subject: 3 Tips to Help You Fall Asleep [print this page] 3 Tips to Help You Fall Asleep 3 Tips to Help You Fall Asleep
Too many of us lead active, stimulating days. We are on the go, chugging coffee and on our phones, hitting meetings and plunging through traffic, watching our favorite shows and staying up late reading and finishing work projects. Yet when it comes time to unplug and go to sleep, we find that we can't; exhausted, we lie there, frustrated and bored and knowing that each passing moment is another layer of tiredness we are going to have to live with tomorrow. How can we fight this trend? How can we best begin to go to sleep on time, to avoid trouble and difficulty and just enjoy full nights of restful sleep? Today's article will give you three great tips to do just that.
The first suggestion is to take a bath some two hours before sleep. Our bodies naturally begin to grow cooler a few hours before we sleep, and are at their coldest about 4am. If you take a hot bath some two hours before, you will raise your body temperature, so that when you begin to cool down it coincides with the cooling effect of going to sleep, making it easier to drop off. A bath is ideal, but a shower can also help.
Try installing a dimmer. Our bodies release melatonin in response to the correct cues, judging when it is time for us to start nodding off, but this reaction is prevented by overly bright electric lights. If you are in bright light until 10pm, it will be much harder for your body to begin to relax. Instead, use dimmers to lower the light intensity and make for a much more suggestive period of time before hitting bed. Doing so will cause your body to understand what is expected of it, and it will release melatonin when needed, so that you will be deliciously sleepy just before hitting the sack.
Finally, it can be a great idea to skip any caffeine after lunch. People who enjoy a coke with dinner or an espresso around 6pm may find it hard to knock off a few hours later, as caffeine can hang around in your system for hours after you thought it was gone. Skip things like tea, coffee, soft drinks and cigarettes, because all of these have stimulants that can keep you going and going long after you wish you had been able to fall asleep.
