserved only for sleeping and sex.)
And regardless of how late you slept, wake up at the same early time (say, 6AM) for a week to get the change rolling.
Rosalina Espiritu-Picar, MD, a sleep specialist at the Makati Medical Center, says that everything works on an 8-hour shift. You’ll feel sleepy eight hours after you get out of bed or wake up from a nap. By forcing your body to jumpstart early, you’ll be snoozing early as well.
Pay back your sleep debt on weekends. Even if you get the right sleeping habits down pat, the pressures of work and how they cut down your sleep time on some days are realities we all face. But the weekends are there for compensation.
Sleep at your regular time but don’t set your alarm clock. If you wake up at the usual time you do on weekdays, you’re part of that 10 percent sleep-deprived geniuses. If not, welcome to Earth. Try 10 hours of sleep on weekends (read: you sleep a little earlier not wake up a little later than usual) and 7-8 hours of shut eye on weekdays. Your body will be accustomed to this pattern every time you have a sleep debt to pay.
