Factors That Affect The Quality Of Your Rest And That Do Not Depend On You

When we start to suffer from some other problem associated with night rest, the first thing that specialists ask us is what our daily habits are.

A poor diet, going to bed late, taking excessive naps or abusing the computer or mobile phone just when we should be sleeping are, without a doubt, the great triggers of insomnia.

Now, something that cannot escape us is that we are not always the only ones responsible for our bad rest.

Sometimes, despite sleeping at night, the quality of that sleep is not adequate, we wake up often and wake up tired, with muscle pain and a headache.

If this is your case and this feeling is continuous, do not hesitate to go to the doctor to find out the cause.

For our part, we want to explain to you those other factors that are behind a bad rest in a good part of the cases and of which, sometimes, we are not fully aware.

We suggest you reflect on them.

1. Age affects the quality of our rest

As we get older it is common to experience the loss of the quality of our rest.

• It becomes lighter, more fragmented, and the actual, deep hours of sleep are getting shorter and shorter.
• Little by little that occasional insomnia can become chronic, to the point of needing some type of medication that guarantees adequate rest with which to improve the quality of life of the affected person.
• The reasons why this is so are multiple: problems such as apnea, restless legs syndrome, joint pain or even the alteration of the circadian rhythm appear.

Medical care, a good diet, and moderate or regular exercise can help us improve the quality of our rest.

2. If you are a woman, you sleep less

It is clear that it cannot be generalized, that insomnia appears when it is least expected but, on average, and as the “American Sleep Foundation” explains, being a man or a woman sometimes determines a better or worse rest. .

The causes would be the following:

• The woman tends to multitask, that is, she performs a variety of activities where her mind is aware of multiple pressures, stimuli and responsibilities.
• All this favors the appearance of occasional insomnia.
• In turn, the disorders associated with pregnancy or menopause are added.
• Another curious aspect is the fact that, on average, it is men who suffer the most from apnea and problems with snoring, with which their partners wake up on multiple occasions due to sounds.

All these characteristics make, little by little, the quality of rest for a part of women is poorer.

3. Our culture and the country in which we live

This data, beyond simple curiosity, tells us about a fact that we all know: the rhythm of life of a society determines the quality of its well-being.

• So much so, that cultures such as the Japanese, very work-oriented, are characterized by dedicating fewer hours to nighttime rest.
• In fact, it is common for them to practice what is known as “inemuri” or the art of being present while sleeping.

Thus, the Japanese take small naps in their work spaces, characterized by small “nods” where they do not even go to bed.

• It is only a matter of resting your mind and body for a few minutes in view of the great work pressure that characterizes certain population centers of the country.

On the other hand, our life habits also depend a lot on the culture to which we belong.

In Spain, for example, it is very common to dine late and go to bed late in the morning, something that contrasts sharply with northern European countries.

All this are factors that do not always depend on ourselves and that also determine being able to have a quality night’s rest with which to get up with strength to face the day.

4. Sunlight

Many of us spend a large part of the day at our jobs under the shelter of artificial lights: in an office, in front of a computer, in a factory or in any other environment where tasks are carried out in closed spaces.

Little by little, and without realizing it, we do not harmonize with our biological cycles or with sunlight : going to work when it has not yet dawned and going out at night seriously affects our rest.

It is something that has a major impact on our life.

5. Social pressure

Many will say that people are the owners of our lives and that social pressure is not a factor that escapes our control, that we can all have the reins of our reality.

• However, there are several factors that we cannot always control: people are obliged to have job responsibilities in order to survive.
• A job organizes our schedules, as well as the environment itself: social and economic policies, schedules, our obligations for that personal and social context …
• We are part of a gear from which we are not completely free, and all of this determines our greater or lesser stress load.
• Much of that social pressure that we cannot control affects our lives in many ways, especially emotionally. Hence, we spend many times with insomnia problems.

Faced with these pressures, the ideal is to maintain a balance between leisure time and work time.

Taking care of your own health and emotional well-being is key to being able to rest better, free of worries when we make contact with the pillow.