How You Can Benefit from Keeping a Sleep Diary

  • By Jennifer Mulder
  • 4 October 2018
  • 3 minute read
How You Can Benefit from Keeping a Sleep Diary | The Health Sessions

This article is written by Loraine V. and reviewed by Peter Palmero from topmatress.com. 

One of the worst battles you could ever find yourself in is when you start wrestling with your ownself in an attempt to grab some sleep at night. It’s quite difficult to single out the main contributors to a lack of sleep for most people.

Nevertheless, a sleep diary can help you assess your most movements; hence, you should have your list before long and know what to do about it. This is the best route to follow when looking for sleep remedies, because you go back to the root of the problem without having to stuff your body with drugs.

Why Consider a Sleep Diary in the First Place?

Have you experienced frequent insomnia periods in the recent past and think you can’t do anything about it? The most probablething for you to do would be to go your doctor who will end up recommending a sleep therapist to you. If what you sleep on is not one of the topmattress.com typeof mattresses, your therapist will only go right ahead and suggest that you start shopping for one that suits your sleeping needs. This is because mattresses, too, go a long way in influencing the quality of our nights.

The next thing most therapists recommend is a sleep diary which should help trace back the source of the malice. What’s more, you don’t have to rely on the shoddy ones that the market has to offer. You can go for a more detailed diary from verified bodies such as the National Sleep Foundation.

How You Can Benefit from Keeping a Sleep Diary | The Health Sessions

What’s in the Sleep Diary?

The diary will do so much more than just list your sleeping and waking up hours. There are a lot of fields which you’re required to fill in with utmostlevels of honesty. You will need to keep a check on the foods and beverages you take and note down the latest times you had food on a daily basis. Any alcohol consumed during the day should be listed down with the exact quantities too. Since caffeine will have a number or two on you, you should to fill in the times you consumed coffee or any related stimulants. Doing physical workouts just before bed will also prevent proper sleep from making your acquaintance. If you went to the gym, you need to note down the time period you were there.

The journal will ask for your sleeping and waking up times; you should try to maintain a constant when it comes to these. Also, if you had any naps during the day, you should go right ahead and list that too. You should be able to make subjective assessments in the morning which would range anything from feeling groggy to a well-rested night. Should you decide to have a sleep journal for your kid, make sure you are faithful in making the entries.

Assessing the Benefits

The final mission is to get sleeping like a baby without a care in the world. For starters, you will get a clearer idea of your sleeping habits and patterns without having to rely on a degree holder to do that assessment. You will end up being more proactive about your sleep hence put better efforts in getting quality sleep. If on treatment, your doctor will be in a much better position to give a proper diagnosis while you will be better equipped to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment given.

Knowledge is power – your sleep journal will hand you the power to be your own coach for life. Increased self-knowledge in sleep habits and the ability to work on it goes a long way to offer life longevity. The only downside in owning one is in tracking all the schedules required to be filled and giving accurate timings. But if being a monitor will translate to a better life and a longer night, get me a pen and my diary!

Author bio: Loraine V. is a passionate writer and pet lover. During the weekends she loves to help out her local pet shelter. If you are looking for any help or sleep tips, she is the person to reach out to!

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