5 Ways to Eliminate Insomnia
Insomnia is a serious concern for a lot of people all over the world. Truth be known it is often possible to prevent insomnia when you determine and address the problems that cause or aggravate the condition, like underlying medical concerns such as depression, or indeed habits or behaviors like caffeine consumption too close to bedtime.
But, when treatment of behavioral or medical factors doesn’t really improve the insomnia or if there is no obvious underlying cause like in primary insomnia, your sleep specialist may suggest other methods of treatment.
Even though there can be a lot of causes behind insomnia, which can range from medical disorders to anxiety, many people suffer from a difficulty in sleeping at one point in their lives. The most common and overly simplistic solution is to rely on over the counter or prescription sleep aids. However, potential dependency to these types of medications are one key problems with this particular strategy. There is also a strong possibility that your insomnia can get worse if you stop taking the medicine once you begin. On top of that, most of the powerful prescription sleep aids are known to have side effects like morning hangovers and are essentially masking over the core problem and not really treating the cause of the insomnia to begin with.
If you are left frustrated and feeling tired because of a lack of sleep, then here are 5 simple ways to eliminate insomnia that you can try.
1. Stick to a Regular Nightly Routine
The human body likes regularity and balance. This is referred to as Homeostasis or stability and you function and respond better from it. This term also refers to sleep since the body needs to get used to a consistent pattern that can help itself unwind and of course, accept sleep.
You can develop a regular habit by going to bed at around the same time every night. Consistency can reinforce the sleep-wake cycle of the body and allow a better sleep during the night. You can create a wind-down routine in order for your body to get into a consistent systematic habitual routine. You could try reading your favorite books before bed, indulge in a hot bath at the same time every night, or write your to-do list for the following day for your thoughts to stay under control. What matters the most here is that you develop a routine and stick to it.
2. Avoid Blue Light and TV at Night
You may be reading this article at this very moment in bed on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. It is something you might want to cut out since all electronic devices tend to emit a blue light that is proven to have a negative impact on your melatonin levels, and as a result, on your sleep as well. Melatonin helps control your sleep and your ability to stay asleep. The artificial and unnatural blue light can significantly suppress it in your body and as a result disrupt your sleep cycle.
It can be a bit challenging to implement a tech curfew at night since we are now living in an artificially lit world. But, greatly lowering your exposure 2 to 3 hours prior to going to bed will let your natural levels of melatonin work efficiently and promote proper sleep. If you ever need to use your laptop late into the night, there are useful programs which can help lower your devices’ blue light and give a more natural light effect. There are even specially designed screens that reduce or eliminate the harmful disruptive blue light from being emitted.
3. Never Exercise Close to Bed Time
It is a widely held belief, that exercising of any type before bed time can result in disrupted sleep, yet new research into this issue sheds light on the fact that it may only be strenuous exercise that disrupts sleep. It’s probably not a good idea to run sprints before hitting the hay as it may take your body significant time to wind down especially after a high intensity exercise session, however lighter exercise like walking may actually contribute to the quality of one’s sleep.
If your exercise is outside three hours of your bed time, you’ll be alright. Low temperature is what helps everyone sleep and exercise just increases the temperature of the body. Athletes that are well-trained can return to low resting heart rate as well as body temperature faster than the typical individual. If you’re new to exercising, you should set aside a little time between bed and exercise by several hours. The primary and most important thing to do is to observe your body and know what you feel up to, however recording your thoughts will have greater weight and yield better results. This is where keeping sleep journals are beneficial. You may keep track of various things like exercises in relation to going to bed, to keep an eye on the ways it could be affecting your sleep.
4. Practice Some Relaxation Techniques
Breathing and relaxation techniques enable the body to focus on enabling itself to sleep. Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that is also referred to as the Jacobson method where you tense muscle groups all over your body one by one and relax them consciously.
Another beneficial technique is toe tensing. It may seem a little strange, yet the idea is drawing tension away from your body. First, you need to lie on your back with your eyes closed. Then, pull back your toes to your face while slowly counting from 1 to 10. After that, relax your toes and count again. You should repeat this cycle ten times.
5. Never Fight Sleep
Have you tried lying in your bed and trying to force yourself to sleep? Or you’re trying to tell your body to rest and fall asleep as soon as possible? If you are like some people who find themselves awake after twenty minutes, you should consider getting up and doing something that will distract you. Worrying about the numbers of hours you’re awake sets you up for a disaster in terms of drifting off into dreamland. The harder you try to convince yourself you need to sleep, the less likely you will be of completing the task. Over analyzing only creates a heightened sense of anxiety and increased body temperature levels which is not conducive to drifting off to sleep.
It might be a great time to look for a chair and consider reading. You may also listen to good music or try the relaxation techniques. With this, you can distract yourself and let your body and mind wind down effectively in order for you to fall asleep faster. If you have sleep issues, you’re not alone because millions of people also experience this during the night time. Luckily, there are some things you may do for you to get back on the right track. Just do anything that will distract you and it will help you fall asleep before you know it. Learning how to empty the mind of cluttered thoughts or worries and practicing meditation and breathing techniques can prove to be very beneficial to improving your sleep outlook each and every night.
We would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to leave a comment in the box below. Have you found a particular worthwhile technique or method to help your insomnia or sleep issue at night? If so please share it because you will be helping others by doing so!
Check out our Snorefocus Blog page for more useful articles!
