Slip Into Sleep

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.

When sleeping is the only thing you want to do but the last thing you can do, the stress not to mention the side effects can be unbearable. Sleep is just so vital to our overall mental and physical health. It helps the body heal, it helps the brain process and it helps to regulate our emotional responses.

If you’re someone who regularly suffers from bouts of insomnia, you’ll know first hand how debilitating night after night of tossing and turning can be on your overall well being. So, in this blog we’re looking at some easy steps you can take to get yourself back on track before you head to the doctor for some medical assistance.

Establish a New Routine

Perhaps you’re someone who stays up late in order to exhaust yourself, hoping that will help you sleep all the longer. Unfortunately, this tactic doesn’t often work and instead you find yourself over tired and feeling wired, unable to sleep thanks to how over stimulated your brain has become during those waking hours.

It’s time, instead, to think about establishing a new bedtime routine. Send the right signals to your brain that it’s time to wind down and you’ll stand a much better chance of being able to drop off. Start by checking your lifestyle choices. Don’t drink any caffeine after noon to ensure it’s all out of your system by nighttime. 

Get some fresh air during the day if you can, a walk or a run if that’s something you regularly do. Then you need to take a look at your screen use. That blue light stimulates brain activity so in order to slow your brain down, turn off all your devices, including your TV, at least an hour before you head to bed. Dim the lights, read a book, take a bath anything that relaxes you.

Image courtesy of Pexels: CC0 Licence

Change up Your Room

Make sure it’s not an unsupportive bed that’s causing you problems. If you have a mattress that’s over eight years old then it might be that you’re due a new one. It can’t hurt, in any case, to take a look at new mattresses and beds here: 

https://bedandlounge.co.za/furniture-collection/brand-mattresses/

Make sure those curtains aren’t letting in any early morning light and that you’re able to block out any excessive noise with some earplugs if necessary.

Finally take a look at the temperature of your room. While it feels instinctive to crank up the heating and make it as warm as possible, studies show that our bodies prefer to go into hibernation mode in cooler temperatures, so drop the thermostat down and allow your body the chance to find it’s best sleeping temperature.

When you can’t sleep that pattern of worry and insomnia can play on loop. Look to find ways to break that pattern and establish a new set of bedtime rules that might just stop the cycle and allow you to get that rest you need.