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Simple Methods To Sleep Easier
By Joe Fier | December 18, 2007
Do you often spend far beyond too much time trying to fall asleep? Or, are you never fully calm as you lay in your bed, waiting for those Zzz’s to come?
Many people experience this same sort of problem each and every night. Not being able to fully feel comfortable in bed can be a result of various things. More often than not, stress and anxieties in our lives is what stops us from feeling at peace in the one definite spot that we should. As we get into bed, many think about the problems they’ve experienced over the day, or the list of to-do’s that are needed to be done the next day. Check out what I had to say about keeping stress and work out of your bed from my guest post on DietHack. As our minds travel at a million miles per hour when we’re anxious and stressed, the rest of our body also feels the same tension, if not more. It’s not often realized, but during this time our muscles tense up beyond belief all night long when we feel like this. The end result of this is waking up in the morning feeling very tired and even more stressed throughout the day. Try some of these simple methods to help ease your body when it comes to getting some solid shut-eye…
It’s all in the breathing
When laying down into bed, focus on taking few, but deep and pleasant breaths. Breathe in through your nose, while holding it in for a bit, and then exhaling slowly out of your mouth. While doing this, focus on the slightly cool air passing through your nose, and then the warmer air smoothly rolling out of your mouth. Steve at Brip Blap has a great article that further explains this breathing process, with a slightly different spin. After fully focusing on these deep and slow breaths, you should feel much more eased and grounded. Just as you would take these types of breaths before a speech or any other type nervous situation, they will help settle your nerves and calm your body.
Never forget body control
As you are doing your slow and deep breaths, also take this time to focus on the various muscles all throughout your body. First, begin by thinking of the muscles that make up the face and head region. With a breath in, concentrate on tightening and then relaxing the muscles in your face, tongue, neck, and jaw. After focusing on each of these single muscle groups, exhale, letting go of the deep breath that was within. Continue with this technique throughout the rest of your body, starting from the top and all the way down. Work to tense the muscles and then slowly letting them go to a relaxed position. After extending this exercise to your fingertips and toes, continue the process by adding positive thoughts and surroundings to help put your mind and body at peace.
Remembering how to sleep
To help enhance what you have already done to ease your body, begin to think of the times you’ve had your best night’s sleep. These could be times from your childhood, with your partner you love, or from a vacation spot that was far beyond relaxing. As we spend our times trying to slip into slumber, we often feel even more anxious because of the time that it takes. Use these previous images and memories as anchors to ease the fear of insomnia. While putting the first two steps together, your body should feel much more at home with itself, with the least amount of worry. If you ever feel even the slightest twinge of worry or anxiety enter your mind, quickly erase it with these positive and soothing thoughts from the past.
Watch the food and drinks
Having the proper type and amount of food in you as you go to bed is equally important. It’s never a good thing to go to bed hungry, so that’s beyond the most important tip here. More often than not, the reason why we go to bed with a slight hunger is because we ate an early dinner and then skipped a midevening snack. Without eating this small night snack, our blood sugar level drops and sparks anxiety. Many times this can happen in the middle of the night when your body feels the most hungry, so you will find yourself awakening from sleep. As not every type of food is the best before sleep, try focusing on these simple types:
- A serving of fresh fruit, such as an apple or orange.
- A low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese.
- Any high-carbohydrate, high-protein favorite.
These foods will help relax your mind and body before even entering bed. Your emotions will calm and your whole state of mind will become much more mellow. Although, along with these foods, we must keep in mind of the foods that we would better not have right before jumping into bed:
- Any coffee, tea, or other caffeinated beverages within 4-5 hours before bedtime.
- Any alcoholic drinks within 3-4 hours. We might think that alcohol helps slow the mind, but as it does this, it also throws off our normal brain-pattern of sleep. This can result in frequent awakenings in the middle of the night with difficulties in getting back to sleep.
On a side note…
I have been very fortunate to be included in three very well-informing help carnivals this week. Please visit each one and read what the many others have to say.
- Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival 28
- Carnival of Healing #116
- Weight Management and Fitness Forum – 7th Edition
Photo credit: hamed
Topics: Health, Relaxation, Sleep, Stress Management | 5 Comments »
December 19th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Thanks for the mention! I used to suffer from horrible insomnia until I took steps similar to these to correct it. A couple of additional things that helped me: learning meditation skills and clearing my bedroom of all “non-bedroom” stuff. I know the purpose of meditation isn’t to sleep, but it did teach me to clear my mind, which was always a problem before – this is key to your step about remembering to sleep. Clearing my bedroom is only an option if you have enough room, but I have always made a huge effort not to keep computers, TVs, books, radios, etc. in my bedroom. Even when I lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment I kept my bedroom very simple and “unbusy.” Bedrooms are only for two activities! Keeping your room separate for these two activities keeps you in a very relaxed state of mind.
Good tips!
December 19th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hey, no problem, you’re always very welcome. You’re completely right with clearing out all of the “non-bedroom stuff”. I’m currently in the process of decluttering everything in mine and donating about half of my useless possessions. Being slightly a pack rat doesn’t help! Keeping that relaxed state of mind is key, I’m getting there!
December 20th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Hello Joe. How are you doing mate? Your post was well received over at Diethack. Hope I’ll be able to write for you too during the holiday!
December 21st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Hi Yan. I’m doing really great. The holidays are getting a little hectic, but that’s to be expected. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to write for DietHack. You are more than welcome to shot a post on over for my site. Expect something new coming your direction really soon.
Have a great holiday!
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Your site seems to be giving me issues in google chrome, is it just me?