Signs You Aren’t Sleeping Well at Night

When was the last time you woke up and felt well rested, energized, and ready to meet the day head on – without a cup of coffee to jumpstart the day? For many people, that may sound like a foreign concept. If you’re getting enough quality sleep at night, though, it shouldn’t be. Not sleeping well is so common that many people don’t even know that they aren’t sleeping well. There are signs you can look for though.

Waking Up in Pain

Have you ever woken up with a headache or sore throat? That could be a sign that you aren’t sleeping as well as you should. There could be a few different reasons for this. Snoring can interfere with how well you sleep and could leave your throat feeling dry, sore, and inflamed. Headaches and sore throats are also some of the symptoms of sleep apnea. That means that you stop breathing while you’re sleeping. It’s a serious sleeping disorder, so you’ll want to address that immediately.

Grinding Your Teeth

If you grind your teeth, you may not be sleeping well at night. Teeth grinding, or bruxism, can happen during the day or night, and is often brought on by stress. People don’t tend to sleep well when they’re overly stressed, so that’s something you may want to look into if you discover you grind your teeth. It’s not just something that messes with your sleep though. It can also damage your teeth. Grinding your teeth can degrade the enamel and lead to more sensitive teeth.

Looking Tired

Sometimes you can tell you aren’t sleeping well at night just by looking in the mirror. There’s a reason why dark circles under the eyes are often exaggerated in film to highlight how sleep deprived someone is. Those, along with redness, puffiness, and bags under the eyes can all signify that you just aren’t getting the sleep you need at night. People who don’t sleep well enough also tend to be more prone to wrinkles. Your body restores itself during deeper sleep stages, which you’ll miss out on if you aren’t sleeping well.

Because so many people are sleep deprived these days, it can be easier to figure out if you’re one of them by looking at what the signs that you aren’t sleeping well are instead of what it looks like if you do sleep well. It’s usually easier to recognize what you’re familiar with, after all. If these sound familiar to you, you might want to take a closer look at why you aren’t sleeping as well as you should.

Read this next: How to Keep Track of Your Health Goals