subject: Picking Out Natural Sleep Aids [print this page] Sleeping pills can be really dangerous and addictive. It is therefore in your best interest to try all the tricks you can and use every sleep aid you come across before you have to resort to sleeping pills. Sleep aids can be anything from natural vitamins to just training your body to sleep correctly. A lot of sleep patterns deal with your daily decisions.
Making sure you have a good bed is the first place to start. Some people think they have a sleeping disorder when, really, they are just uncomfortable and do not know it. Your bed may be bad for you if you wake up sore or you always wake up exhausted no matter how long you sleep. Every body responds differently to different mattresses. One that does not suit you can keep you from falling properly asleep at all.
You should avoid any noise or light while your body shuts down. Listening to music or the television will only prolong your consciousness and keep you from falling deeply asleep. White noise, like a fan, or white noise machines are good to keep the room from being silent. Light can also keep your brain from fully relaxing. Even a small night light can damage your sleep. Try sleeping for two weeks without any light and see how you feel.
Try to take a warm bath or shower right before you go to bed or stay really warm from the time you leave the shower until you fall asleep. It has been proven that by raising your body temperature one degree before you sleep, you can fall asleep faster and deeper. It is also relaxing to take a nice long bath, so you can start your sleeping process before you even get into bed.
Melatonin is a vitamin you can take to help. It is a natural chemical your body produces to help you sleep. By taking the vitamins, which are very safe, even for kids to use, you can stimulate your body to make a little bit more of this chemical. You will sleep through the whole night without waking and get up rested and non-drowsy. It should be taken about a half hour before bed.
Eating heavily or eating warm foods has been known to make people drowsy, but it does not improve sleep quality necessarily. You need to give your body a little time to digest, since your body will be very active. Drink warm milk or eat something an hour before bed. You can feel warm and full and go to the bathroom one more time before you fall asleep.
Reading is a very common solution since it can make people drowsy, too. You should make a point of not laying down while you do this, though. Read in a chair--or at least sitting way up in bed--until you feel drowsy. By laying down to read, you could end up making your body associate the bed with an awake activity.
Laying down and watching television, eating, reading, or doing work at home in bed is a bad practice because your body will start to associate the feeling of the bed with being active. You need to train your mind to associate the bed only with it being time to sleep. Your mind will shut down better and not think so much as you fall asleep.
