Pallavi Gupta Not getting enough shut-eye? Read this article for tips to get some sleep, rest well and have a peaceful, restful night if you are having trouble trying to sleep.
‘I’m Having Trouble Trying to Sleep’
It’s not uncommon to find yourself stuck in the vicious circle of overthinking and analysing the life stresses when you lie in bed and wait frustratingly to fall asleep.
Forcing yourself to sleep may seem like a futile task.
All you do is drink water, visit the washroom and come back to bed, toss and turn, then repeat.
You might even feel the guilt that your sleeplessness might be disturbing the sleep of your partner or other family members.
We have all been there, but this gets concerning when it happens frequently for some of us.
Let’s see what to do when you find it difficult to fall asleep.
How to Get Some Sleep, Rest Well and Have A Peaceful, Restful Night When You Can’t Fall Asleep
Two things hamper our path to fall asleep fast: first, the thoughts which pop up that don’t let us sleep; second, the feeling of not being sleepy at the right time.
The tips mentioned below tackle these two problems: 1) how to train our bodies to sleep at the right time, for at least for seven hours and wake up all refreshed and rested 2) how to manage stress so that the stressful thoughts do not interfere with falling asleep.
7 Tips to rest well, get sound sleep so that you have a restful, peaceful night when you are having trouble trying to sleep:
1. Choose A Sustainable Sleep Routine
Sleep scientists and psychologists opine that we need at least 7 hours of sleep so that we can have enough energy and focus to get through the entire day, productively and with a feeling of well-being.
And the best time to sleep is at night when it’s dark and not during the day.
Our bodies respond to light in more ways than we know of.
One of them is melatonin production, which promotes sleepiness: more light, less melatonin, and vice versa.
Ask yourself when you would like to fall asleep, and you would like to get up. Is the routine sustainable?
Choose a routine that you can commit to for a lifetime.
Maybe you decide to sleep at 9 pm and wake up by 4 am. This routine can work well as long as you are a 1-person-family or if your sleep routine doesn’t interfere with that of someone else’s.
But what about when you live with your partner or when you get married?
Do you think it would be feasible to sleep that early?
What about a romantic time, or lovemaking? Or, what if your friends want you to join them for late dinner or some special occasion?
Chances are your personal and social life may see some conflicts which, in turn, derail your efforts to sleep with discipline.
Ideally, sleeping between 11 pm and 6 am, is the period which would let you enjoy enough personal and social activities, without having to sacrifice pleasures in life.
It’s a good idea to reserve more than seven hours for sleeping.
Suppose you plan to get up at 6 am the next day, try going to bed by 10:30 pm so that you have 30 minutes of buffer to fall asleep.
2. Stick to Your Sleep Timings
One important thing to keep in mind is to stick to your sleep timings.
Changing it now and then would disturb your sleep cycle, and you would find yourself struggling with falling asleep or feeling energetic when you wake up.
If you are finding it difficult to sleep at a fixed time, try waking up at the same time every day.
Gradually, in a couple of weeks, your body would adapt itself, and you would start feeling sleepy much earlier than before.
3. Take Care of Your Diet For A Restful Night
Once the sleeping time and getting up time are determined, you would need to work on keeping a check on what you eat and when you eat it.
If you are someone who drinks many cups of coffee or tea or cola drinks, you might struggle with feeling sleepy at night. The caffeine content in these drinks makes you alert, and that’s not something you want to be at bedtime.
The effect of caffeine can last for as long as 6–7 hours. So, if you are planning to sleep by 11 pm, restrict your last cup of coffee or tea latest by 4 pm. So that by the time you go to bed, the effect of caffeine is almost over.
Avoiding heavy meals at dinner can improve your sleep. You don’t want to feel the discomfort of acid reflux, gas and flatulence or heartburn which spicy, gravy filled, heavy meals can cause, especially during the night.
Certain food like almonds, walnuts, warm milk with turmeric, honey, peanut butter before bed, can help you with uninterrupted sleep and get you a peaceful night.
4. Keep Your Room Dark to Get Some Sleep
Bright light can stimulate you, and you may find it difficult to fall asleep.
The lights from the street entering your room through your window, or the flickering light from the electronic appliances such as Air conditioner, can feel like a nuisance when you are trying hard to get some shut-eye.
Investing in thick curtains for the window which block the outside light and noise or covering the lights of appliances with opaque tape, could solve this problem, though.
Even the wall-clock should be avoided in the bedroom as the continuous tic-tic may fuel your frustration when you are already struggling to sleep.
5. Set A Comfortable Temperature of Your Room for a Good Sleep
Your bedroom temperature can have an impact on your sleep quality. An optimum bedroom environment should be not only dark and quiet but also cool. If it’s too hot, you would be sweating throughout the night, and if it’s too cold, you would be shivering.
The key is to monitor your sleep, over a week or two, at different temperatures.
It’s difficult to say what the best temperature for sleeping is, but sleep scientists suggest a temperature range between 65 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, has been shown to promote uninterrupted sleep.
So, the best thing to do would be to experiment with different temperatures and choose what feels appropriate to you.
6. No Exercise Near Bedtime for A Peaceful Night
When we feel sleepy, our heart rate lowers, the nervous system starts to relax, and body temperature falls. When we workout, our heart rate increases, stress hormones are produced, body temperature rises, which makes us even more alert and active.
Avoid indulging in vigorous exercise 3–4 hours before going to bed. That said, having sex, just before sleeping, can help you feel calmer and fall asleep, sooner. Hormones such as oxytocin, prolactin produced during sex, and lowering of cortisol, may induce a night of restful sleep.
7. Take Naps but Not More Than 40 Minutes
Taking naps in the afternoon, between 2 pm and 4 pm, for 20 to 40 minutes could be a good break and can help you clear some clutter and may keep you fresh and alert for the rest of the day.
However, anything more than 40 minutes would result in disturbing your sleep cycle, later at night.
Plus, instead of waking up feeling better, you may end up tired, possibly, with a headache too.
8. Manage Your Stress During the Day to Rest Well
Everyone has been struggling with some or another kind of stress these days. Sometimes, it can become difficult to tackle such pressures. Throughout the day, we try and keep ourselves busy with some work our activities, but at night when it is time to be in bed and when we finally have our focus just to ourselves, those stressful thoughts emerge and attack us with a vengeance. At times, we find many problems, small and big, hovering around us.
The reasons for stress could be any: loss of a loved one, a break-up, anxiety related to health problems, too much work and responsibilities, or hurdles in achieving a major life goal, which could cause you to lose peace of mind.
But it’s important here to understand that these problems, ideally, should be dealt with during the waking hours of the day. However, if you are not able to sleep because of such racing thoughts, a quick fix could be creating a list of these problems on paper and creating a rough plan to accomplish your goals later when you are free. Doing this might put your mind at ease for some time, and you may catch sleep for the night. If you are finding it challenging to manage the problem on your own, addressing it with the help of a therapist, could resolve the issue.
9. Manage Your PMS
For women, it is good to know that the day of their menstrual cycle can impact the quality of their sleep. In the days approaching their period, they may find themselves getting more anxious and hence, they can face more trouble with sleep. Women suffering from PCOD may have stronger PMS, which again can impact their overall mood, energy and outlook, all of which can affect sleep quality significantly. Managing the PMS with the help of your gynaecologist might help you with PMS related stress.
Conclusion
We are not sleeping enough. To feel relaxed and function optimally we need 7-8 hours of sound sleep. If you are having trouble trying to sleep, using the aforementioned tips you can learn to get some sleep, rest well and have a peaceful, restful night.
