One of three adults has a difficulty of trying to fall asleep. If you’re one of those people who have sleep problems, the lack of a good night’s rest will have a huge impact on the health of your body and your quality of life. Not only does it affect you physically, but it impairs your mental wellness too.
Read up on these 8 tips on how to fall asleep faster naturally. If you try these practices below, you’ll set yourself up to naturally get the best sleep possible. You don’t need to rely on any medicine or melatonin pills.
8 Ways To Fall Asleep Fast
1. Stick to a Sleep Schedule
If you’re one of those people who don’t usually start your bedtime routine until you feel tired, you might want to change this sleeping habit. If you want to fall asleep, you need to stick to a schedule and set your biological body clock.
You must learn to go to bed and wake up in the morning at regular times, even on the weekends. This will actually let the body program its natural sleep patterns. A small adjustment like this will help your body regulate its internal clock.
Some people respond to this sleeping pattern. If it helps, try to take a relaxing hot bath before you sleep. This will help you fall asleep easier and stay in bed for longer periods of time.
2. Ditch Your Electronic Devices Before You Sleep
Are you guilty of listening to music or watching TV every night before you sleep? If so, this is likely the reason why it’s still hard for you to fall asleep fast.
- Avoid screen time: Anything that stimulates your nervous system (distraction, white noise, or a bright light in the room) will make you stay awake, so this should be avoided. Many people use gadgets for entertainment and relaxation before going to sleep. However, the excitement, stress, and anxiety we feel from TV shows, social media, and websites last for quite a bit of time after you’ve unplugged. This will make falling asleep much difficult.
- How do you sleep better at night?: To fall asleep, cut off all use of electronic gadgets with a screen at least 30 minutes before lying in bed. As much as possible, place your phone far away from you, as you must be free of any distractions. In this way, you will not be tempted to play with your gadgets when you see it close by.
- Read a book: The advice of experts is to do a slow activity before bed without stimulating your mind, like reading a good book (not an E-Book). Reading is a quiet and non-stimulating activity that can help you sleep quickly.
3. Skip the Catnaps
If you’ve been struggling with poor sleep quality, and difficulty staying asleep, prevent yourself from taking catnaps during the day.
- Why are power naps not recommended: Many people think that if you sleep in the middle of the day, this will recharge your body. However, the bad news is that power naps disrupt the sleeping schedule of your body. You’ll feel sleepy for the rest of the day and you’ll find it hard to get back to sleep during night time.
- Prevent it: Do whatever you can to eliminate these short naps. You should find yourself getting better sleep, and for longer periods of time at night.
- Recharge with an exercise: Instead, you can recharge in the middle of the day with a 15-minute exercise or stretching. Working out produces happy hormones that are effective in making you feel recharged and less stressed.
You’ll be feeling energized the rest of the day and help you sleep well at night.
4. Do Not Eat Heavy Meals Before You Sleep
Some people eat large meals 1-2 hours before hitting the sack, which can have a negative impact on your sleep quality. Your body has to go through digestion, and this internal process will not relax your mind. Some might experience bloating and gas formation.
- Schedule your meal: It will help if you avoid heavy meals for at least 3 to 4 hours before going to bed. If you get hungry, only have light snacks and have a cut off time for meals before you hit the bed.
- Avoid caffeinated drinks before you sleep: It is also suggested to avoid beverages that contain caffeine (e.g., coffee) at least five hours before you sleep. This will keep your eyes wide open and will make you stay awake instead.
- Drink milk: It is more helpful to drink warm milk an hour before you sleep.
5. Keep the Temperature Cool
Each person has different temperature preferences when going to sleep. According to a study, the relaxing room temperature for people to fall asleep fast is between 60 and 70°F. [1]
This air temperature is not too cold or not too warm when you sleep. Your body has a mechanism where it lowers its internal temperature to help you in falling asleep.
If you’re cranking the heat, it will make it harder for you to be comfortable and could cause sleep disturbances. Set your thermostat to a cooler setting during the summer and consider turning it off completely in the winter to keep your bedroom calm and cool.
Consider upgrading into a smart thermostat to get the best sleep quality and enjoy its convenience.
6. Reevaluate Your Mattress
Did you know that the life expectancy for a mattress is only around ten years? After that point, it’s practically worn out from your body weight and may seem to be the reason why you can’t fall asleep at night.
All mattresses may be different, but as for its life expectancy, they’re all practically the same. Replacing a mattress is an expensive endeavor.
If you can’t afford that right now, a cheaper alternative is to buy a memory foam mattress pad. This inexpensive item could help revitalize any old mattress and extend the life of your current mattress for a few more years.
Memory foam is a relaxing of material to fall asleep on. The secret behind its comfort is that it molds to your body and reduces pressure at key areas of your limbs. This also helps you fall asleep faster and into a deep sleep.
If you want to save some money and give a memory foam pad a try, take a look at my cheap memory foam mattress topper reviews to see for yourself the popular products on the market now.
7. Keep a Bedside Journal
With most of us living hectic lifestyles, it could be hard to stop your mind from racing before you go to sleep. This leads to longer periods of lying in bed, tossing, and turning at night.
A simple tip to help feel your mind shut down is by keeping a journal next to your bed. Each night before you sleep, try to take a few minutes to focus and write down everything that is running through your mind.
This to-do list should also include everything like tasks related to work, errands you need to run the next day, activities with kids, and anything else that’s filling your thoughts.
Put away your worries and get a long sleep that you need. If you try to write these things down, it can also help your brain off-load stress, which can lead to falling asleep faster.
8. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
The PMR technique has been found to manage stress, anxiety, circadian rhythm, insomnia, chronic pain, and other medical conditions.
- How does Progressive Muscle Relaxation work: This includes body muscle relaxation with phases of tensing and tightening of muscles, hold your breath, and the release of tension. Practicing this can help improve the quality of sleep and is important for pain management.
- Practice with breathing exercises and guided imagery: Also, it might be useful to practice breathing exercises using the 4-7-8 method paired with PMR and guided imagery. You must breathe through the nose for four seconds, holding it in for seven seconds, then exhale through the mouth in the count of eight.
- Benefits of PMR: Doctors try PMR not only in helping with sleep. It is also found to help alleviate symptoms of the body like headache, elevated heart rate, pain, hypertension, and digestive disturbances.
Sleep well…
For most people, the techniques found on this page are all they need to sleep better and have more physical energy the next day. If this is not the case for you, there may be something else going on that’s causing your lack of sleep.
If you are unable to sleep after trying these tips, it may help if you set an appointment to see your physician. Your medical doctor may be able to help evaluate your sleeping habits or use the Paradoxical intention technique to address the problem.
Reference:
[1] https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/best-temperature-to-sleep
