Ever have one of those days when you just couldn't get
things done, your brain just wasn't in top form and you just wanted to go back
to sleep? It could be that you haven't been getting a good night's sleep!
Sleep affects so much in our lives: not only from feeling
groggy when we get up, but it can affect relationships when we just feel downright
cranky and can't HELP but something we didn't really mean slips out of our
mouths.
7 Tips to Help YOU Sleep Better Naturally:
1. Get into a routine of going to bed at the
same time each night, even if it's the weekend.
2. Set an alarm to go off at night for an
hour BEFORE you want to start sleeping so you can start winding down from
whatever you are doing.
3. If you have electronics that have blue
lights (or other colors of light as well) that stay on all the time, unplug them, or
have them hooked up to surge protectors
that have the ability to turn off at the touch of a button.
Believe it or not, that light affects your brain's circadian rhythm and secretion of melatonin, which helps you to sleep. If you need to, put a chair in front of the light on your modem or whatever is giving off that light.
Believe it or not, that light affects your brain's circadian rhythm and secretion of melatonin, which helps you to sleep. If you need to, put a chair in front of the light on your modem or whatever is giving off that light.
4. Sometimes you can't shut out the light. My
bedroom window has light shining in at night from the sidewalk lights from the
apartment complex. SOLUTION: Put blinders on!
Or in other words, wear an eye
mask. My favorite is the Bucky eye mask,
but other eye masks have good reviews
also. My 23-year-old son even prefers to wear an eye mask at night to help him get to sleep!
If you don't have an eye mask, make sure that you have a good covering over your windows.
My Accidental Discovery
Kind of funny story...I was testing out some old air mattresses to see if they had leaks so I'd know if I should just toss them. One queen size mattress I aired up, and because it would take a while for a leak to show, I put it over my bedroom patio door since there was no other place to put it.
That night, I was pleasantly surprised to have the best quality sleep I had enjoyed for a long time!
So try finding some way to darken your room...either with an eye mask, draperies, or even an air mattress standing upright!
5. Eat something with tryptophan in it. The trick is having it about
90 minutes before wanting to sleep so it winds its way through your body and
into the brain, releasing the melatonin.
The most well-known food with
tryptophan is turkey, but there are tons more. Oatmeal for instance, does the
job for me. More are mentioned here.
6. Make sure your mattress is doing your body
well. Do you wake up with a backache, or do you get enough hours of sleep but
still wake up tired? It could be your mattress. It might be worth looking into
giving yourself a gift of a mattress or bed set for better health for YOU!
You need a mattress that is soft enough to keep you comfortable but that also keeps your spine in alignment while you sleep. On the other hand, if it's too hard, it won't support your body evenly and tend to support just the heaviest parts. As the three bears might say, "Not too soft, not too hard....just right!"
You need a mattress that is soft enough to keep you comfortable but that also keeps your spine in alignment while you sleep. On the other hand, if it's too hard, it won't support your body evenly and tend to support just the heaviest parts. As the three bears might say, "Not too soft, not too hard....just right!"
If you're not in the market for a new mattress or bed set, just adding a foam topper can make a HUGE difference in how you sleep. I've had a foam topper on my bed, and it makes the bed soooo much more comfy to climb into each night!
7. If a new mattress or bed set isn't in the
cards for you right now, sometimes even an air mattress could be better than an old worn out mattress. When I was started over
after moving from Ohio to Arizona and needed two new beds, I bought one for
my son, but found that a raised airbed actually felt better on my back than some other
good quality beds that I had been sleeping on.
One time when on a business trip, the fancy hotel I was staying in had such a hard mattress that I went out the next
day and bought an air bed to put NEXT to the bed & had a 99% better sleep from
that than from what the hotel advertised as an upscale bed!
Keep reading below.....
The optimum amount of sleep has been shown to be seven
good hours. Without it, you could be more susceptible to heart attack, heart
disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, or irregular heartbeat.
Some estimates have shown that 90% of people with insomnia also have another health condition.
Seems to me that making sure you have enough sleep time
under those sheets would be well worth the effort! Hopefully, something that
you've read here could help you reach that goal.
Top pictures courtesy of Marin and Graur Codrin at Freedigitalphotos.net