Many people often ask the question how to sleep better, and the answer is different for all of us, because we are all different! There are some common "sleep tips" we can all use to get better sleep though. If no one has pointed it out to you before, take a look at what you are putting into your body on a daily basis. The human body is one absolutely incredible system, and everything interacts with each other. What you may not think is a contributing factor to you have sleep problems, could be the reason you're not getting a good night's sleep.
One of the most obvious things to take a look at is coffee and other sources of caffeine. The caffeine from coffee, teas and sodas stays in your system for anywhere from six to twelve hours! This of course all depends on the individual, and that's why I said the answer is different for all of us. There are people who can drink a cup of coffee an hour before laying down and then sleep through the night with no problems. Others are completely affected by one cup of coffee that they had mid-morning.
Think a heavy meal is the answer? For some it is, but others it totally interferes with the ability to fall asleep. A light snack is usually a better choice. Dairy products such as some cheese or a glass of milk, or a turkey sandwich are good choices. Both of these contain an amino acid that helps you to fall sleep. Just think to last Thanksgiving, did you eat a lot of turkey and then get all sleepy?
Lastly, watch your alcohol intake. You may be tempted to think that drinking alcohol will cause you to "pass out" and go to sleep, and while that may be true, you won't get good sleep. Drinking alcohol really messes with your body and your sleep significantly. It will disrupt your sleep pattern, and often times actually make you wake up as you need to go to the bathroom and releave yourself - which can then leave you awake for hours. If that's the case, did you really get better sleep at all?
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sleep Tips - Follow a Sleep Routine
One of the sleep tips I've followed with success has been to establish a sleep routine. What is a sleep routine you ask? As human beings, we tend to be creatures of habit. We like doing the same things over and over again, especially when those habits produce the results we desire. If your desire is to fall asleep and get a good nights rest, you can establish a "sleep routine" that you follow before going to bed.
This can be a few things that you do night after night before you go to bed. Not only will the subconscious pick up on "hey, it's time to go to bed now", but by following the same nightly routine you will actively be thinking to yourself "It's time to go to sleep now".
What is a good sleep routine to follow?
What we are trying to do is to get our minds and bodies to slow down, relax, and get sleepy. One of the best things you can do is to start to dim the lights around you. Turn off bright overhead light, and rely on the softer, shaded light that comes from lamps. Doing this allows less light to enter your eyes, and this is one of the natural cues your body has to fall asleep. Bright lights will keep you awake, so turning them off and dimming the lights around you is the right choice.
Listening to soft music can also put you in a sleepy mood. Some people like to take a warm bath, and other people (that can tolerate it) like to eat dairy products before going to sleep. (remember your grandmother's advice to drink a glass of warm milk if you're having trouble going to sleep?)
Find what works for you, put it into practice, and do it every night! It will become your own personal "sleep aid" that signals your body to drift off to dream land!
This can be a few things that you do night after night before you go to bed. Not only will the subconscious pick up on "hey, it's time to go to bed now", but by following the same nightly routine you will actively be thinking to yourself "It's time to go to sleep now".
What is a good sleep routine to follow?
What we are trying to do is to get our minds and bodies to slow down, relax, and get sleepy. One of the best things you can do is to start to dim the lights around you. Turn off bright overhead light, and rely on the softer, shaded light that comes from lamps. Doing this allows less light to enter your eyes, and this is one of the natural cues your body has to fall asleep. Bright lights will keep you awake, so turning them off and dimming the lights around you is the right choice.
Listening to soft music can also put you in a sleepy mood. Some people like to take a warm bath, and other people (that can tolerate it) like to eat dairy products before going to sleep. (remember your grandmother's advice to drink a glass of warm milk if you're having trouble going to sleep?)
Find what works for you, put it into practice, and do it every night! It will become your own personal "sleep aid" that signals your body to drift off to dream land!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Get Better Sleep by Setting the Mood
The next of my sleep tips for better sleep is to set the mood for sleep. What do I mean by setting the mood? In my last post, Get Better Sleep By Not Watching TV I talked about the light entering your eyes and keeping you awake. In the same regards, you want to keep your bedroom as dark as possible.
Early morning sun will creep in through your windows, and the light could possibly wake you. There's even an alarm clock that instead of a horrible beeping noise, has a built in "day bulb" that slowly starts to light up and increases in intensity of brightness to wake you! The obvious thing we can do to combat this, is to block out our windows while we sleep.
If you're on a budget you can always just throw a blanket over the curtain rod. Interior designers are rolling over in their graves right now, but hey, it works! If you'd like your bedroom to not look like a college dorm room, you can go the route of just buying heavy curtains that you pull back during the day, and close when you go to sleep. You can also buy one of those sleep masks, but they way I toss and turn during the night, there's no way that thing would still be on my head come morning!
So however you need to do it, block out those windows, and get better sleep by staying asleep when the sun starts to come up!
Early morning sun will creep in through your windows, and the light could possibly wake you. There's even an alarm clock that instead of a horrible beeping noise, has a built in "day bulb" that slowly starts to light up and increases in intensity of brightness to wake you! The obvious thing we can do to combat this, is to block out our windows while we sleep.
