Can’t Sleep at Night? Learn How to Fall Asleep Better and Faster
Learning to fall asleep is of prime concern in today's stressful world. The stress and anxiety won’t even allow you to doze off even if you are tired. If the condition persists, it becomes insomnia.
If you can't sleep through the night, it is not compulsory to consult pharmaceuticals. They are not your only hope; there are better and natural ways to achieve a deep sleep.
To sleep soundly, you need to follow the proven and easy guidelines disciplines that you will discover in this short guide. The tips and techniques in this guide, will blend seamlessly into your lifestyle.
Follow the guide meticulously, and we are highly confident that you will benefit a lot from it. Let's start learning:
The principal reason you can't fall asleep is accumulated STRESS. It is a type of stress that inhibits the calmness of the brain and keep you awake throughout the night.
The Bad: The stress of day-to-day life leads to trouble falling asleep and this lack of quality sleep attracts even more stress that further deteriorates the quality of your sleep.
The Good: This stress is easy to fight against, as it's simple to bring the body and sleep back on track. How can you overcome this dreaded stress? Let's find out:
Week 01: Avoid blue lights after sunset
Set your wake-up time as close to the sunrise as possible. Likewise, set your sleeping time close to the time of sunset. It will drastically improve your sleep quality. Here's how:
The Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a small group of brain cells located behind the eyes near the hypothalamus gland. Its role is to interpret the outside lights and tell our brain the time of the day.
How can you minimize the impact of blue light on your sleep?
Week 02: Adopt a diet that improves sleep
Bedtime snacks can have profound positive or adverse effect on your sleep. You need minimum stress during bedtime, and this also includes digestive stress.
Don't overtax your digestive system or drain your brain near the bedtime. You must certainly check our list of the best and worst bedtime foods.
You might not be doing it knowingly but certain food items, if taken at night, can mess up with the digestive tract as well as the cognitive system and hinder your sleep. They are:
Week 03: Create an environment free of noise
Being exposed to a noisy environment during the day can be inconsequential, but during the evening, if it persists, such environment won't allow your mind to relax, let alone sleep.
As minimal as the snoring sound of your partner can be, it is enough to kill your chances of falling asleep quickly.
Week 04: Social habits that lead to a better sleep
Let's start with this warning, if you are a binge drinker, the alcohol is a substance that blocks your road to REM sleep. Social habits such as drinking and smoking are often overlooked while trying to optimize for a better sleep.
Many people consider alcohol as a sleeping aid. Contrary to common assumption, alcohol and nicotine are big sleep killers.
Hence, we strongly suggest that you quit alcohol and smoking altogether. But, to keep your social life active, you can take a couple of drinks on weekend. As far as smoking is concerned, you must quit it altogether.
Week 05: Bedding habits that lead to a deep sleep
You simply can't ignore the importance of sleeping positions and optimal bedding materials when it comes to falling asleep. Afterall, they form the basis of your sleep. Let's talk about how to optimize these factors instantly:
A) Sleeping Positions
There are almost endless combinations of sleeping styles. Out of them, the side-sleeping, back-sleeping, and stomach sleeping are the most common.
Now, the question is, which one is the best sleeping position? The short answer, none can be called the best.
No matter what position you sleep in, the core idea is to make sure your neck, spine, and legs are aligned in a straight line and there is no constant pressure on any particular body part and there is no obstruction to the airflow while breathing. Check this article for better understanding.
Please note, if you are a stomach sleeper, cease this habit immediately and learn to side sleep or back sleep and stick to one which helps you to fall asleep better and faster.
B) Bedding Material
For the sake of optimum bedding, choose the best pillow and mattress that are firm enough to support your posture but "pillowy" enough to cradle your body gently.
Observe your pillow for any lumps or breaks to know if they are leading you to an uncomfortable posture during the night. If so, it is the right time to buy a quality pillow.
We recommend you choose one according to your sleep-style. These articles will help you determine one:- best pillow for side sleepers; best pillow for back sleepers; best pillow for stomach sleepers.
A better solution is to choose a pillow for combination sleepers or, before making a purchase, read reviews of my pillow.
Week 06: Bedtime relaxation & unwinding
To sleep quickly, it is essential to unwind your mind by practicing relaxation. It helps tremendously in reducing stress and sleeping better. Moreover, doing it every day becomes a signal, informing your brain that it is the time to rest. A few things that you must do are:
Also, we recommend reading some good books at night. It helps your senses to calm down, and you sleep better.
Week 07: Next gen techniques to get the best sleep of your life
The techniques shared in the previous 6 weeks are mighty enough to bring your sleep back on track. But, we believe in over-delivering. So, we will go even further and show you other effective steps to help on the path of getting a sleep.
1. Correct your micro-nutrients deficiency
Nutrition has a paramount impact on our sleeping routine. The most important minerals you should get include calcium, magnesium, zinc, and B-complex vitamins.
Calcium has the natural function of soothing the nervous system. Nevertheless, when you cope with chronic stress, the body’s calcium levels are diminished. That could make it difficult for you to get a restful sleep.
