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Insomnia Guide
Sleep Hygiene Is The Natural Remedy For Insomnia
There really is such a thing as sleep hygiene and once you understand what it means, you likely will find that the quality of your sleep is greatly improved and that insomnia will become a distant memory.
Personal hygiene is all about the things you can do to keep your body clean and smelling good.
Dental hygiene involves all the things you can do to keep your teeth healthy and strong and situated firmly in your mouth where they belong.
Sleep hygiene therefore, is about the habits you can get into and the things you can do to help ensure that when it's time for you to go to bed, you are able to fall asleep and stay asleep.
What follows is a list of ways you can improve your sleep hygiene so that you can get the most out of your sleeping time.
Establish set times for sleeping and for waking
Having a regular bed time was important when you were a child and it is still important as an adult. Unfortunately we lead busy lives and getting to sleep at the same time every night is difficult. It's a bit easier to wake at set times because our jobs or our schooling force us to wake even when we don't want to. But when there's a day off, we treat ourselves by sleeping in later than normal whenever possible. Without a set time for sleeping and for waking it is difficult to train your body for sleep. Without proper training, adequate sleep night after night is difficult.
Learn to relax your body
If you just throw on your pajamas and jump into bed, your body might not be prepared to sleep, especially if you just completed an activity that engages your mind and body such as exercising, watching television or even eating. If you don't first relax, you'll find it takes longer to fall asleep even though you may feel exhausted.
To further help train the body into settling down to sleep, it's important to learn to relax before bedtime. About an hour before you plan to go to bed, start calming your body. Yoga and meditation are perfect ways you can take your mind and body into a relaxed state.
Other ways to bring about a relaxed state are by learning how to deep breathe. When you are busy concentrating on your breathing, the body automatically begins to relax. Progressive relaxation is a technique in which you start relaxing one part of your body and you continue relaxing different parts until you have covered the major parts from head to toe. When you are finished, you go back over your body in your mind. If any part of the body still feels tense, focus on that part until you can get it to feel relaxed.
If that's too much effort, try this relaxation technique. Flex and release your toes over and over again. This type of intense focusing on your toes can actually help to relax the entire rest of your body!
Take a bath
Taking a bath is more than just a luxury. It's also a great way to help your body unwind after a busy day. And there's another reason why taking a bath helps you sleep. A hot bath taken 60 – 90 minutes before going to bed will cause your body temperature to rise. But then your body temperature will start to fall and that's key to sleeping better because that drop is going to make you feel sleepy.
Eat lightly before bed
And lightly is the key word here. Eating a heavy meal before bed can actually cause you to be uncomfortable and might, depending on what you eat, cause heartburn which worsens when you lie down. Both likely will cause you to awaken during sleep. Snacking on healthy foods before going to bed can help you from feeling hungry during the night. If you get hungry you'll become restless and probably won't be able to sleep as deeply.
Certain foods such as peanuts, turkey and milk help trigger the release of serotonin, a chemical within the body that helps you to relax. If you don't have any of these food items, eating cereal or toast with milk can help keep hunger under control. And if you don't want to wake constantly because you have to go to the bathroom, limit the amount of liquids you drink prior to bedtime.
Keep a notepad by your bed
If you attempt to sleep with your head focused on all the things you didn't do today and all of the things you need to do tomorrow, sleep will never come. Getting those and other issues out of your head and onto paper will help. So before you go to sleep, take a few moments to write down those issues that are troublesome, causing anxiety or even the things you are looking forward to. That way, you can get some rest.
Don't try to sleep if you aren't sleepy
If you lie in bed when you aren't sleepy you'll just toss and turn. If you want to go to bed but don't feel like sleep will soon follow, start reading. But do so somewhere other than the bed. It will help you become drowsy. Once you do feel drowsy, then it's time to get into bed. But still, if you are awake after 20 minutes or so, get out and do some other mundane task.
Try not to rely on prescription or OTC sleep aids. Discontinue their use and instead focus your efforts on developing better sleep hygiene. Incorporate the changes delineated in this article and soon enough you may find that the quality of your sleep has greatly improved!
The information contained here should NOT be used as a substitute for the advice of an appropriately qualified and licensed physician or other health care provider.
The information provided here is for educational and informational purposes only and in no way should be considered as an offering of medical advice.
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