Are you having trouble falling asleep?
So what?
Falling asleep is challenging in our busy world. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with things that cause us anxiety, worries and pressures. These things build up throughout your day and make it difficult to fall asleep at night.
I’m not going to bore you (to sleep) with telling you about the benefits of sleep as we all know what they are and every other health blog posts are about them. What we are covering today is a less talked about topic about sleep which is how to fall asleep. Being able to fall asleep will allow you to:
- Waste less time and get more sleep;
- Be less frustrated; and
- Have one less thing to worry and/or stress about.
Simple things to try
Below are simple things to try that has been curated from talking to our clients and staff:
- Try to stay awake instead of trying to fall asleep
- Imagine that you are in a calm, boring place
- Breathe in, count to 5, breathe out, count to 5, repeat
- Relax all the parts of your face one at a time
- Go to bed and wake up at the same exit time everyday
- Practice mediation, yoga and/or mindfulness
- Avoid heavy meals close to bed time
- Exercise in the morning, not in the afternoon or evening
- Read something
My experience
I used to spend hours in bed not being able to fall asleep. I was never clinically diagnosed with sleep deprivation but always had trouble sleep until I started practising mindfulness and meditation. I started applying some of the techniques that I picked up from these practices. The technique that worked best for me is to breathe. Once I go to bed, I fall asleep within a couple of minutes by breathing.
What now?
- Pick 3 things from the list above.
- Try each technique for 2 weeks at a time.
- Pick one that you feel most comfortable with and stick to it.