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Sleeping Tips
1. Try to go to bed at the same time every night. This helps condition your body to sleep during the sleep phase of your biological clock. Once this happens, your emotional disposition will greatly improve.
2. Cut back on coffee, tea and soft drinks that contain caffeine. Most colored soft drinks contain enough caffeine to keep you awake. Clear soft drinks such as 7-Up and Sprite contain no caffeine.
3. Avoid eating large, heavy meals before going to bed.
4. Deep physical relaxation can greatly enhance your ability to fall asleep when you want and to stay asleep once you are there. Follow these directions and you will become deeply relaxed. Lie down and get comfortable. Close your eyes and do some deep breathing to get rid of your surface tension. Next, visualize or imagine that you have tiny faucets at the end of each finger and at the end of each toe. The faucets are all turned on and all the stress and tension in your body is draining out through these faucets. Feel it happening as you watch the stress and tension running out of the faucets. Now, concentrate on your feet and imagine that the muscles of your feet are becoming as loose and limp as a cooked piece of spaghetti. Spend a few minutes focusing on your feet and let them relax. Don't try to make it happen. Focus on that cooked piece of spaghetti and just let your muscles go. They will relax. Next, concentrate on the muscles of your calves. Spend a few minutes there and let them relax. Then focus on your thighs and let them relax. Work up your body letting each part relax. Relax your buttocks, stomach, chest, back, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, head and face. As you relax each successive part of your body, the next part will become easier to relax. Don't rush yourself. Focus on your muscles becoming just as loose and limp as that cooked piece of spaghetti. As you do, your body will drift into a deep state of physical relaxation. If you are not already asleep, you will be able to drift asleep at this point.
5. Have a glass of warm milk about 30 minutes before bed-time. Milk contains L-tryptophan and that boosts the serotonin in your brain. The serotonin causes you to become sleepy and to fall asleep easily. L-tryptophan is also abundant in turkey and it's believed to be the culprit responsible for that post-Thanksgiving dinner drowsiness.
6. Don't use your bedroom as a place to work. It conditions your body to become alert and stressed instead of relaxed.
7. Avoid alcoholic drinks in the evening. Alcohol may help you fall asleep easily but it leads to erratic sleep that is not restful and may also lead to early morning wakefulness.
8. Listen to calm, soothing music that will transform your mind and body into a deeply relaxed state. There are all kinds of cassette tapes and CDs geared to help you relax and sleep. Try some and find the ones that work for you.
9. Take a warm bath before bedtime. It will relax your body and prepare it for sleep. Research indicates that cold or very hot baths tend to energize and wake you.
10. Buy a comfortable mattress and pillow. Being physically uncomfortable can lead to serious wakefulness.
11. Practice deep breathing exercises. It will help you be calm and stay relaxed all day and will help you fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Try this exercise. Lie down on your back and close your eyes. Lay your hands on your stomach -- between your ribs and naval. Now inhale deeply so it feels like your stomach is filling with air. As you inhale, your stomach and hands should rise. This is breathing from or through your diaphragm. Once you have filled your body with clean, fresh air, exhale and let the air flow out naturally. Don't try to force it out. Now get into the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling at a relaxed pace. Continue for five or ten minutes. Your whole body should relax and sleep should come more easily. There are some people that recommend you inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. It doesn't appear to really matter so do whatever feels most comfortable for you.
12. Avoid naps if they interfere with your normal sleeping.
13. Moderate exercise on a daily basis appears to help with normal sleep patterns. Just don't exercise within an hour before going to bed. The exercise will stimulate your adrenaline and will wake you up.
14. If you are still awake after 30 minutes, get up and do something until you feel sleepy and then try again. Staying in bed while you feel awake conditions your body as well as your mind to associate your bed with wakefulness and/or anxiety.
15. Once you are in bed and comfortable, visualise that you are someplace very peaceful and safe. You can go to what I call your inner sanctuary. To do this, you visualise or see in your mind's eye, someplace you consider safe and relaxing. It can be someplace real or someplace you just imagine. It can look anyway you want because it's your fantasy place. Now visualise that you are there and allow yourself to let go and relax. As you do, you can allow yourself to feel relaxed, to feel safe and you can visualize or imagine yourself drifting into a deeply relaxing sleep.
16. Establish a bedtime ritual before going to sleep in order to key your body to relax. Follow the ritual every night. This helps to condition your brain to sleep at a specified time.
17. Sleep in a well-ventilated room with the temperature cool enough to cool your body (60 -- 65 degrees is considered best for restful sleeping). Temperatures that are too warm interfere with normal, restful sleep.
18. Keep your bedroom dark. Light coming through our eyelids interferes with our normal sleep cycle by sending signals to our brain that its daylight and time to wake up. If you can't keep your bedroom dark, you can accomplish the same thing by wearing a mask over your eyes.
19. Don't watch TV, read or do any other mentally stimulating activities before going to bed. Anything that stimulates your mind should be avoided prior to going to bed unless you want to lay their thinking about what you saw or read.
20. Research indicates that sleeping on your back is the best position for relaxing. It allows for the deepest, restful breathing. At the same time, avoid sleeping on your stomach. It causes pressure on your lungs and results in shallow breathing. The deeper you breathe, the greater the relaxation.
Sleep Trouble
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