From the minute you hop out of bed in the morning, you’re in a race to get stuff done. Get the kids ready and out the door. Get to work. Get some project done before the deadline.
By the time you go to bed at night, you’re exhausted.
So why can’t you get to sleep?
Considering how tired you are from your hectic day, you should drop off the minute your head hits the pillow. Instead you just lie there, wide awake, as the minutes tick by.
Oh, you fall asleep eventually. But, because it takes so long, your body doesn’t get as much rest as it needs. So you wake up still feeling tired, and you end up dragging through the rest of the day.
Sound familiar? If so, you might have turned to sleep aids to help you get to sleep at night. But, while the sleep aids do work, they can also make you wake up with a slow, groggy feeling.
Besides, you don’t want to have to rely on pills to get to sleep at night. After all, what if you discover one night that you've run out? If you've been depending on sleep aids to help you fall asleep, you'll probably have a very hard time getting to sleep that night without them.
Luckily, there are more natural ways to beat your insomnia. And here are 3 of the easiest.
Insomnia Remedy #1: Pick a Regular Bedtime
Many people’s sleep problems could be solved if they just picked a regular bedtime and stuck to it.When you were a kid, how much did you hate being forced to go to bed at a specific time every night?
But, hey, you’re a grownup now. You can go to bed whenever you want to.
Some nights you manage to be in bed by 10:30. Other nights you don’t hit the sheets until after midnight. And sometimes, you’re up until one or two in the morning.
No wonder your body is confused. It doesn't know when it’s supposed to go to sleep.
So what can you do about it?
Train your body to go to sleep at a certain time.
Watch a child as their regular bedtime approaches. No matter how hard they fight it, no matter how much they insist they aren't tired, you start to see the signs. They yawn. They rub their eyes. Their movements become slow and choppy.
No matter what they want consciously, their bodies have been trained to go to sleep at a certain time. They can fight the training by staying active and on the move. But if you can get them to stay still for even a moment, chances are they’ll nod right off.
You can beat your insomnia by training your body in the same way.
Pick a bedtime. It almost doesn’t matter what that bedtime is, at least to start. All that matters is that you’re in bed at that time every single night.
One Way to Pick Your Regular Bedtime.
Experts say you need 7 or 8 good hours of sleep to be truly well-rested. So try to go to bed 7 or 8 hours before you usually need to wake up in the morning. And tack on another 30 minutes or so to account for the time it might take for you to fall asleep.
Don’t expect instant results. There might be many nights when you lay there for an hour or more, wide awake and bored out of your mind. But resist the temptation to get up and do something else. Eventually, your body will start to get the hint. Once your bedtime hits, you aren’t going to do anything but lie in bed. So you might as well go to sleep, if for no other reason than to escape the boredom.
Soon, you'll find it takes less and less time for you to fall asleep. In fact, you might find yourself dropping off within 10 or 15 minutes of lying down.
Sticking to a set bedtime is a great first step towards beating your insomnia. But there are two other things you can do that will make it easier for you to fall asleep at night.
Insomnia Remedy #2: Watch Your Caffeine Intake
Some people believe the best way to solve their sleep problems is to give up caffeine altogether. And, yes, that probably would help. But rest easy, coffee lovers. You don't have to do anything that drastic.When do you drink coffee? Drinking two cups of coffee in the morning, and another in the afternoon with lunch, probably won’t keep you awake at night. However, if you drink a cup or two of coffee after dinner that could definitely be part of your problem.
So while you don’t have to give up caffeinated coffee, you might want to stop drinking it about 6 to 8 hours before your bedtime.
If you absolutely must have a cup of coffee with your after-dinner dessert, try a decaffeinated brand. Decaffeinated coffee will give you some of the same satisfaction of drinking regular coffee, but without the drawbacks.
Coffee isn’t the only thing that contains caffeine. There might be caffeine in the sodas you drink, some of the foods you eat (like chocolate), and even in the over-the-counter pain killers sitting in your medicine cabinet. And consuming any of these things too close to your bedtime can affect your ability to get to sleep.
Insomnia Remedy #3: Cut Down on Pre-Bedtime Excitement
What do you usually do before you go to bed? Read a heart-pounding thriller? Watch an action movie filled with fight scenes and car chases? Listen to music with a driving beat?
Well, believe it or not, doing any of these things can affect your ability to fall asleep.
When you do things that get your heart racing right before going to bed, it can take a while for your body to settle down enough to go to sleep. So, 30 to 60 minutes before your bedtime, focus on winding down.
- If you watch TV, avoid sitcoms that have you cracking up every five minutes.
- Stay away from music that makes you want to jump up and dance.
- If you want to read, don’t pick a book known for its heart-pounding suspense.
Basically, whatever you do before you go to bed at night, make sure it’s calming and relaxing.
If you’ve been fighting sleep problems for a while, it might be hard to believe something as simple as having a set bedtime, or not consuming caffeine late in the day, could do any real good.
But if you put these insomnia remedies into action, you’ll soon find it getting easier and easier to fall asleep at night.
Do you find it hard to fall asleep at night? Or have you found your own ways to solve this problem? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
