5 Proven Ways to Get Better Sleep

Sleeping 7-9 hours a night is essential to maintaining our health.  While we are sleeping, our body performs its routine maintenance and repairs to ensure that our immune system, brain, and body will function optimally.  For some people, sleeping is as easy as laying down and closing their eyes, but for many of us, falling to sleep seems to be a constant, never ending struggle. A constant lack of sleep can have a very negative impact not only on our daily performance, but on our over all health as well. Many illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease can be directly attributed to a chronic lack of sleep. Aside from having a long term effect on our health, a lack of sleep has a severe impact on cognitive functions, reaction times, and decision making. I am going to give you several pointers on how you can begin to experience a much better night of rest.

1. Begin a Consistent Sleeping Pattern

In order to enure that we get the optimal amount of sleep and fall asleep easily, we need to get our bodies adapted to sleeping around the same time every night. That means to always makes sure that you have enough time between laying down and waking up before work tomorrow to get that necessary 7-9 hours of sleep. Our bodies have a system called the circadian rhythm which tells it when we should sleep and when we should be awake. Essentially, it is our internal alarm clock. When we have a healthy circadian rhythm, our bodies will wake up shortly after daybreak and fall asleep shortly after dark. However, when we fight against our urge to sleep when we feel tired or stay up for late hours, it damages this system and makes it harder for us to sleep whenever we really need to. That is why the first step to combating insomnia is to go to bed at the same time every night to correct our circadian rhythm. It is also important to avoid eating 1-2 hours before bed and avoid caffeinated beverages at least 3 hours prior. You should also avoid using electronic devices such as your computer, phone, or television 30 minutes before going to bed. This will put our body in its ideal state of relaxation.

2. Make Your Bedroom Comfortable and Sleep Promoting

One of the first steps to improving your sleep is to make your bedroom a comfortable, quiet, and relaxing environment. This means that we need to eliminate any source of light, noise, or electronic disturbance. If you have electronic equipment in your room, be sure to power it down before you go to bed. That means to shut down your computers and turn off your TV or stereo. Studies have suggested that the electromagnetic fields produced by these devices can disrupt your sleep. If there is a lot of noise coming from outside of your house, consider getting a set of soundproof curtains to muffle the sounds or have soundproof glass installed.
Thick curtains will also reduce light pollution. Lastly, you can try using aromatic essential oils to give your room a relaxing fragrance. I personally recommend lavender oil.

3. Do Light Stretching Just Before Bedtime:

Light Stretching is very helpful to help our muscles and mind relax before going to bed. This will loosen our tight muscles and prepare them for a good night of rest. This can also help treat conditions such as restless leg syndrome and relieve pain associated with neuropathy.  Simple stretches such as bending down and touching your toes associated with deep breathing will promote relaxation of the legs, spine, and lungs. Be sure to stay in your comfort zone when stretch. Stretching too hard could tear the muscles resulting in discomfort.

4. Use Meditation To Calm The Mind 

A lot of us have trouble sleeping because our mind does not want to rest when our body does. Meditation is the practice of clearing your mind and simply breathing lightly through your nose. During this time, all you want to concentrate on is the slow breath coming in and out of our nostrils. Doing this for 15 minutes will help relax the mind and allow us to fall asleep easier. This will help us to train our mind to be quiet when we need to rest.

5. ASMR and Natural Sleep Promoting Supplements

If all else has failed, there are still a lot of other things out there to help you relax. A new trend has taken over youtube. It is known as ASMR. ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and it refers to the tingling sensation that we feel when we hear a soft, relaxing voice or pretend we are receiving a massage that we are watching someone else receive. Many individuals have found relief from their insomnia by watching ASMR videos prior to going to bed. Many of the popular videos range from relaxing head massages to gently spoken words of relaxation. Take any situation that would make you feel most relaxed and chances are there is an ASMR video on youtube to help you relax.

Aside from ASMR, there are several supplements that can help you sleep better without the fear of building a dependency. Melatonin is one of the most popular and possibly the most effective at helping you get extra sleep. Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by our body to induce drowsiness. For many people, their body does not produce this hormone on a large enough level to promote sleep. Therefore, these plant derived supplements can help us to fall asleep and rest more thoroughly throughout the night. Common herbal supplements which promote relaxation are valerian, lavender, and camomile. These can often be found in a variety of relaxation teas or supplements.  GABA(gamma-Aminobutyric acid) and 5-HTP are two amino acids which are said to promote sleep. Both are available in supplement form.

Conclusion:

I hope that this article can help you to improve your quality of sleep and help you fight back against insomnia. If you have any questions, feel free to post them below. Until next time, sleep well and good health.

Follow Us On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/cancernaturaltherapiesandcures