Are you and Mr. Sandman good friends? Have you taken a long stroll through Dreamland lately? Or a shorter stroll through Nap Ville? If you and sleep haven’t been seeing eye-to-eyelid these sleep doctors may have an answer for you.
A few of these might sound ridiculous to you, but don’t let them keep you up all night. Instead, try blowing a few bubbles, tuning out, turning off, and shutting down. These are easy to try and if one doesn’t work just give the next a try tomorrow night.
Blow Bubbles
“It sounds ridiculous, but blowing a few bubbles—like the kind that comes in a plastic bottle that you played with as a kid—right before bed can help you fall asleep faster,” says Rachel Marie E. Salas, M.D., a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Blowing bubbles mimics deep breathing exercises but without making you think about it. The act will calm your body and mind, says Dr. Salas, and because the activity is silly and reminiscent of childhood it may help take your mind off of more serious thoughts keeping you awake.
If you can’t find bubbles or don’t want to blow them you can simply try sitting in a comfortable and quiet position and close your eyes. Focus on counting your breaths for 3 to 15 minutes. When your mind wanders, restart counting your breaths again. Research shows doing this meditation for just a few minutes a day can reduce anxiety, and lower your blood pressure and heart rate, helping you sleep better.
Get Sidetracked
“Tossing and turning is stressful and it causes the body to release adrenaline, making it harder to fall asleep,” says Janet K. Kennedy, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist based in New York City. “Distracting your mind with a good book allows the body’s fatigue to take over.”
Another option, says Men’s Health sleep advisor W. Christopher Winter, M.D., is visualization. Hypnotize yourself by imagining yourself walking in nature or by a pier with calming waves. Imagine yourself completing a task or achieving a goal, like getting a hole-in-one or hiking to the top of that mountain.
Tune out
A soft, calming tune can help. “Listening to soft, calming music not only helps you fall asleep, but also extends the length and depth of your sleep,” says James Maas, Ph.D., author of Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know about Sleep but Are Too Tired to Ask.
Music with a slow tempo has been seen to lower your heart rate and blood pressure. If you can’t find any suitable music try classical music, whale noises, waves gently crashing, or rain falling softly.
Evening Exercise
A recent Swiss study suggests completing an intense workout 90 minutes before bed to help fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Working out reduces the stress hormone cortisol which could be a main reason you’re not sleeping.
Doing a big workout right after work or after dinner can ease you into a better sleep at night. You’ll tired your body out and be dreaming of sleep soon enough.
Clock Out
“Once you turn out the lights, don’t check the time again—even if you wake up in the middle of the night,” says Nathaniel F. Watson, M.D., M.Sc., president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
If you check the time you’ll start thinking. Your brain will start to wonder how long you’ve been in bed and how long you’ve got until it’s time to wake up. “If I fall asleep right now, I can sleep for another 4 hours and 17 minutes,” you assure yourself. All this really does is make you anxious, which causes sleeplessness.
Use a clock that doesn’t light up. Or turn the face away from your bed when falling asleep. Leave your phone in the other room, or put it in a bedside drawer to it’s tougher to reach for. And definitely put it on silent, or turn it off entirely.
To-Do List
If you think “Go To Sleep” is the only thing on your internal To-Do List you’re wrong. We think about the mistakes we made during the day and what tomorrow holds. If “what tomorrow holds” is keeping you awake, try writing it all down.
“If you struggle to block out stressful thoughts at the end of the day, write down a list of tasks you need to accomplish tomorrow,” says Andrew J. Westwood, M.D., a professor of neurology at Columbia University.
Remember there are right ways to sleep and wrong ways to sleep, and evidently a ton of ways to fall asleep. Eating before you try to fall asleep is a subject of much opinion – which foods help you sleep? Which foods should you definitely avoid?
Do you have more advice for us? How do you get to sleep? What’s the easiest way to ease your head onto the pillow and towards Shut-Eye Station?
SOURCE: http://www.menshealth.com/health/how-fall-asleep-fast
