Insomnia? 10 tips to overcome it and enjoy a good night sleep

Insomnia is defined by the difficulty of sleeping, either falling asleep, maintaining a quality/quantity sleep time throughout the night, or waking up too early in the morning, which affects remarkably your daily activities: long day drowsiness, attention difficulties, physical and mental fatigue and so on.

No one desires insomnia, right? If you are suffering from it, here are some steps you can take to modify your behaviors, in order to get over insomnia and enjoy a quality/quantity sleep:

 

 

Standardize your wake-up time: if you suffer from insomnia, you should take this point seriously. Waking up at the same time helps your biological clock to adapt a stable sleeping routine, which incites your body to fall asleep and wake-up at the same time.

 

Sleep instead of thinking: If you find yourself lying in bed, worrying about the coming tomorrow, just close your eyes, forget your environment and think about a sweet desirable moment: a spent day in the beach, a delightful walk in gardens. The goal is to avoid thinking excessively, thus stimulating negatively your nervous system before sleeping.

 

Remove stimulants such alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. The effects of these stimulants can last for several hours, even if taken during day time, so the chances of affecting your sleep quality are significant. Caffeine, known for its intense central nervous system stimulation, may not only provoke difficulty falling sleep, but may also cause repetitive awakenings. Alcohol has a sedative effect for the first few hours following consumption, causing the famous “alcohol drowsiness”, however it leads after that to frequent awakenings and a non-restful night's sleep. 

 

Limit your naps. While napping seems like an appropriate method to catch up on missed sleep time, it is not always beneficial. It is crucial to make and preserve a standard sleep pattern and train yourself to associate sleep with darkness and night.

 

Regular exercising: Regular exercise improves your sleep quality and duration, it stimulates melatonin secretion, which that supports regular sleeping patterns. However, exercising right away before sleeping can have a stimulant effect on the body since your adrenalin levels are high, thus exercising just before bedtime should be avoided. 

 

It is bedtime, not activities time! The bed is made for sleeping (and intercourse, of course!) and that's it. If you experience insomnia, it is highly recommended to avoid all distracting activities as: playing with cell phone, balancing the checkbook, studying, or making phone calls, avoid also watching television or listening to the radio. All these activities increase your wakefulness levels and suppress melatonin secretion, making it difficult to fall asleep. Disconnect you from close-range electronic devices such as phones, laptops and tablets, as the light coming from their screens alerts your brain and make it difficult to fall asleep. 

 

Avoid drinking or eating before going to bed: Eating dinner or snacking just before going to bed activates digestion, and voila! Your central nervous system is activated which keeps you up. It also worsens you symptoms if you are suffering from gastro-esophageal reflux. In addition, drinking a lot preceding bedtime overwhelms the bladder; necessitating repetitive visits to the bathroom which surely perturb your sleep.

Environmental comfort: Light, noise, and heat should be managed to make the bedroom favorable to falling asleep. Your bedroom should be suitable for maintaining sleep and your bed must be comfortable. Use darkening shades to stop streetlights and early morning light, and use earplugs, soundproof barriers or a noise machine to block sounds.

 

Stress is a no-no There are several methods of relaxation and stress reduction you may consider to try, in order to relax your mind and your body before sleeping. If you get into bed and cannot fall asleep after 15 minutes, get up and return to another space in the house to do a relaxing activity, such as reading or listening to music, this method may be helpful for many people fighting insomnia.

 

Apply all these tips: fighting insomnia is not easy as it seems, it may take days and days to ameliorate your condition, however, applying all these tips persistently can guarantee you a remarkable improvement about your quality/quantity sleep time.