On a different note, magnesium deficiency is a leading cause of anxiety and nervousness, thereby leading to a restless sleep.
According to a study from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, magnesium deficiency makes it harder to fall asleep. While, B-complex vitamins play a fundamental part in regulating the sleeping cycles.
That being said, make sure you add as many fruits and vegetables in your daily diet as possible – in as many colors as you can! This way, you can ensure that your body receives everything it needs.
2. Seek professional help for depression and anxiety
You should also be aware that depression and anxiety represent two common grounds for poor sleep.
Psychological struggles make it almost impossible to get some shut-eye. Some of the most frequently met symptoms include: excessive worrying, tension, feeling overwhelmed, overthinking the past or the future, so on and so forth.
This study outlines the link between anxiety and poor sleep. If that is your case, you shouldn’t ignore that. While it is normal to experience anxiety now and then, it can become a problem when it interferes with your daily life.
While there are some efficient self-help techniques you could use, you should opt for professional help if your situation is overwhelming.
3. Use brain waves to calm your mind
Another viable solution to sleep problems could be brain waves. They could help the brain enter into a natural sleeping state. In other words, they could slow down the brain’s activity, and bring it into a state where sleep would naturally occur.
In other words, brainwave programs are specifically created and targeted to assist individuals to get better sleep, be more productive, so on and so forth. Here are the types of waves that affect our sleep:
Brain.fm could be used for this purpose. For the most part, this is smart music that puts you in the right mindset to fall asleep. In about ten minutes or so, you are likely to feel the effects and experience a feeling of relaxation.
While this option could bring actual results, one shouldn’t overlook the side effects. For starters, there isn’t enough research that backs up the long-term consequences of using brain waves. We believe that there should be more journals and scholarly articles on the topic before making a fully informed decision.
Secondly, using such a device can cause a feeling of drowsiness. Additionally, physical fatigue is another side effect that shouldn’t be overlooked. That is primarily because the brain is stimulated to increase the production of melatonin. Similar to physical exercise, this mental activity will make you feel tired.
Still, this is something that you should probably discuss with your doctor. Some brain waves may be right for you and help you sleep while others may do the exact opposite. An expert will be able to offer you better advice on what you should do.
4. Use a sleep app
Another option would be getting a sleep app. It monitors your movement while you sleep.
Additionally, these types of apps analyze your sleeping patterns. While a sleep app won’t necessarily enhance your sleep overnight, it enables you to be aware of where you stand.
One of the most popular apps is Sleep Cycle. You should place your phone under the pillow and sleep. Then, during your sleep, the app will record data. Afterward, it will utilize that information to wake you up when you are well-rested.
Apart from that, the inclusion of easy-to-read graphs that monitor your sleep is a nice addition. You can take that data and go to your doctor with it, where he or she can offer a professional opinion.
5. Never stress about sleep
If you’re struggling with poor sleep, you’re probably stressing each night. Thus you won’t be able to sleep properly. In this situation, you should focus your energy on something else.
If you can’t sleep, instead of stressing, try doing something else: take a walk, read a book, listen to some music. Eventually, sleep will come to you – basically because your brain will not be that hyperactive anymore.
6. Alter your caffeine use
We all know that caffeine keeps us awake. Apart from coffee, caffeine can be found in a plethora of foods such as teas, sodas, chocolate, ice cream, pain relievers, weight loss pills, energy water or alcoholic energy drinks, breath fresheners, and the list may go on.
To that end, make sure you limit your coffee intake to one cup in the morning or none at all to enhance your sleeping routine. Also, you may not want to drink anything caffeinated after 2 PM, since you’ll want the stimulation effect to go away by the time you go to sleep.
7. Adjust your room temperature
Specialists agree that setting the room temperature somewhere between 65 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit should be just fine for the body.
Meanwhile, experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended that the bedroom should be cool, dark and quiet.
You should check your pillow and mattress as well. Keep in mind that certain pillows and mattresses may retain part of the body heat, so they could make you feel overheated and uncomfortable. Each pillow reacts differently with each body type, so you may want to experiment with temperature ranges.
If you are experiencing sleeping problems, you might want to consider changing your pillow and test out different types to see which one works best for you. Look for items that don’t retain body heat, such as cooling pillows, down pillows, or shredded memory foam pillows.
8. Hacks to give your sleep a final push
Must Read: Before You Go!
Congrats! You are now equipped with all the necessary information needed to gift yourself with a deep and rejuvenating sleep.
You know more than an average guy about how to fall asleep better and faster. Now, it is time you turn this knowledge into action and enhance your sleep quality.
Remember, your body needs time to become habitual to new routines. It doesn't change overnight. So, don't curse yourself if you can't sleep well after a couple of days or so.
Instead, be patient, take action, and let time take its course. Soon enough, you will discover an improvement in your sleep quality, and likewise your health. Don't forget checking the homepage for more sleep resources. Thanks.