Regardless of whether you drank coffee, went in for sports, whether you have a comfortable pillow or not, sometimes it happens that you just can’t fall asleep, no matter what you do. Most often, we do not even know what influenced the fact that we are not able to go to the kingdom of Morpheus.
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So what should you do when you can’t sleep and you’re tired of being always tired? Of course, first of all, to understand the causes of your insomnia. Below we have written about the most common of them.
Unfortunately, most of us incorrectly build a daily routine, nutrition, do not maintain a water-salt balance, and also do not attach importance to physical activity. Although this is very important. Therefore, it is worth reconsidering your lifestyle. But even when all these aspects are in order, there are other nuances that are worth paying attention to. And we decided to help you understand the cause of insomnia and get rid of it.
If you are lying in bed and your eyes are still not closed, then try using the methods described below to plunge into the world of dreams.
1. Cool and comfortable room temperature
To create comfortable conditions for sleeping, you need to make sure that the room is cool and dark. Studies have shown that the optimal temperature for good sleep is 15–19 degrees Celsius.
Also, make sure there are no bright lights in the room (such as a phone screen) that can disturb your sleep. If you are afraid to sleep in the dark, then you should consider buying a lamp with a soft subdued light.
2. Change your sleeping position
Although there is no universal sleeping position, you can find the most comfortable position for yourself. So try to just roll over to the other side.
Statistics say that more than 55% of people sleep on their side, 38% sleep on their backs, and only 7% of the population sleep on their stomachs.
3. Sleep alone
No, you do not need to immediately expel your man. This is not about that, but about our pets. Sometimes, due to the fact that we sleep with cats or dogs, we are subconsciously afraid of harming them. Studies have shown that people who sleep with their pets wake up more often than those who sleep alone.
4. Calming yoga
Yoga is a well-known way to get rid of anxiety. It helps to calm all systems in the human body and thereby set it up for sleep. In this case, we are not talking about a difficult long workout. A regular five-minute low-intensity yoga class, such as baby pose (Balasana), may be just what you need to unwind and de-stress after a hard day at work.
5. Practicing Mindfulness
Mindfulness exercises will surely help you focus on relaxing your muscles and at the same time push annoying thoughts out of your head. The practice itself is very simple, a person only needs to focus on his breathing and relaxation of parts of the body. Imagine that you are slowly letting every cell in your body sink into the water.
For greater effect, I can include a podcast meditation, where the announcer with a pleasant voice helps to use this technique and simply follow his instructions.
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6. Remove excess clothing
Sleeping naked can be good for your health — and according to people who sleep naked, most of them say they do it for comfort. Sleeping naked can help regulate body temperature and is a biological signal to our body that it’s time to sleep.
And yet, such manipulations will also be pleasant for your partner, because in this way you will become closer to each other and, who knows, maybe the former passion will flare up again.
7. Body scan
A great way to relax your body is to do a self-scan. This method is somewhat reminiscent of mindfulness practice, but here you concentrate solely on your muscles.
To do a body scan properly, you need to focus on relaxing one body part at a time until you feel completely relaxed from head to toe. This method is unique in that it takes from 10 to 20 minutes, which means you will have enough time to tune in to a deep sleep. But most likely, you will fall asleep much earlier.
Here’s how to do a body scan if you can’t sleep:
- Get into bed
- Starting at the top of your head, focus all your attention on each part of your body in turn until you feel it is weightless.
- Slowly move down the body, starting with the muscles of the face and neck
- Move down each arm, then up your torso and down your belly
- Slowly relax each leg as you move down to your toes.
- After about 10–20 minutes, check yourself if the tension has reappeared, and if necessary, go through the individual zones.
8. Keeping a diary
If the frenzied flow of thoughts keeps you awake at night, journaling can be a good thing to do when you’re exhausted but can’t sleep. A study has shown that keeping a diary with a to-do list before bed can help you fall asleep much faster. “Tell” about everything that worries you and thus do not think about anything bad. Or write down your plans and tasks for the next day so you don’t think you forgot something.
9. Breathwork
If you always find it difficult to fall asleep, this may be due to improper breathing. I recommend trying the 4–7‑8 method, which involves using your breath to distract you from sleep anxiety.
You need to practice the 4–7‑8 method like this:
- Slowly exhale all the air until the lungs are completely empty.
- Breathe in through your nose for four seconds.
