Struggling to sleep? You’re not alone. In fact, around 7.5 million people admit to having similar difficulties, either not sleeping properly or getting less than 5 hours of sleep per night. The impact of sleep deprivation on your health can be significant, affecting both your physical and mental well-being.
But improving your sleeping habits and getting that much-needed shut-eye isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Some people, no matter how many times they adjust their pillow, what speed the fan is on, or how dark the room is, cannot switch off and get to sleep easily.
Let’s examine a few strategies for helping you unwind and prepare your mind for a better night’s sleep.
Controlled Breathing
Controlled breathing is a simple yet effective technique. It’s about you taking control and focusing on your breath and nothing else.
Lie down comfortably, close your eyes, and place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. You want to inhale slowly and direct this breath into your stomach. The hand on your stomach should rise while the one on your chest should remain still. Then slowly exhale and feel the breath leave your stomach.
Repeat as often as required until you feel yourself relaxing or ready to fall asleep.
Exercise The Brain
You probably heard that dogs need to exercise as much as their bodies need to tire out. You need to make sure they use their minds and tire themselves out physically and mentally. This can be a good tip to follow. You need to use your brain for something that challenges you so it’s tired and ready for life, as well as your physical body.
You can listen to Duolingo and practise learning a new language before bed to tire yourself out mentally. You can play an online pool game or games such as mahjong or chess, or you can play app games that require you to solve puzzles such as Wordle or strategy games and introduce these before bedtime to get you into the right frame of mind as a solo activity or part of a new sleep routine.
Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
Your circadian rhythm, your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, is crucial for a good night’s sleep. If your schedule is disrupted, it’s important to focus on resetting it. This is a step you can take to regain control and improve your sleep.
To do this effectively, you need to make multiple lifestyle changes that aim to manage the symptoms of circadian rhythm disruption.
No daytime naps, limiting coffee and alcohol, having a regular meal and sleep schedule and creating a sleep routine can also be helpful here.
Understanding sleep cycles can help you align your sleep better so you get a more restful sleep when you do sleep. This means setting a sleep time of around 8 hours. This will lead you to complete multiple sleep cycles, which are essential for a relaxing and rejuvenating night’s sleep. Each sleep cycle running through the stages of sleep is around 60 to 90 minutes, and you need around 4-6 per night.
Finding the sweet spot so you’re not waking up during REM sleep, for example, can take time, patience, and perseverance to get it right, but if you can, you can notice that you are sleeping better, and your body naturally falls into this pattern with some practice.
Get Some Light
Not just artificial fighting from indoors. You need to expose your body and your brain to natural light. Even opening the curtains and letting the light come through the window can be enough. But ideally, you will want to go outside and spend at least 15 minutes getting some sunlight and vitamin D to help you adjust how much melatonin your body makes to assist in resetting your wake-sleep cycle.
Try Sleep Supplements
Talk to your doctor about taking safe supplements that help you sleep. This can be things such as taking magnesium before bed to help you relax and taking prescribed melatonin if you are really struggling to top up levels your body might not be producing. You can try Reishi mushrooms, ashwagandha, lavender, chamomile, valerian root or CBD as an addition to your diet to help you induce sleep and relax the body and mind so you get that much-needed rest.
Complementary Sleep Therapies
It might be beneficial to include activities such as massages in your life to help you release tension and relax your entire body. You might want to use an acupressure mat to help you increase blood flow around your body, provide pain relief, and promote relaxation to get you in the right place for sleeping. Yoga could be beneficial, as can meditation and acupuncture if your sleeping issues are severe enough. Flotation tanks could be an option to try, as could occupational therapy, aromatherapy, Reiki, and reflexology.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that purposely isolates and relaxes each and every muscle in the body. This activity can help you find and identify areas of tension and work towards relaxing them to let you drift off each night.
Lie down on your back or in a comfortable position and start at your feet. Lowly tense and realise your toes, then work up through the foot to the legs and up your entire body until you get to your head. Inhale and exhale gently, feeling the tension leave your body and the relaxation literally flow through your muscles.
The Military Sleep Method
Designed to help military members fall asleep in situations that are high-stress and not conducive for sleep, the military method is a fast way to help people fall asleep. You simply need to lie down, close your eyes, and start with your face. Relax all the muscles in your face from your forehead and down to your jaw. Then work down to your arms and shoulders and let them fall to your sides. Take a slow, deep breath and exhale slowly. Then relax your legs. Start at your hips and work your way down to your toes, and then with your eyes closed, you need to imagine a relaxing and peaceful scene. If you get distracted, start again until you get better at it, and it should help you fall asleep faster.