Contributed by Cindi Pearce, Catalogs.com Info Guru
If you are struggling every night to fall asleep, take the bull by the horns and make some changes in your lifestyle.
Some changes in your lifestyle, and your environment, potentially can make all the difference in your ability to sleep and the quality of your sleep. Here are my ten better sleep tips:
10. Low light clock
Turn the clock away from the bed, put tape over the LED display or purchase an old-fashioned alarm clock without a bright display. An alarm clock that dims at night and then brightens to simulate the sunrise is a sleep-friendly option. I know you can’t see the time, but you also won’t be disturbed by those day glow numbers all night long. The light from your clock, even though it’s not much, is enough to disturb the production of sleep hormones.
9. Restful palette
Consider repainting your room a color that is more conducive to rest. If your bedroom is fiesta orange, the walls themselves might be keeping you awake. Pick a calmer shade, such as a pale blue.
8. Hot milk
Drinking hot milk to promote sleep isn’t just a myth. The calcium helps you relax. Milk contains tryptophan, which becomes serotonin once it is in your body. Serotonin, which can also be purchased as a serotonin supplement to aid in sleep, is a natural hormone that makes you drowsy.
7. Eliminate naps
Try not to nap during the day, which many do because they didn’t get enough sleep the night before. If you must nap, don’t sleep any longer than 30 minutes and nap before 4 p.m. If you take a long nap in the early evening it is going to mess up your sleep cadence.
6. Thermostat upgrade
If your bedroom is a raging inferno you won’t be able to sleep. You are going to be stripping off clothing and tossing sheets and blankets helter skelter all night long. Turn down the thermostat. Better yet, invest in a programmable thermostat that has multiple settings so that you can select a cooler temperature for night and warm the house up to help you get out of bed.
5. Electronic sundown
Create what is called an electronic sundown. An hour before you got to bed, dim the lights in your house. Step away from the computer and its bright screen. Turn off the TV. Sit quietly and read a book. If the brain is too stimulated it can’t go to sleep. Creating the sundown effect will allow your brain to settle down.
4. Establish a routine
Even if you aren’t big on routines you may want to establish a bed time routine. Take your bath or shower the same time every night. Get in bed the same time every night. Do the same thing for yourself that you did for your babies when you were trying to get them on a bedtime routine. If you don’t have a set routine and change your sleep time every night this can bamboozle your innate body clock, which affects your sleep. If you keep changing your bedtime your body enters in a sort of jet lagged state, and you never fully sleep but only sleep superficially, which means you’re going to be tired all the time.
3. Keep it a BEDroom
Do not use your bedroom as an office. Use it to sleep in and to have sex in. Obviously, this might be hard to do if your living space is limited, but you really should avoid utilizing the bedroom as the catch-all room. This is not to say that you can’t have sex in other rooms.
2. Invest in a mattress
If you’ve been sleeping on that god-awful decrepit futon since your college days, give it a rest. Pun intended. Invest in a good mattress and good pillows and you will find that you sleep one hundred percent better and don’t wake up as stiff as the Tin Man. An adjustable bed that solves your nighttime discomfort is not just a luxury, or meant for invalids. It will make a huge difference in getting better sleep.
1. Get up
Instead of tossing sleeplessly from side to side, get up. Stretch. Haul your wide awake butt into the kitchen and wash those dishes that you should have washed before you went to bed. Doing something you despise doing will make you sleepier than lying in bed counting sheep.