Insomnia? Fall asleep quickly and sleep well – part 1
Another sleepless night? It’s high time to stop it. Do you want to fall asleep immediately and sleep through the night until the morning? This post is for those who suffer from insomnia as well as for those who simply want to fall asleep faster and have better and deeper sleep. The first part of it will deal with how you can change your approach to the whole thing and how you can take care of good sleep hygiene during the day whilst the second will describe the techniques for falling asleep faster.
Another sleepless night? It’s high time to stop it. Do you want to fall asleep immediately and sleep through the night until the morning? This post is for those who suffer from insomnia as well as for those who simply want to fall asleep faster and have better and deeper sleep. The first part of it will deal with how you can change your approach to the whole thing and how you can take care of good sleep hygiene during the day whilst the second will describe the techniques for falling asleep faster.
Insomnia is a disorder that causes difficulty falling asleep or continuing sleeping. As we know, a good night’s sleep is vital to our health. For people who can’t sleep, the secretion of stress hormones is increased which results in decreased immunity. Besides, there is nothing worse than a sleepless night and day with no energy to live. It is, therefore, important for all of us to sleep peacefully.
In this article I am going to focus on how to get rid of insomnia and other problems related to falling asleep. I used to struggle with it myself. I was lying in bed, worrying about the next hour passing as I couldn’t fall asleep. I heard the internal dialogue in my head booming "You won’t fall asleep again." My frustration was growing, and the dream didn’t appear. I tried dozens of different methods.
Now I need literally 2 minutes to fall asleep and have a restful and deep sleep until the next morning. I will share with you the most effective methods for a good night's sleep as well as I'll show what you should pay special attention to.
Before night falls?
In the beginning it's important to know that insomnia is a matter of psychology, not physics. Having problems with falling asleep is not a disease! Very often, all one needs is some change in mindset. If you can’t sleep, it doesn’t mean that you got insomnia. This most probably means that you are doing something that doesn’t allow you to sleep. Take responsibility for your lack of sleep. This will allow you to do something about yourself and take steps in order to get better rest.
Once, an experiment was done that was designed to test the people who suffer from insomnia. They were divided into two groups. At night, the creator of the experiment only pretended to study the sleepless. In fact, all devices were turned off and the researchers spoke on subjects completely unrelated to the experiment. In the morning, the first group was told that the night was very hard for them, and that they had little sleep while the second group was told that they all had a great night and they slept quite a lot (in fact, of course, both groups slept for a similar amount of time). Surprisingly, it turned out that the latter group throughout the day showed significantly greater activity than the first. Any signs of drowsiness were noticed and they felt rested throughout the day. Just because they were told that they slept well! What does this mean? The feelings about sleepless nights are very subjective and we often feel bad throughout the day because we lead ourselves to believe that the night was terrible. So it is not lack of sleep, but our worrying about it that is the worst.
A similar study measured the exact time each person who suffered from insomnia slept for. After waking up subjects were asked the number of hours, according to them, they slept for. In most cases they estimated their sleep for 2-3 hours shorter than it actually was! This means that even if you think you had a sleepless night, you probably slept a lot more than you think.
The conclusions of both experiments are very important to you. The first highlights that it is very important that you don’t worry in the morning about not sleeping enough. The second shows that actually you have nothing to worry about because you probably slept more than you think. In this way, the next night you'll be calmer and more optimistic which is the key to a good night’s sleep. Negative emotions are your worst enemy if you want to fall sleep.
Now I'll show you what you should pay attention to during the day before you go to bed:
- Make your mind associate your bed with sleep only. Don’t use it for any other activities. The same goes for clothes that you sleep in. If you read or watch a movie while lying in bed, or walk around the house in your pajamas, you send conflicting signals to the brain. The brain then doesn’t know whether it is time to be on the alert, or sleep. Go to bed only when you are about to go to sleep. When you want to read or think about something before bed, do it before you lay down, for example, while sitting in an armchair. In turn, after waking up in the morning, get up right away. Maintain a strong association of sleep with the place where you sleep. I want you to really pay enough attention to it because it is very important.
- If you have difficulty sleeping, eliminate naps during the day (it doesn’t relate only to those who have more serious insomnia). Make sure that your day is full of different activities. Make sure that you will be tired in the evening. It’s best to start some physical exercises. You can run or work out at home (preferably during the day, if in the evening, do it two hours before bedtime). Go to bed only when you feel very sleepy. If you are not sure whether you want to sleep, it’s best to get down to reading books as reading is the easiest way to determine whether you really want to sleep. When you feel tired and it’s difficult to continue reading, fall asleep.
- Note also the obvious issues such as appropriate room temperature (18, 19 Celsius degrees), ventilating the room before going to bed and preparing a comfortable bed. Avoid eating two hours before bedtime as digesting stomach disturbs the rest of the brain. Stop drinking coffee eight hours before bedtime.
Before you proceed to read the second part, I just want you to remember all pieces of advice that you have read above and put them in your life. Plan your day and your evening in the way that everything is in harmony with them.