You Will Fall Asleep in 3…2…1…NOW!

Spending the night awake or with little sleep is a straight path to feeling negative and exhausted the following day. Our productivity and mood are affected dramatically by our sleep quality. Unfortunately, some of us have a hard time falling asleep and even when we succeed, we are prone to wake up by the most insignificant noise.

Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night with an empty stomach. Or you may feel thirsty, or a fly simply decided to fly near your bed. The thing is, after waking up, your sleeping pattern is broken…all the effort trying to get to snooze for this. This experience often results in waking up tired and unmotivated the following morning.

Personally, my sleep quality during the last few weeks has been pretty unsatisfying. I had no choice but to implement certain techniques and change a few habits in order to sleep better at night.

Today I want to share with you some of those techniques and, more importantly, some bad habits that could be getting on your way to your sweet dreams. We practise some activities, that despite being harmless themselves, are actions that damage our sleep when done at the wrong time or in the wrong way.

1. Coffee/tea after lunchtime.

We have all heard about this one. If you think you are sensitive to caffeine, the effect those drinks have after midday can make a huge difference during the rest of the day (and night). If you are extremely busy and feel the need to drink it, go ahead, we all need that energy shoot to the things done. However, if you are simply used to drinking your energy shot despite having are a non-busy day, feel free to try a different non-caffeinated beverage. Out body will appreciate it later!

2. Don’t get shit done on your bed

I have sinned with this one before. You want to finish a few more tasks but prefer doing it in your bed because it’s too cosy. The problem is, if you have problems falling asleep, the message you send to your brain is extremely important. You are sending your unconscious brain the message that the bed is not “the place to rest”, but the place to get things done, from sending a work email to go shopping or watch Youtube videos.

We Problematic sleepers need to educate our brain into relaxing and getting ready to bed when we are in bed. Leave any other activity outside your sleeping zone!

3. Have a tight schedule

Going to sleep every single night at the same time and wakening u at the same time can help your brain getting ready for bed.

For good sleepers, it doesn’t matter if it’s 12 pm or 12 am, they sleep wherever and whenever they wanted. Us wakers need some extra effort telling our brain to call it quits for the day.

4. Don’t Listen to music…

before going to bed! Relaxing music can help, but any other sound could improve your mental alertness, and that is not what you are looking for before bedtime. 

Try to create a quiet environment around you and focus on how your breath goes in an out of your body.

5. Night Routine

I talked about my night routine and how important is for me to keep those few steps before going to bed. Nurturing your body and spoiling yourself with some face mask or feet massage makes wonders! And if you have some aroma that makes you feel relaxed try to leave a few drops on your cushion, and enjoy them whilst falling sleep.

Everyone has their own personalize night routine.

6. Have you been told to read before going to sleep?

I did and it didn’t work at all! The most surprising one. I started enjoying a few minutes with a book before bed, but I noticed some negative effects…

1. The first one: if the part of the book that I am reading is very interesting, I will end up staying awake reading that part until I find out “what’s next”. Furthermore, I will end up going to sleep later than I wanted to.
2. The second: after going to sleep, I often keep thinking about the story. My mind loves wandering around and thinking about everything that is slightly interesting. If the book s interesting, I will spend some time thinking about it and the supposedly few minutes that can take you to sleep will become a few hours.
3. And the last one and probably most important one: if you read with the lights off (in the case you read from an e-reader or tablet), your pupils will dilate and tense to the point when, after your reading session, they will still take a long time to relax.

In any case, I have noticed an improvement since I moved my reading minutes to the daytime.

7. NO late dinners!

Having dinner only an hour or so before going to sleep can result in an uncomfortable sleep due to the digestion process. Try to have dinner a few hours before going to sleep, that way your body has finished its job properly. Going to sleep in the middle of your digestion process will slow the process and make it uncomfortable.

Also, try to avoid carbs and other hard-to-digest foods. Apart from taking longer to digest, they can give you a glucose rush you don’t need before bedtime.

Say yes to:

8. Changing diet

A night of bad sleep can get worse with a bad diet. Remember to control the amount of sugar and snacks you ingest and try to increase the number of fruits. Vitamins and iron are essential for our wellness and their lack can affect our life to crazy levels.

9. Enjoy some camomille!

I have noticed some improvement when drinking some camomille and lavender tea. I consider myself an expert with “tea brands”. Some of them create herbal infusions with a multitude of herbs to help you sleep. I would recommend selecting the one that doesn’t have “natural flavourings”. The fewer ingredients are the better. One of my favourite ones has both lavender and camomille. Another option (the healthiest one) is to buy the herbs in a herbal shop and prepare them at home.

I haven’t tried this method, but let me know if you have and what is your experience!

10. Hot baths

Relaxing for a few minute sin hot water can do wonders before going to sleep. Add some lavender salts or essential oils and enjoy your time in heaven!

11. Breathing exercises

I read about the 4-7-8 technique. You need to empty your lungs, breath through your nose for 4 seconds, then hold your breath for 7 seconds and exhale vigorously through your mouth for 8 seconds. If you repeat this pattern 4 times, you will feel a lot better.

I tried it and sometimes works, sometimes t doesn’t, but feel free to try it and tell me your opinion!

12. Meditation

There are a bunch of apps for meditating and I have been tried some of them. You, choose how many minuted you have for your meditation session and then you can choose if you want a man or a woman for the audio voice. Every app has a wide variety of recordings, which is great for you to choose the one that suits your time and need best.

13. Natural light

If you work in an office or spend the weekends at home, try to at least open the curtains and enjoy the natural light as much as possible. If possible, go for a walk or practise some sport outdoors.

Those are all the tips and recommendations I have proved to be effective to have a good sleep for me. Let me know if there is something I am missing that helps you go to sleep and have a lovely night!