After being up for 72 hours and still not tired, I had to make a change before I ended up at the doctors. Now, most of this will be common sense but some might be new. Mostly it is about putting all the senses together.
It makes sense when you think about it; why do we give babies full-on bedtime routines and not ourselves?
Here we go: (with the don't's first)
Try and eat as early as possible. In the West, we eat big heavy meals (also a cause of weight gain). We want our bodies to be calm not processing a lump of lasagna.
Try to avoid caffeine in the pm hours. (Even consuming at lunchtime will still be in our system at bedtime). A strong 300mg coffee at 3pm will still have 75mg in your system at 3am.
Alcohol in small quantities will have a relaxing effect and then turns into a stimulus. However although you may think 'great I'll just have one then', it is full of sugar (that substance we are all addicted to and will wake you up without realising it as sugar stimulates most areas of the brain).
Put the technology away. Now I am addicted to games on my phone and always play while watching TV, although it relaxes me (in a way it distracts me from thinking about other things), it will also keep my brain active which I don't want. I really struggle with this one.
Now for the 'do's':
Have a relaxing shower (a hot one - will make sense later).
I use a 'sleepy' shower gel and pillow spray. It doesn't have to be lavender, there are plenty of essential oils which have a calming effect.
Stretch. Best time is just after a shower/bath when your muscles are at their warmest. (Get the most out of it without pulling something!) This allows all the tension you've built up during the day to go somewhere instead of settling.
A calming hot drink (again it's about the warmth not about the ingredients although avoid anything containing caffeine.
Now here's the weird one...a bedtime story...not reading. (I don't have the concentration, I either end up staring at the page so I have to read it 3 times or end up getting so engrossed I end up thinking about it too much once I put it down). An audio book or music can help calm the thoughts. It's not something I need to remember where I left off. If using music have something with a slow beat, we are trying to reduce the heart rate and we can do this with rhythm.
You should also make your room as dark as possible, you can get a light which starts bright and slowly dims.
Now I mentioned earlier about warming things. Our bodies need to drop one degree to fall asleep. So, warm up first (which I certainly won't complain about), then as you naturally cool and mind your relaxes at the same time, you fall to sleep. The best temperature range for sleeping is 60'F-67'F. Apparently a constant 66'F helps burn calories.
So we have touch, sight, smell and sound covered....now we have to stay asleep.
The bed: A mattress and pillows which work for you. Your neck should be horizontal. Not dipped or elevated (as this will put a strain on one side of your neck).
Hydrate the room, having a humidifier will stop your throat from drying out and waking you up. (Also make sure you use use the toilet before you go to bed).
All these things together should you to fall into a meaningful sleep, as I said we do it for babies so why not ourselves?
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