Top Tips To Getting A Better Night Sleep
| 11th August 2017
If your stuggling with sleep I feel for you, I’ve been there. Nobody likes a grizzly bear in the morning and so with my help you’ll be getting a better night’s sleep in no time.
Why is sleep important?
Sleep plays a vital role in having good mental health and well-being throughout your life. Sleep also effects the way you are the next day & nobody likes a grumpy bear in the morning! While you’re sleeping your body is working to support healthy brain function. The damage from being sleep deprived can affect how you think, react, work, learn and get along with others, that may explain a few things :/
Tips to help you fall asleep faster for longer:
1. Stick to a schedule, set yourself a bed time and stick to it every day, yes I do mean on the weekends as well! This will eventually regulate and reset your body clock so you’ll be out of that bad routine in no time. Doing this will mean you are more likely to have a full night’s sleep leaving you to feel bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.
2. Redecorate! I know this sounds dramatic but if you’re room looks and feels like it hasn’t been decorated since 532 B.C then it might be time for a little spring clean, or maybe a massive drag back into this century so listen up. You need pastel colours like pale blue, purple, pink, these colours are calming and will help you relax. Your room should also be cool for your body to be able to regulate its temperature. Your room needs to be rid of any noise or distractions or any animals who may share your bed. Black out blinds or maybe an eye mask will really help your eyes to relax and stop you from getting disturbed.
3. Your mind may be overloaded. It’s understandable, if you have a hectic life, a family or a demanding job there will be so much that happens during your day you can’t process it all until you go to sleep and your mind completely tries to switch off. In my experience what has helped me is to write everything down in a diary/notebook before I go to bed whether that be in one big paragraph or lots of bullet points, it really doesn’t matter nobody’s going to see it. Doing this allows you to get everything of your chest so you no longer feel like you have to remember all the events that have happened in that day. Your mind can relax and go to sleep without being filled with meaningless stuff.
4. Get into a really good night time routine. I know this may be tricky but you need to start setting some time aside for yourself! Run yourself a nice relaxing bath or just chill out with a herbal tea and a book. Whatever it is that helps you to relax do that! It’s so important that you allow your mind to relax before bed. This means no phones, TV, Harsh lights, Sugary food/drinks, caffeine & any activity that may fill your mind with unnecessary things.
5. Eat the right food. Nope this isn’t an extreme diet just a few little foods that you will more than likely already have lying around that you can incorporate into your daily night routine to help you get a full night sleep. Foods such as Honey reduce how alert you are feeling and so make you feel sleepy. It’s important to not go to bed hungry so things like Almonds, Marmite and Oatcakes are good before bed, although, maybe not for your taste buds…
6. Meditation. These days it seems as though it’s almost fashionable to meditate but it can actually really improve your health and sleep. Meditation is all about breathing. Concentrating on your breath and focusing on being in the moment. Doctors are now recommending patients to try it as there are many studies showing it has such a big impact on your well-being. To learn more about meditation and how it can completely change the way you live your life, check out my meditation course.
7. Reiki. Reiki can have such a huge impact on your sleep, all of my clients after a session have the best nights sleep they’ve ever had and most of the time sleep is not the problem they came with. It is such a calming and relaxing energy that it will completely clear your mind, enable you to fully relax and give you a better quality of sleep. If your interested in booking a session or want you to find out how Reiki can help you, get in contact, click here.
Extremely common sleeping issues:
1. When you wake up in the middle of the night and if you’re a light sleeper you’ll know this all too well. When you suddenly hear a noise that wakes you up and then you toss and turn for the rest of the night trying to get back to sleep. Or when the cats scratching at the door because it wants to snuggle with you. These things however are not exactly the problem, the problem is what you do once you’re awake…
Ways of dealing with this common problem:
-Stay away from technology. No TV. No phone. No social media. They all give off the blue light which I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about. The blue light can slow down or half the production of melatonin which is the hormone that tells your brain it’s time to go to sleep. So even if you just check your phone to see the time you’re going to be waking up your brain when you need to be going back to sleep.
-Don’t put on the lights. The main lights in the room will also wake up your brain and make it think it’s time to wake up which at 3am is not what you need to be doing. Keep a small torch next to your bed if you need too.
-If you’re a really creative person and your running your own business like me, I will often get woken up by some really creative ideas I’ve had whilst dreaming so I’ll keep a pen and paper next to my bed so that if I do I can write them all down and then I don’t have to worry about remembering them until I wake up in the morning.
2. Another common sleeping problem is snoring. Whether it’s you or your partner, snoring is a big issue that can really impact on your quality of sleep.
Ways of dealing with this common issue:
-There are medical procedures that stop snoring but there not for everyone so I would try some lifestyle changes first. The biggest change you could make is weight loss. Just loosing 1 stone could stop you from snoring. There are other things you can do like, trying different sleeping positions and wearing a snore guard.
There are many other problems people have such as restless leg syndrome, sleep apnoea, teeth grinding and more. Make sure to speak to your GP to get the correct diagnosis for you!
Happy Sleeping, The Self Love Coach x