If you experience any difficulty falling or staying asleep, or if you wake up feeling tired and weak, you need to make some changes in your bedtime routine. Certain seemingly harmless habits can prevent you from having a good night’s sleep, which can have a negative impact on your overall health.

Here are 7 dangerous bedtime habits that will disrupt your sleep and damage your health.

Bedtime Habits

Bedtime Habits

Using Electronic Devices before Bedtime

If you are unable to fall asleep, you should remove all the electronic devices from your bedroom. Apart from being harmful to your health, your laptop, tablet, and smartphone emit light which delays the production of melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating the sleep and wake cycles.

Eating before Going to Bed

In order to fall asleep, you should avoid eating at least 2 hours before going to bed. When you eat, the food needs a certain amount of time to be digested.

Therefore, if you lie down with your stomach full, you will be unable to fall asleep because the digestion process will keep your body awake.

Consuming Caffeine before Bedtime

Caffeine blocks the sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increases the production of adrenaline, which makes you feel more alert and prevents you from falling asleep. A recent study has found out that the consumption of caffeine 6 hours before bedtime decreases the sleep time by 1 hour.

So, you should avoid consuming any caffeinated drinks and foods in the evening, such as coffee, green tea, soda, and chocolate.

Lacking a Bedtime Routine

A bedtime routine might sound as something that is necessary only for children. However, by following a certain nightly schedule, you will significantly improve your sleep.

You should establish your own bedtime routine, such as washing your face, brushing your teeth, and then going to bed. This will help you to relax and to fall asleep fast and easily.

Taking Naps in the Afternoon

Taking naps in the afternoon can disrupt your sleeping pattern. You should avoid this habit even if you are very tired because it will make you unable to fall asleep at night.

In case you have to take a nap, you should make sure that it doesn’t last for more than 20 minutes.

Exercising before Going to Bed

A daily physical activity can help you to improve the quality of your sleep. However, working out before going to bed will make you unable to fall asleep.

This is because exercising stimulates the production of adrenaline, increases your body temperature, and boosts your heart rate. Therefore, you should make sure that you exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime.

Sleeping in an Improper Position

Your sleep position can have a great impact on your night’s rest. Improper position can be responsible for causing sleep apnea, fatigue, poor blood circulation, heartburn, stomach aches, headaches, back and neck pain, muscle cramping, as well as premature wrinkles.

The best position is sleeping on the left side of your body.