- Hold your breath for seven seconds
- Exhale for eight seconds
- Repeat this technique at least 4–5 times
10. Consider Taking Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone that makes you feel sleepy. It is produced in the pineal gland of the brain, which converts serotonin to melatonin in accordance with your body’s internal clock.
When melatonin levels rise in the body, blood pressure and body temperature decrease, which helps induce sleep. But in some people, its production is below the norm. In this case, these people can get over-the-counter melatonin supplements, which are available as a sleep aid at any pharmacy.
11. Put your phone away
Scrolling through social media before bed has become a habit for most of us — in fact, 9 out of 10 people use technology devices before and immediately after bed. However, technique use before bed has been shown to negatively affect the quality and quantity of sleep.
This is partly due to the blue light emitted by screens, which is designed to make users feel alert and alert. Try to control yourself and, having set an alarm for the morning, no longer reach for the phone.
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12. Listen to the noise around you
Various ambient noises such as white, pink, or brown can be helpful in relieving sleep problems. Sleep is most often associated with white noise. The same buzzing that we constantly hear (fan, interference in the TV, air conditioning or refrigerator). Pink noise is already deeper frequencies. For example, the sounds of nature (the rustle of leaves, wind, rain). Brown noise has an even deeper frequency than the previous two. These include the sounds of thunder or a waterfall.
When you concentrate on any one sound, the body will involuntarily relax. We advise you to choose those sounds that are more pleasant for you and learn a little more about ASMR.
13. Sleep hygiene
Sleep hygiene refers to good behavioral and environmental habits that can lead to a better night’s sleep. The idea of hygiene is that you set yourself up for success and better sleep throughout the day.
This includes avoiding caffeine and alcohol a few hours before bedtime. A bedroom for sleep and intimate relationships should not overlap with sports, work and other activities. For all this, choose another room or go to the kitchen.
Optimize the layout of the bedroom so that the bed you sleep on is not too small, and the mattress, on the contrary, is huge, which will create unnecessary inconvenience. You can rearrange the bedside tables and chairs in such a way that everything looks harmonious and does not catch your eye once again.
14. Exercise early
Exercising releases endorphins, the “happiness hormone” that can sometimes interfere with sleep. Also, exercise increases body temperature, accelerates the heartbeat, thereby sending a signal to the body that it is time to stay awake. To avoid this, try to exercise no later than one to two hours before you plan to go to bed. Better yet, even earlier.
15. Limit naps
Constant napping can disrupt your natural circadian rhythm and cause you to feel more alert at night than during the day.
Studies have shown that a five-minute REM nap is too short to give us a chance to rejuvenate, and sleeping more than 30 minutes can make you feel sleepy upon waking. If you want to take a nap, then try to make it last about 20 minutes, then you will wake up fresh and energetic.
16. Favorable conditions for sleep
Atmosphere and furnishings play no small role for our comfort. In the same way that we equip our workplace for greater productivity, we should pay attention to our bedroom in the same way. Choose those colors that soothe, adjust the temperature, humidity in the room, choose calm music. You can get a houseplant that smells good. And thus, you will have your own island of calm, which will noticeably improve sleep.
17. Sleep mode
Different paces of life give rise to an unpredictable schedule of the day. But if you try to find the golden mean, the cycle that suits you, you can become more resilient and concentrated. This is due to the fact that any living organism has an internal clock that determines when to wake up and when to go to bed. So mother nature decided for our own good.
Adjust your daily routine in such a way that you do not go to bed after 00:00. This is due to the fact that after midnight the body produces much less melatonin, and therefore it may not be enough to get enough sleep. A nice bonus of changing the regime will be that you will wake up earlier, more time will “appear” in the day and you will be able to do everything.
18. Consultation with a specialist
Unfortunately, sometimes there are cases that you yourself cannot influence without the help of a doctor. Therefore, if all the above points did not help you solve the problem, then do not try to let everything take its course, but rather go to a specialist. Perhaps you have a normal lack of vitamins, or maybe there are some complications or malfunctions in the body. In any case, in any case, a specialist will be able to detect these nuances and help you sleep soundly and be more energetic during the day.
It’s time to put aside all the hassle, worries, deadlines. We are not going anywhere from them. We must remember that our health is the most important thing. Therefore, take care of it, and “Liza” will help you in this in every possible way.