Sleep hygiene refers to the combination of your actions preceding sleep and your sleep environment.  It’s just like dental hygiene.  If you take good care of your teeth, you are likely to have fewer cavities. It’s not a guarantee, but you will probably have better dental health. Studies show that improving your sleep hygiene improves the quality of your sleep which can help relieve depression or even prevent it in the first place. Quality sleep requires a calm, quiet brain allowed to cycle through the sleep stages undisturbed which it can’t do if you are worried, in a noisy, uncomfortable environment, or disturbed by other things.

In his book, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time, Alex Korb, recommends the following practices for quality sleep:

1. Sleep for eight hours straight. – You want to shoot for a continuous block of sleep for eight hours.  While naps can help, they don’t allow for the sleep cycles to run. Seven hours of sleep plus a one hour nap is not the same quality of sleep as eight hours.
2. Use your bed/bedroom only for sleeping. – Don’t work, surf the internet, or watch television in your bed and bedroom. If you use the space only for sleeping, your brain will associate it with sleep.
3. Create a bedtime routine. – Establish a ritual preparing you for sleep and do it every night. This can be the usual things, like brushing your teeth, washing your face, or reading for a few minutes. Meditating or praying are great bedtime rituals.
4. Avoid caffeine. – Even if you can fall asleep with a caffeine buzz, caffeine disrupts the sleep cycle and reduces the quality of your sleep.
5. Eat and drink in moderation before bed. – Korb advises not to eat a large meal less than three hours before going to bed. Digestion can interfere with sleep and your bladder may wake you up if needed.
6. Don’t use alcohol as a regular sleep aid. – While a glass of wine can help you fall asleep, alcohol disrupts the sleep cycles and reduces the quality of sleep. Alcohol abuse can lead to the same type of increased REM sleep and reduced slow-wave sleep seen in depression.
7. Exercise. – Physical activity improves sleep by helping to synchronize circadian rhythms, reducing stress, decreasing REM sleep, and causes many favorable neurochemical changes in your brain. However, exercising too close to bedtime can rev you up and keep you awake.