5 Activities to Sleep Better.

We get it... Spaniards are tired and the need to sleep better is real, ZzzBlue is here to help.

Recently, the Spanish Soil Association (SES) announced some alarming statistical trends developing throughout Spain.

Consider just some of the following published data on sleep problems:

● 15-70 million adults have a sleep disorder.

● 48.0% report snoring.

● 35.3% of adults report sleeping less than 7 hours during a typical 24-hour period.

● Every year, 100,000 deaths occur in hospitals due to medical errors and lack of sleep has been shown to be a significant contributor.

● 37.9% reported falling asleep unintentionally during the day at least once in the previous month.

● 4.7% reported falling asleep or nodding off while driving at least once in the past month.

Scary, right?

As mattress manufacturers, we strongly believe that it is our duty to not only provide a mattress to ensure our customers get a good night’s rest, but it is also critical to look at ways to improve sleeping habits. Sleeping is a complicated process and what we do before and after we go to bed is essential to establishing good sleeping habits. One of our primary missions is to educate current and future ZzzBlue customers on ways they can get a better night’s sleep.

Because every good day starts with a good night's rest!

So how can you get better sleep? Here are 5 of our favorite ways:

1 Warm-up for sleep:

Pretend with us that sleeping is a game. Now imagine that before every match, Rafa Nadal or Paul Gasol will head straight from the locker room and start the match without any shooting practice, hitting the ball for a few minutes or doing any stretching. Let's clarify that Nadal or Gasol are international talents, so of course they could forego warm-ups and still succeed, but their chances of success decrease and the probability of injuries increases as well. We should all treat sleep the same way. There are no natural talents when it comes to sleep. So warm up to sleep.

About an hour before bed, you should turn off all your devices – smartphones, laptops and go to sleep in a completely dark room. Our brains are programmed to react to light. When there is light, the brain is activated to be awake and alert, so even though we are lying down and trying to force ourselves to sleep, we are actually making our brain work much harder than necessary with light exposure.

2 Don't have dinner too late: 

Many people make this mistake. Just because you don't feel full doesn't mean your body has finished digestion. Most doctors recommend eating dinner about 3 or 4 hours before bed. Not only will this help you sleep better, but it will also help you lose weight when applied with a healthy diet. Try eating lighter at dinner and give yourself 3 hours or more between your last meal of the day so you'll be ready to get your ZzzBlue on at night.

3 Find a ritual:

Try to find an activity or task that relaxes you each night before bed and then do it every night. Research shows that creating habit-forming bedtime rituals increases the signal to our brain that rest is near. Activities such as reading a book, dimming the lights, stretching, or deep breathing are all proven and effective methods to prepare us for bed.

4 Plan the next day:

This is more common than we think and just before we go to bed is when we find our minds start to think. Did I pay that bill? How should I introduce this concept at work tomorrow? Is it my turn to pick up the kids from school?

With so many thoughts running through your head, it can be impossible to get some shut-eye. That’s why sleep professionals and psychologists recommend scheduling what you’re going to do tomorrow well before bed. Some good options for planning the next day are right before or after dinner, during your pre-sleep ritual (see tip 3), or on the way home from work. Any time works as long as it’s before you get into bed with the intention of going to sleep. It’s also important to write down your to-do list or tell Siri to write it down in reminders—the important thing is to get it out of your head!

5 Take some magnesium:

There are many sleep supplements on the market and they all have varying degrees of success, but perhaps no supplement or mineral affects sleep as much as magnesium. You see, magnesium draws calcium out of your muscles and puts it back into the bloodstream so it can be used in other areas of the body. So, by removing calcium from your muscles, magnesium acts as a natural muscle relaxer. You have to be relaxed to sleep and magnesium can help encourage that relaxation in a natural and healthy way. You may remember being told as a child to drink a warm glass of milk before going to bed. Milk contains a lot of magnesium. But, because of the digestive problems it causes, milk is actually not a good sleep aid – magnesium is.

These are 5 ways we recommend to help you sleep better, but of course, the Internet is vast and there are many more opinions on the topic. These are some of our resources that we put at your disposal but we encourage you to continue researching on your own and tell us what you have learned.