Lifestyle Changes You Can Make To Get Better Sleep

Welcome back to the CPAP Liquidators blog! In previous posts, we’ve taken the opportunity to highlight some essentials of CPAP machines and how they address sleep apnea symptoms. While we’d encourage you to go back and read blogs such as little-known facts about CPAP machines & sleep apnea, get your CPAP machines questions answered, and others, as we will be shifting gears in today’s blog.

What kind of gear will we be shifting to? Excellent question, assuming you didn’t read the title of today’s blog! We will be addressing something adjescant to CPAP machines — tips and tricks to get better sleep.

We are excited to be able to share some insight with you, since sleep is such a precious commodity. When we aren’t able to get a full night’s sleep, our entire day is thrown off; we can be irritable, unable to focus, and just not feel like ourselves. That’s no fun for anyone, and we are pretty sure it doesn’t come as news to you, dear reader, seeing as how you’ve already made your way to this blog!

So before we dive into the meat and potatoes, we’d like to say a quick word about how this relates to CPAP machines and sleep apnea. If you struggle with sleep apnea, or think that you might, you should absolutely go see your doctor so that you can be examined. Sleep apnea is a pervasive and potentially serious sleep disorder that needs to be addressed. CPAP machines are the primary means of treatment, but there are plenty of other ways that many people can begin to experience some relief.

Tips To Sleep Better

Let’s explore some of those “other ways” in today’s blog! Some of these tips will be short, sweet, and as easy as making a purchase, while others might take discipline and dedication.

• Make The Bedroom A No-Phone-Zone - It’s 2019, and that means that for most of us, our cellphones are always on our person — or close to it. As electronic devices continue to approach replacing our need for face to face interaction, it comes at a cost. No, we aren’t talking about failed relationships due to lack of intimacy (although we’d surmise that there is certainly a case to be made for that), but rather that the blue light emissions electronic devices give off actually hinder our sleep on a physiological level. Such blue light suppresses the production of a chemical called melatonin, which essentially informs you that it’s time to sleep. Do yourself (and your relationship) a favor and buy an old-timey alarm clock, call yourself a hipster, and officially declare your bedroom a no-phone-zone.
• Cut Down On Your Naps - As much as we love to steal a quick catnap from time to time, taking anything more than a 20 minute power nap is bound to disrupt your regular sleep patterns. Plus, we’d recommend resisting the urge to nap later in the day. If you have to, keep it short and do it in the early afternoon at the latest. If you are struggling to stay awake, we recommend taking a walk, doing some jumping jacks, drinking a cold glass of water, or chewing some gum. Break the negative feedback loop and go to bed early tonight!
• Buy Some Blackout Curtains - Exposure to light impacts our sleep patterns, which are also called circadian rhythms. If your bedroom’s window is exposed to high amounts of light pollution, it can disrupt your body’s ability to settle into a regular pattern of complete sleep. For example, if you live on a bright street, we’d recommend investing blackout curtains. Quite simply, dark rooms support your ability to get better sleep. If you aren’t interested in going full black, consider darker shades of curtains.
• Be Active & Exercise - Did you know that only 10 minutes of exercise each day can dramatically improve your sleep on a consistent basis? At the risk of painting with too broad of a brush, regular exercise has been studied to lower the risk for sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome. We recommend going for aerobic exercises such as biking, swimming, running, or weight lifting.
• Keep The Bedroom Sacred - You might have heard this at one point or another in your youth: don’t study on your bed, otherwise you won’t be able to sleep on it! There’s some truth to the idea that watching TV or spending ludacris amounts of time on your phone is not healthy for how you associate your bed with sleep. If you are looking for ways to get better sleep, keep the bedroom sacred, by which we mean saving it for one of two activities. One is sleep, and the other...you could probably guess!
• Work Yourself Into A Sleep Schedule - Here’s a tip for life — go to sleep and wake up at the same time each night and day. Carve out eight hours for yourself each night. If you work early and need to wake up at the crack of dawn, then go to bed early. If you are a night owl, tough luck! There’s not much more we can say besides that you don’t have to make these changes all at once. Find something that works for you, and work yourself into a schedule gradually if you need to. If you find yourself unable to fall asleep, don’t just roll over and pick up your phone. You can spend hours in a hurry that way. Instead, if you can’t fall asleep within a half an hour or so, get up and read a book or listen to music until you get that sleepy feeling again. Then go back to bed and try again. Repeat this technique until you get the hang of it.
• Deal With Your Stress Before Bedtime - Here’s some more wisdom you can apply to areas of your life outside the realm of sleep; be proactive about dealing with your worries. If that means having a conversation with someone before bedtime, great. If it means journaling your thoughts out so you can externalize them onto paper, that works wonders as well. Whatever your concern or worry might be, do your best to manage it before going to sleep. This should keep your mind from racing as much.
• Watch What You Eat And Drink - It’s not a good idea to go to bed hungry, as you will probably wake up in the middle of the night and need to feed. But it’s an even worse idea to go to bed stuffed to the brim. So do your best to avoid eating heavily before sleep. We also would advise that you be aware that caffeine and nicotine should be avoided at least a few hours before sleep. Finally, alcohol can seriously disrupt the quality of sleep you get each night, despite the fact that it makes you feel sleepy in the short term.
• Consider Natural Supplements - Let’s be clear here; we aren’t doctors, and neither are we homeopaths. But we are aware that there are several supplements which promote relaxation and aid with sleep. Among them are ginkgo biloba, glycine, valerian root, lavender, magnesium, and L-theanine. Be sure to contact a professional before buying one or all of these listed supplements. It’s a good idea to try them one at a time so that you know which of them is effective!
• Invest In A Comfortable Mattress, Pillow, & Blanket - Mattresses can be expensive, but they are usually well worth the investment. A research project studying the effects of a new mattress for just 28 days found that the new mattress reduced shoulder pain by 60 percent, back pain by 57 percent, and back stiffness by 59 percent. Most importantly, it improved sleep quality by 60 percent. Sadly, not everyone experiences the same effect with the same mattress, which is why it’s important to find out what your body responds to. The exact same principle should be applied when choosing your pillow and bedding as well. It is recommended that you upgrade bedding every five to eight years, if not sooner!
• Know When To Contact Your Doctor - Ruling out a sleep disorder is of paramount importance when trying to figure out how to get better sleep. You could implement all of these changes we’ve suggested in today’s blog, but if you have sleep apnea, you will only experience a marginal amount of improvement. For our part at CPAP Liquidators, we strongly recommend you reach out to your doctor if you have suspicions that your breathing has become stop-start recently. It can be difficult to know that this is happening if you don’t have a sleep partner, so it’s better to be safe and sorry when it comes to something as serious as a sleep disorder like apnea.

Shop CPAP Liquidators

If you do end up going to your doctor and they prescribe a CPAP machine, you know where to go for high-quality, affordable CPAP machines online. We are the biggest online CPAP machine supplier in the nation, but we don’t let our massive inventory of name brand CPAP units get in the way of our commitment to customer service.

We offer free shipping on domestic orders, Live Operator Support 24/7, and the option to speak with a licensed respiratory therapist to help guide your CPAP purchase process. We won’t pressure you or anything like that — we are successful because we help people find the right device for their needs. Shop CPAP Liquidators today!