7 tips for a restful night – Getting a good night’s sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and will help you face the new day fresh and alert.

If you search the Internet for the question “What is good sleep,” you will come across many very different answers. This is because there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of ideal sleep conditions.

What is optimal for one person is not comprehensible for the other. You can already see that here: small children need a lot more sleep than adults. But the optimal length of sleep also varies among them.

Sleeping habits change over the course of life. Simply because older people go to bed earlier, the night’s rest is more likely to end – in individual cases, between three and four o’clock at night. Therefore, the framework conditions are much more important than the time to go to bed.

If you have trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning at night, or lying awake for hours, something is wrong there.

ikonotes have put seven sleep tips that ensure restful sleep:

1. Prepare it well

Mental and physical well-being is essential for good and restful sleep. Stress and worries are the worst “wake-ups” you can take to bed with you.

Removing these is important but not always easy, and the process takes time. In the long run, common “aids” such as alcohol to help get to sleep tend to make it worse.

At first, this may help you fall asleep, but then it makes you wake up faster (and less rested). Sporting activities, on the other hand, really do promote sleep. But the sleep researchers advise caution here, too:

Physical activity should always suit your fitness level and only take place at a reasonable distance (at least three hours) from going to bed.

2. Pay attention to the right sleeping climate

The sleep experts also agree on the external conditions: your bedroom should be dark, cool, and quiet.

Your own bed should primarily serve as a place to sleep and not as a sofa, sunbathing area, or even a cozy home office space.

Because all this unnoticed “loads” the bed as a place of rest with other meanings that can be stressful and thus significantly disrupt the quality of sleep.

3. It depends on the firmness

Sleep and physical problems, such as back pain, can occur if a mattress is too soft or too hard. A new mattress is expensive. However, if you cannot or do not want to afford one, you can try these methods:

Place a piece of chipboard (up to about 22 millimeters thick, depending on your body weight) on the slatted frame to give the sleeping pad more stability.

On the other hand, if the mattress is too hard, a topper can help. However, this should be suitable for your mattress. Start with as thin a gauge as possible and work your way “up” from there.

4. The pillow has to be right too

In order not to wake up with a tense neck in the morning, the right pillow is of utmost importance. If you are a stomach sleeper, you should get a pillow that is as flat as possible.

If you sleep on your side, it is important not to let your neck bend to the side while you sleep. Instead, it should line up with the cross.

Depending on your physique, you need a more or less voluminous pillow that you can crumple according to your needs. If you have severe problems with tense neck muscles, you can get relief with an orthopedic support pillow.

However, get a doctor’s advice on this. For back sleepers, a flatter, more supportive pillow is usually sufficient.

5. Good sleep with the right blanket

There is only one rule of thumb with regard to the ideal duvet: it must not get too warm. Depending on the “heat type,” it can make sense to use two different blankets for winter and summer.

There are also blanket variants in which two thin duvets can be buttoned together to form a thicker blanket in winter.

6. Cleanliness

Everyone collects a lot of dust, hair, dander, crumbs, and the remains of mites and other insects in blankets, covers, toppers, and underlays. It also has nothing to do with sloppiness.

Therefore, the following applies not only to allergy sufferers: Wash blankets, pillows, cushions, and mattress covers regularly. It is best to take your sleeping clothes to a professional dry cleaner every now and then.

7. You can’t do without a new mattress

You should replace your mattress after ten years at the latest, even if there are no defects. This can also work wonders for your sleep. During this time, you can simply get used to the “poor” lying quality.