Ah sleep, so important yet so elusive at times!
Have you had nights where your mind is going round and round in circles for ages, the clock is ticking and you know you’ve gotta be up for work in the morning… or in a few hours time? Well, not for any longer! Below you’ll find 17 strategies to help you get a good nights sleep.
Sleep is what our bodies naturally need in order to recharge and re-energise for the day ahead. When we don’t get good quality sleep, our bodies are unable to fight off flus and colds, skin is tired or sallow looking, dark circles are inevitable and our eating habits can go out of the window as we latch onto anything sugary, fizzy and fatty in order to find some instant energy.
Slowly but surely, learn to unlearn the habits that are keeping you from a healthy mind and healthy body by breaking the old habits and introducing different things into your daily routine. Here are some tips
Before bed:
I. Exercise during the day to tire your body and give your mind a rest from thinking
2. Meditate-allow your mind/thoughts to switch off as you relax a n d focus on your breathe/heartbeat.
3. Listen to relaxing music before sleeping and switch off the TV if you know it will over-stimulate your mind.
4. What is your ideal time to wake up? To go to sleep? Know what time you want to wake up and aim to do so at the same time everyday or go to sleep at the same time everyday.
In bed:
I. Listen to a sleep hypnosis mp3-there are some really good ones on YouTube
2. If you’re too warm in bed, get out of bed to cool your body down and then get back in-your body temperature will adjust and somehow miraculously, you’re likely to fall asleep.
3. Read a boring book.
4. Try a lavender pillow spray or a lavender wrist balm that you can pick up from most health stores.
5. Count the numbers in French (or any other language) from 1-20 and then from 20-1 and repeat over and over again… The numbers are easy to learn and if you can’t sleep, its a great time to practice learning them!
6. Listen to your heartbeat, instead of the thoughts in your mind and count one-two, one-two, one-two… 7. Listen to your breathe and again count one-two, one-two etc
During the day, ask yourself:
I. What habits do you have that are stopping you from quality sleep? Once you can shed a light on your current habits, you can then ask yourself what you want instead and then what you can do to change your habits.
2. Figure out what you natural pattern is for sleep-are you a night owl or an early bird? it’s possible to reprogram your sleep patterns if your life now requires it.
3. Do you really need 8 hours of sleep? How much sleep does YOUR body need everyone is different.
4. Ask yourself, on a scale of 1 – 1 0, how much do you value sleep? And, then ask yourself do you value sleep MORE than the things you are doing instead?
5. What would improve in your life if you were able to sleep better?
6. To wake up: Imagine the time that you want to wake up, create a picture of it, say ‘I am waking up at that time’ and you’ll be amazed at how well you sleep and wake up a that time!
Changing our habits doesn’t happen overnight so make sure that you give yourself a realistic a mount of time. I tend to make a decision that I’m going to change my sleeping habits and then just keep going until the habit has changed-no time pressure, no deadlines, just one decision that has been made.