Sleeping Tips For Complete De-stress

Sleep is perhaps the most mysterious of all our natural body functions. Some of us sleep heavily, some of us sleep lightly and some of us hardly sleep at all. Patterns of sleep are almost as individual as the world’s population itself, but we all know that not getting enough sleep is the cause of tiredness, misery and a general feeling of malaise. We know that sleep waves and dreaming (or REM) phases occur, but there is little real knowledge of why, and what their importance might be. Even the experts agree that sleep studies are in their infancy. We can measure the effects of lack of sleep more easily than its benefits and make deductions from that, but fundamentally all we know is that the best cure for sleepiness is sleep itself. So what can be done to improve our chances of getting a good night’s sleep?

Take breaths from deep within your abdomen (not the top of your chest), to a count of three. Breathe out slowly to a count of three. Try doing this over and over again for 10 minutes. If you still don’t feel sleepy, move out of your bedroom and find something quiet to do. When you start to feel sleepy, go back to bed and try again. Sometimes something as simple as the condition of your bedroom can be the cause. Is your room unduly messy and stressful to be in? Is there a TV in the room? Keeping your room tidy sometimes helps to keep the mind tidy too, and not accessing your room for things that need to be done can be relaxing in itself. Keep the TV out of the bedroom to avoid the temptation to switch it on and overstimulate your brain. Ensure you have low lighting and the room is at a comfortable temperature. Some people find that a few drops of lavender oil on their pillow can help. Ensure that you are active enough during the day; make a daily exercise routine a priority, but don’t exercise too closely to bedtime. Despite popular belief, alcohol won’t help you to sleep. While it is okay to have a small nightcap, too much alcohol will make you restless, and because it is a diuretic, you are more likely to need to visit the bathroom during the night. Alcohol can also cause snoring, restricting airflow and disturbing your rest. The same can be said of caffeine – there is nothing more guaranteed to ensure you need to to make a middle of the night trip to the bathroom than a cup of tea or coffee, or a glass of cola. Stick to hot milk or herbal teas. Avoid eating too late at night as this can also play havoc with your sleep.

Heartburn from fatty or very spicy foods can cause discomfort right through the night. You are far better to have a late snack that consists of carbohydrates, which are more likely to trigger the sleep-inducing hormone serotonin. Although it is thought to be an urban myth, the rumour that cheese gives you bad dreams is in part based on truth. Cheese (and other foods such as red wine, bacon and avocados) contains a substance called tyramine, which causes over-stimulation. While eight hours is the average optimum amount of sleep, everyone is different. If you feel energetic, happy and well on four or five hours of sleep a night, there is no need to try to get more. It could be that this is just your natural requirement. It ius thought by experts that just four hours of sleep a night equips the brain with most of the sleep benefits. Lastly, try not to nap in the daytime, however tired you may feel. Napping that lasts longer than about 15 minutes can often have the effect of making us feel worse than we did to start with. Leave sleep to the bedroom. Try to get into a regular sleeping pattern. Getting up early is likely to help you to get to sleep early.