Check out these unusual tips to a better night sleep!
Chances are if you’re here, you’ve already heard it all when it comes to dealing with restless nights. Don’t use electronics before bed, take melatonin, exercise, meditate, turn down the heat… and the list goes on.
Getting and staying asleep can be downright hard. And there is no worse feeling like you are so drained, both mentally and physically, and you still can’t seem to get to sleep. I’ve been there, it totally sucks. In fact, I’ve been there so many times that I’ve scoured the internet looking for tips and tricks to help me fall asleep on many occasions, and most of the time I feel like I’m reading the same things, over and over again.
Occasionally, amidst all the scouring, I find new little gems of advice to try. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes I just have worse nights than others. I also have some pretty strange tips that I have made up myself!
It all goes to show, you just need to find what works for you. Don’t lose hope in your journey to a better night’s sleep!
I hope that you find something new to try!
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1. Get some new glasses.
You may have already heard this one before since these glasses are rising in popularity. There is a good reason why… Blue-light blocking glasses are awesome! In fact, I’m wearing them right now.
I’m not going to tell you to power down the electronics before bed. You probably already know, light electronics produce will keep you awake. A sort of “work-around” is to buy blue-light blocking glasses.
I LOVE to read before bed, but it is usually on an electronic device. Rarely do I have reading material printed on paper. I had to give these glasses a try. And I can speak from experience that they really work! I can actually feel my eyes starting to feel heavy when I’m wearing these at night! They are a total game-changer.
2. Give tart cherry juice a try.
Tart cherry juice is awesome. It contains awesome little molecules called melatonin and tryptophan. Melatonin is the main sleep hormone associated with sleep-wake cycles. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid known for its ability to make you sleepy. Tryptophan increases serotonin, and serotonin then increases melatonin. Not only that, but cherry juice also contains proanthocyanidin. This is an enzyme that decreases the breakdown of tryptophan. AKA it helps tryptophan stick around longer, and do more work in our bodies!
I am not a fan of juices and drinking empty calories, but tart cherry juice is a definite exception. It just has SO many benefits. To get the full benefit of tart cherry juice I would drink two servings a day. One serving in the morning, and one at night. Give it a chance to work, not everything works right away, especially natural alternatives.
Other natural foods that are rich in melatonin include kiwi, almonds, bananas, flaxseed, and honey. Although these foods contain melatonin, they have nowhere near as much as cherry juice, not to mention the added benefit of tryptophan AND proanthocyanidin. Cherry juice is where it’s at!
3. Take the pressure off sleeping.
Needing to fall asleep when you can’t is super stressful. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in bed trying to fall asleep. All the while I know I have SO much crap to get done. Knowing this just makes me get even more stressed, and the longer I lay in bed awake, I get even MORE stressed. It’s like a never ending cycle of increasing stress…
The biggest help for me is to take the pressure off getting to sleep on time.
If you have a big day, hit the sack extra early. When I have an important day ahead of me I’ll get to bed one, sometimes two, or even three, hours earlier. This allows me to deal with not being able to fall asleep, but I don’t get super stressed because I know that there is still plenty of time to fall asleep.
Most of the time life doesn’t go as planned, and this doesn’t work for me… Instead, I think of what would happen if I didn’t do whatever it was that I needed to get done for that day. The world would go on, everything would be fine. Even if YOU didn’t make it to work on time, AND everyone was scrambling without you. Life would go on.
Once you are in the mind-state of everything will be OKAY if you don’t get all your stuff done, you can proceed to phase two. This is where I tell myself if I get 3 hours of sleep or less I will just cancel all my prior engagements. Three hours is enough for me to function (not well, but still). Phase two is just deciding how much sleep you need to function.
Once you have done that, then phase three is just falling asleep, if you don’t get your functioning amount of sleep, then you don’t get as much done. Simple.
This thought pattern usually works great in curbing the added stress of not being able to fall asleep. And most of the time, I wind up getting enough sleep to get through the day.
Of course, everyone is different. Maybe the world literally won’t go on if you cancel your prior engagements… Think about ways in your life that will take the pressure off sleeping. Like I said, everyone is different, so you just need to really think about what could be making sleep more stressful for you.
4. Sleep with a fan on.
Don’t sleep in a room that is too hot. Your room should be between 60 and 67 degrees F. But what if I told sleeping with a fan on can be beneficial for more than just regulating temperature? That’s where pink noise comes in. I’m sure you have already heard of white noise as being beneficial to getting sleep, but so is pink noise.
Now, I bet you are wondering what even is pink noise, and how is it different to white noise?
Pink noise is perceived by the human ear as being flat and even, while white noise is perceived as static. While there hasn’t been research comparing the two different sounds, research has found that pink noise actually enhances brain activity associated with deep phases of sleep.
I personally sleep with a fan on, and I love it for more than just the cooling aspect.
5. Other Noises to try.
I’m a big fan of using sounds to help me fall asleep. Sounds help keep the brain occupied, yet relaxed. If the sound of a fan doesn’t seem appealing to you, luckily there are a plethora of other sleep sounds and compilations, right at your fingertips! Youtube is a free & simple resource for finding new sounds. Some ideas:
- Isochronic tones (for speakers or good headphones) or binaural beats (for headphones only)
- Nature
- Sleep hypnosis
6. Play Pretend.
Ok, now this one is going to sound pretty silly, but just hear me out. I have had sleeping issues since I was a child. As a child, playing pretend is exactly what I would do to help me get to sleep. Now that we are all adults, I know you are probably looking at me like I’m a waka-doo, but I still use this method to this day to help me fall asleep!
Most of the time when I can’t fall asleep, I’m thinking about everything under the sun. All these thoughts running through our heads are no bueno when it comes to falling asleep.
That’s why, instead of trying to block out all these thoughts, I just replace them by thinking of something else. I play out a scene in my head. Sometimes it’s my past vacations, future places I want to go to, surviving the apocalypse. Pretty much anything that interests me enough that I can “play pretend” in my head. I find that these thoughts are usually way easier to fall asleep, rather than all the real stuff happening in life. If you don’t like to fantasize then this next tip might be more up your alley…
7. Reenact Your Day.
Reenact every single part of your day. ESPECIALLY those boring and mundane moments. If you’ve had a particularly stressful or traumatic day, DON’T try this method, it is probably just going to make it harder to fall asleep. BUT if you have had a boring, and uneventful day, then give this a try. It might just work for you.
8. Limit Your Amount of Time in Bed.
When you have trouble sleeping it can be SO easy to spend too much time in bed, without probably even realizing it. Staying in bed for too long, when you aren’t actually sleeping can be a bad thing. Because of that, I try to limit my time in bed to no more than 10 hours a day.
For the most obvious reason, staying in bed when you can’t seem to get to sleep can just create even more stress. To combat this, get out of bed. Do something different for a few minutes. Get your mind off trying to sleep. Once you have found yourself in a different headspace, try again.
The less obvious reason is sleep association. When we associate sleep & our sleep space, with things other than sleep and relaxation, it can lead to negative psychological behavior without even realizing it.
If we have negative feelings every time we fall asleep, we will start to associate sleep with something negative.
Sleep association is actually super commonly talked about for babies, but it totally works for adults too.