If you're on a budget you can always just throw a blanket over the curtain rod. Interior designers are rolling over in their graves right now, but hey, it works! If you'd like your bedroom to not look like a college dorm room, you can go the route of just buying heavy curtains that you pull back during the day, and close when you go to sleep. You can also buy one of those sleep masks, but they way I toss and turn during the night, there's no way that thing would still be on my head come morning!
So however you need to do it, block out those windows, and get better sleep by staying asleep when the sun starts to come up!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Get Better Sleep By Not Watching TV
I have gotten some better sleep by cutting out watching tv late at night. This is one of those sleep tips that I've known about, but never really put into practice until now. I always thought that when I got in bed I'd like to watch tv for "just a little bit" to put me to bed. What usually ends up happening is that I'll get involved in the show and then end up watching it for 45 more minutes.. and then if the NEXT show happens to be interesting.. well, you can see where that leads!
More than just the time you'll spend watching the show, watching tv before you go to bed isn't good for you in more ways than one. Usually your room will be dark, and you'll get just the light from the tv.. well it so happens that this light entering your eyes will actually stimulate you and keep you awake longer, and just disrupt your sleep schedule all together!
Beyond the light, watching tv when you lay down to sleep also mentally stimulates you as well. When your brain should be shutting down, you're taking in the information from the shows and it gets your mind thinking. I have spent MANY nights just laying in bed with my mind racing! It's not that I'm particularly thinking about something from the tv show, but my mind is just active.. so it starts thinking about things I need to get done tomorrow.. things I DIDN'T do that day, things I'd like to do in the future. For me, those kind of thoughts are hard to shut down, so I lie awake in bed, wondering why can't I sleep?
I stopped watching tv the last 2 nights, and that combined with a nice walk during the day has lead to me getting better sleep the last 2 nights! (oh, and of course I had my fan going at night for the white noise!) Let's hope that this trend continues!
More than just the time you'll spend watching the show, watching tv before you go to bed isn't good for you in more ways than one. Usually your room will be dark, and you'll get just the light from the tv.. well it so happens that this light entering your eyes will actually stimulate you and keep you awake longer, and just disrupt your sleep schedule all together!
Beyond the light, watching tv when you lay down to sleep also mentally stimulates you as well. When your brain should be shutting down, you're taking in the information from the shows and it gets your mind thinking. I have spent MANY nights just laying in bed with my mind racing! It's not that I'm particularly thinking about something from the tv show, but my mind is just active.. so it starts thinking about things I need to get done tomorrow.. things I DIDN'T do that day, things I'd like to do in the future. For me, those kind of thoughts are hard to shut down, so I lie awake in bed, wondering why can't I sleep?
I stopped watching tv the last 2 nights, and that combined with a nice walk during the day has lead to me getting better sleep the last 2 nights! (oh, and of course I had my fan going at night for the white noise!) Let's hope that this trend continues!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Better Sleep with Noise ... Wait, What?
The title of this post "Better Sleep with Noise" just might invoke a "Wait, What?" response from you. For all of my sleep irregularities, there is certainly one thing that has always helped me to fall asleep, and stay asleep compared to not using it, and that is: white noise. What is white noise? Well for our purposes, white noise is just background noise that your brain doesn't really focus on. The easiest way to get this is to just use a fan!
The sound of the fan blowing produces a static, background noise. You're brain (well, at least MY brain) doesn't focus on this, compared to say listening to music or the television. The fan also masks outside noises, so say that garbage truck in the morning, or someone else in the house making breakfast, or anything else that might wake you up if there was NO noise, the white noise lessens the sound of the other noise. This, in turn, helps me to fall asleep better by the background noise that it makes when I am trying to fall asleep, and it helps to give me better sleep by being able to STAY asleep when a noise might have woken me up otherwise.
So, I really recommend getting one of those "box" fans, or something very similar. If the temperature is cold, you can just point the fan in a way that it doesn't really move air around, it's just making the noise.
That said, if you remember my last post about Better Sleep with Exercise that night I slept really, really well! So well in fact, that I slept for about 9 hours! Now, that may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't gotten hardly any sleep at all the previous night, but still I slept really good.
The following day I didn't go for a walk, but I was out at a backyard BBQ most of the day. I ended up not being tired until roughly 4am again, and woke up tired today. Take that for whatever it's worth!
The sound of the fan blowing produces a static, background noise. You're brain (well, at least MY brain) doesn't focus on this, compared to say listening to music or the television. The fan also masks outside noises, so say that garbage truck in the morning, or someone else in the house making breakfast, or anything else that might wake you up if there was NO noise, the white noise lessens the sound of the other noise. This, in turn, helps me to fall asleep better by the background noise that it makes when I am trying to fall asleep, and it helps to give me better sleep by being able to STAY asleep when a noise might have woken me up otherwise.
So, I really recommend getting one of those "box" fans, or something very similar. If the temperature is cold, you can just point the fan in a way that it doesn't really move air around, it's just making the noise.
That said, if you remember my last post about Better Sleep with Exercise that night I slept really, really well! So well in fact, that I slept for about 9 hours! Now, that may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't gotten hardly any sleep at all the previous night, but still I slept really good.
The following day I didn't go for a walk, but I was out at a backyard BBQ most of the day. I ended up not being tired until roughly 4am again, and woke up tired today. Take that for whatever it's worth!
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