I have problems sleeping at night, what can i do to help me sleep better?
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at
2:50 am
I get up for work at 5:30am and cant fall asleep at night until 1 or 2 in the morning, i get fed up with it and have started taking sleeping pills but i dont want to have to take them just to fall asleep. i know one thing is i have a hard time shutting my brain down, any ideas?
Tagged with: brain • google • hard time • sleeping pills
Filed under: Insomnia
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I can tell you some natural ways to help you sleep? I have big sleep problems too, but I try to deal with it any way apart from pills. Of course, you may be looking for the best/different medication to take, so my answer may not help you much
Some of them sound cliche, but actually work. These are all things that I do personally. I will put a star next to the ones I find most helpful, and two stars for something I really recommend.
Having a hot bath before settling down for bed.
*Reading a book.
*Listening to calming music on headphones before you sleep.
**Daydreaming. Anything at all. No, it’s not shutting your mind down, but it will lull you into a sleep easier than if you have plans or ideas in your head. Just choose something really nice to daydream about (I think about my future, or winning the lottery) and you should drift off before you even realise. Sometimes I wake up and realise I didnt even get half way through my daydream.
**Sleeping very close to an open window, facing it, with warm bedclothes covering you. Really get under the bedclothes, and get a small blanket to wrap around your head – leaving your face uncovered and directly breathing fresh air. This sounds REALLY weird, but I cannot stress how much that helps! Make sure the blankets keep you VERY warm though, while you’re breathing in the fresh air.
Watching a film right before you sleep. Not a horror, or thriller, or anything adrenaliney.. I prefer fantasy films (with not too much fighting) before I sleep.
**Altering your sleeping position. Do not be afraid to change the way you sleep on your bed. Lay across it a different way.. move the pillows to the foot of the bed.. I sometimes sleep the ‘wrong way’ on my bed – from side to side, rather than headboard to foot board. This seems to really help me alot! You can vary it as much as you like, every night.. multiple times a night if you need.. you’ll know when you hit that ‘magic, comfy’ spot
Just try it!
*Lots and lots of pillows that you can arrange how you like. Again, do not be afraid to arrange them in a wierd way if it makes you more comfortable!
A small wind up radio playing a station that tells ‘stories’ or such. Put it on a really low hum, so you can’t hear it. Sometimes, when things are too quiet, I can’t sleep. You can get a radio that turns itself off on a timer, too.
Make sure the room is either completely dark, *or a very very mellow dull orangey lamp light, like a kids night light (I prefer having that bit of light personally. When things are too dark, my mind seems to go crazy!).
**Hug a pillow!
I take Melatonin. It is an over the counter natural supplement you get in the vitamin dept of any drug store.
justme,
I bet thats frustrating. Thats a tiny amount of sleep. Sorry. I know some things you can do that you won’t hear just anywhere.
Here are some very practical ideas to help:
- Wear socks and gloves to bed and keep the room at 70deg. This will get the body temperature uniform and correct
- Eat a protein snack 2 hrs before bed (perhaps a cold cut or chicken nugget)
Then when you need to shut the brain down:
- (this one is most important for you I think) Do a complete brain dump before bed. Write everything down that is bouncing around in your head.
- Start an audiobook as you go to sleep.
And to really relax:
- Breathe Deeply where each breath cycle takes 10 seconds, focus on the sound of your breath and the feel of the air rushing over your lip.
I have an excellent resource with a lot more detail and other tips on how to get deep sleep. I have posted the link below if you are interested.
Good luck getting a great nights sleep with those practical tips. Try them and they will help.
John
There are some natural cures that can really help you to get a good nights sleep, even if sleep seems to be something that is elusive for you.
- One of the first things that can help you to get a good nights sleep which you can easily get is tea. One of the best types of tea that you can drink for this is chamomile. This unique herb has been shown to help people to rest better and this can make a big difference in whether we are able to sleep or not. There are other types of teas which can also help but you need to use caution that the tea which you choose is not actually a stimulant. The last thing that you want to have before you go to bed if you are having a hard time sleeping is caffeine.
- Another thing that may help you sleep better is aromatherapy. Aromatherapy has been used for thousands of years in various parts of the earth for a number of different reasons. If you choose the right kind of scents, you will be surprised with how much this can help you to relax and sleep. Some of the most popular aromatherapy scents for insomnia include lavender, chamomile, rose and sandalwood. If you are able to add these to a nice, warm bath, you would be surprised with how relaxed you will end up feeling.
- Meditating on relaxing things is also one of the thing which can be easily done to place your mind and body in a position where sleep will come naturally.
A relatively easy way to fall asleep is by using binaural beats for brain entrainment. Goodness knows it is difficult to find a technique that really resonates with you and works for what you need.
Binaural beats are usually embedded in a pleasant audio CD or MP3 recording of relaxing, meditative music and/or sounds of nature. There are binaural beat audio tracks that have been developed specifically to guide you into deep sleep frequencies.
You can find more information on sleep hypnosis using binaural beats and get a free audio program (see Resources).
- Finally, there may be an cure that is often overlooked. How often have you heard that you should drink a glass of warm milk if you are having a difficult time falling asleep? You might be surprised to learn that this is actually fairly good advice. The reason why this is the case is because warm milk contains tryptophan which can trigger the natural release of melatonin into your system. Melatonin regulates our internal body clock and helps us to fall asleep and to reach a state of deep sleep. Drinking a glass of warm milk before bed may help you more than you realize.
If you feel that you have tried everything, You might take Oxy Sleep. It is a drug free sleep aid that will help to maintain a much more healthy sleep pattern. It is composed of natural extracts of melatonin. (see Ressources)
Good luck to you!