This Will Help You Sleep Better
Can’t sleep? Again. Ugh.
Insomniac or just not having a good day?
If it’s one of those days when you feel like you’ve stared at the ceiling longer than the inside of your eyelids, this is for you.
Calm your senses
Limit distractions. High amounts of light and sound can confuse the body into staying awake longer.
According to the Sleep Foundation, both light and sound can negatively affect the body’s natural circadian rhythm, causing broken up sleep cycles.
A vital step is to create an illusion of night to ease into sleepiness. An example being, if it’s not already dark out, moving to rest in a dim and quiet room.
A small tip
Some principles of mindfulness meditation are perfect for this moment.
With deep breathing, slowly let your focus go to your body. Locate any tension and slowly release it.
Starting with one spot, some go head to toe, go a little at a time over the full-body until you’re sinking in the bed.
Distract your mind
Usually, after the first step, sleep should come naturally.
But it’s possible when free to wander, thoughts can quickly spiral. Any and every possible thought can be important to the sleepy mind.
Oddly enough, this can be combated through distractions. Or in this case, relaxants.
Without much effort, adding relaxation can be as simple as adding a scent or noise.
A favorite scent should do. But a safe option is a lavender scent, which is proven to improve sleep, reduce stress/anxiety, and even reduce mild pain.
It can be used in sprays, oils, incense, and candles, etc.
If scents don’t help, changing the environment with sound might. A popular example is white noise machines but with current accessibility, searching for a ‘white noise’ video on YouTube can work just the same.
Speaking of YouTube videos, a couple of helpful choices are asmr and affirmation videos.
With ASMR videos, noise, and sometimes visuals, are used to create a tingling sensation in the body to induce sleep or relaxation.
Affirmations are usually tracks of short positive phrases and are especially good if you want to improve negative self-talk or thinking patterns. It’s like feeding your brain positivity while you sleep.
The best choice is any sound that can illicit a good memory and not dramatically change in tone.
Whether that’s music, ASMR, or even the sound of rain.
A second small tip
Chemical assistance. Not drugs.
But if needed, sleep inducers exist for a reason.
Although melatonin is a popular form, recently I’ve tried an alternative: CBD.
Cbd — or cannabinoid oil — comes from a group of compounds found in the Cannabis Sativa plant, giving relaxing properties without psychoactive effects or the high.
It’s shown to reduce anxiety and depression and has a natural effect of inducing sleep.
As a full-time insomniac, I’ve never had a good relationship with sleep.
These are a few tricks that have helped my weekend naps lately; I hope they can help you as well.
Good luck and good night.
