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| Tips for a Better Sleep | • Do visualization.
Focus all your attention on your toes or visualize walking down an endless stairwell. Think about repetitive or mindless things. It will help your brain to shut down and adjust to sleep.
• Get out of bed if unable to sleep
Don’t lie in bed awake. Just go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy. Actually, worrying about falling asleep exactly keeps many people awake.
• Don't do anything stimulating
Don't read anything job related or watch a stimulating TV program (commercials and news shows tend to be alerting). Do not expose yourself to bright light. The light gives signals to your brain that it is time to wake up.
• Get up and eat some turkey
Turkey contains tryptophan, a major building block for making serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which sends messages between nerve cells and causes feelings of sleepiness.
Remember that L-tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless you eat it on an empty stomach with no protein present, so keep some turkey in the refrigerator for 3am.
• Consider changing your bedtime
If you are experiencing sleeplessness or insomnia consistently, think about going to bed later so that the time you spend in bed is spent sleeping. If you only get five hours of sleep at night, figure out what time you need to get up and subtract five hours (for example, if you want to get up at 6:00 am, go to bed at 1:00 am). It may seem counterproductive and, at first, you may be depriving yourself of some sleep, but it can help train your body to sleep consistently while in bed. When you spend all of your time in bed sleeping, you can gradually sleep more, by adding 15 minutes at a time.
Tips for keeping a sleep diary
Learn about your sleep patterns and habits by keeping a daily sleep diary. Make up your own and include:
• Time you went to bed and woke up;
• Total sleep hours;
• Quality of sleep;
• Times that you were awake during the night and what you did (e.g. stayed in bed with eyes closed or got up, had a glass of milk and meditated);
• Amount of caffeine or alcohol you consumed and times of consumption;
• Types of food and drink and times of consumption;
• Feelings - happiness, sadness, stress, anxiety;
• Drugs or medications taken, amounts taken and times of consumption.
More Natural Sleep Aids and Destressors
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