4 Ways That Helped Me Sleep Better
Sleep, it never bothered me growing up. But now, as an adult, I miss those days of naïveté in the sleep department. I used to imagine that person resorting to counting sheep to fall asleep. A silly image but as I’ve got older, it’s not so funny when that person laying there counting sheep is you! I had even started to count down the hours until I needed to wake up... "If I sleep now, I’ll have 6 hours sleep.' With each passing hour the worry and anxiety of waking up exhausted set in further.
I read one night that one in four adults suffer from mild insomnia. With it becoming more and more common I thought I’d share some helpful tips that I’ve been trying to take up and hopefully it helps some of you.
Personally, I always need to know more about the problem before I can find solutions. For me, my insomnia was caused by stress and change. The grief of losing my brother caused tremendous stress & this huge change in routine & environment impacted me so deeply I don’t think I felt I closed my eyes for at least a year. This, combined with my bad habits (which were comforting at the time) such as junk food/snacks and constant technological stimulation turned me into an insomnia zombie. As I researched, it was no wonder so many people struggle with sleeping when there are so many variables that affect it. More worryingly I found out that it can lead to many different health issues.
I’ve tried to compile all the techniques I have used which have helped me and which I return to each time I dip back into sleepless nights. There’s been several times I’ve been tempted by sleeping pills, but in my opinion, they can only be a short term solution and are similar to crash dieting; they work but to help yourself in the long term, you have to find the root of the problem and rebuild a healthy sleeping habit. In my eyes, you don’t treat the symptoms - you treat the disease.
Create your bedtime
I had no schedule and no bedtime! I would wake up whenever I did and eventually fell asleep when my eyes eventually shut. This, as you can imagine, was no way to live so I set new rules! I gave myself a bed time and always wake up by 8 in the morning (at the latest).
Once the times had been decided I needed to train my body to know when it was time to sleep (imagine the way you train a dog! Frida knows if you put her pjs on its bed time and she goes right to bed to sleep). My body needed this hammered in to it! So I started simple rituals such as making tea (Disclaimer: I’m not a huge tea drinker, so I never drank all the tea but it was a ritual that let my mind and body know it was time to settle) I also started to listen to audiobooks (audible has been an amazing tool) first I started with Benjamin button, and never got past the first chapter, but I’ve slowly moved on to different books.
Everyone knows that you shouldn’t be using technology right before bed but no one really listens... and then wonder why they can’t sleep! Blue light is the electronic version of caffeine it can rev you up and take you more than double the amount of time to wind down. I started trying to use knitting and sewing as an evening activity to stop myself from facing blue light but also to keep me occupied while my body and mind wound down. It doesn’t have to be knitting! But try to take up an activity that’s not on a tablet/phone/computer; for example, Luiz reads in the evenings and my mom has taken up colouring books!
The final thing I did to perfect my bedtime was to create a place that made me want to sleep. I started using a salt lamp when the sun went down and, along with the light I made sure I always had something like lavender burning - certain smells promote relaxation. I have incense cones which I put at one end of the room about half and hour before bed. I also try to use an eye-mask, it creates complete darkness when it’s time to sleep and by morning I’ve rolled about so much it’s no where to be found and the sun light from the windows are shining through to wake me up naturally!
Get up! Get out! Be active!
It sounds simple, but one way to help the natural sleep and wake cycle is to be physically active. Being a couch potato all day is not going to promote healthy sleep but getting up & going out can immediately create one very tired human! Me and Luiz started going to the gym 5 days a week; it helps reduce stress (another way to manage stress!) and anxiety but also keeps our bodies tired in the evening so we sleep earlier than before. We have a pretty exhausting workout plan which, combined with the obligatory walk at Ogden Reservoir to walk Frida is a pretty intense set of days but it can just be something as simple as walking up the steps rather than using the lift!
Yoga (just read it)
Everyone has heard meditation can make sleeping better but if you’re like me, then controlling your mind is one of the hardest things to do, and switching it off is borderline impossible. This is why I started practicing yoga. I knew I was stressed in mind and body but trying to control this was very difficult. At first, yoga was just like Pilates just slowed down; then I started to focus on breathing. The thing about yoga is that, it sounds easy, but the very nature of getting into a very tricky pose while breathing in and out at the correct times is much harder then you think! Eventually you solely focus on your breathing which, on its own, relaxes the mind and is a form of meditation. Now I try a few yoga poses in the morning to wake up and a few at night to wind down. My favourite YouTube yogi channel is “Yoga with Adrienne”. She is the best I’ve found and she has different yoga routines for whatever you feel like doing!
Think Diet! (Food is more important than you think)
Initially I never looked at what I was eating as a reason for my insomnia, but as my sleeping pattern got worse I started craving different foods. These are foods which help improve sleeping as they are rich with “sleep nutrients”. Now I try and insert these foods as much as possible in my evening meals and snacks
Cheese (as I try steer away from dairy I don’t have this so much now)
Almonds (bit boring but we love them... well I love them! It’s a good nibble snack instead of crisps)
Cherries (Always delicious & easy eating instead of unhealthy snacks in the evening)
Bananas (my grandma makes beautiful banana tea which send you to sleep in the best way)
Salmon (A tasty fish which I will be adding more recipes on here with as we have 3 staple dishes)
Chamomile tea (I’ve grown to like this tea; herbal infusions a good drink to have in the evening to relax.)
Food that I try steer clear of include:
Caffeine (for years I was caffeine free but now I love a well brewed coffee, I try only have it in the mornings)
Alcohol (I go through phases but right now I’m not drinking much, if at all)
Spicy food (these usually go hand in hand with heavy or “rich” foods which don’t settle well)
Summary
It seems like quite a bit of work once I’ve written it down but it’s just simple and small steps which I’ve taken to create a better nights sleep!
Create a bedtime routine which slows your mind down and encourages you to sleep
Make sure you get up and active each day
Get started on focusing on the root cause through yoga/meditation
Change the food you eat and snack on throughout the day
If these helped you or you think they might help someone else make sure you like and share!
