How to Get Better Sleep Without Sleep Aids

Do you ever feel groggy, tired, and irritable when you don’t get restful sleep? 

Would you like to sleep better without sleep aids? 

Then the following tips may help you. 

Let’s use Salima’s example. She is a friend of mine who works, attends school, and is an active volunteer in the community. 

She told me one day that although she gets pretty tired, she cannot rest due to her overactive mind at night. That leads to her feeling tired and irritable the next day. She asked; How to turn off your brain so you can sleep? 

I shared the following sleeping tips that help many of my patients. They helped her sleep better without any sleep aids. 

Before changing her rest habits, Salima used to think that sleeping less was good. She used to worry that if she slept more, she wouldn’t be able to do her work or maintain good relationships. 

After she changed her sleep habits, her perspective changed. She noticed that because she woke up refreshed, she was able to do her work efficiently. As she was able to think outside the box, she was able to solve problems. Because she was able to keep a calm mind, she was able to better tolerate her family & her team members. As a result, her energy, efficiency, and relationships improved.

Would you like to learn what helped Salima? 

 

During the day:

1. She learned that what you do during the day affects your sleep at night. So she became more mindful of her daily activities. She started practicing One-minute mindfulness several times during the day. That helped her stay aware and calm.
2. She realized that what she puts in her body, affects her sleep. A lot of coffee, energy drinks, or sweets activated her brain too much. When one of her work friends advised her to drink a glass of wine before sleeping, she did not fall for it. She was aware of the medical fact that even one glass of alcohol messes up sleep architecture. Therefore a person may fall asleep with alcohol but feels groggy and tired in the morning. So she started avoiding non-helpful foods and drinks and started eating healthy food mindfully. 
3. She also knew that exercise improves rest. So she started doing 30 min of exercise a day. 

Before Sleep:

In the evening, she started practicing good sleep hygiene. That means,

1. She kept a fairly regular sleep cycle whenever possible. Sleeping at the same time and waking up around the same time (weekend or not). It helped her body get into a routine.
2. She turned off her screens (TV, Computer, phone ) 90 minutes before sleep time. She knew that the rays from these screens prevent sleep chemical Melatonin, which is necessary for good sleep.
3. She developed sleep rituals that became a signal for her brain that it is time to fall asleep. It helped her mind to wind down. These rituals include:
   • brushing teeth,
   • drinking warm milk or green tea,
   • changing to sleep clothes,
   • making her room dark and cold and
   • Praying
4. Sometimes her team wanted to have evening phone meetings. She tried to schedule the sessions a little earlier so she could rest at a decent time.
5. On days when she was not able to get to sleep on time, she planned relaxing activities whenever possible.
6. Instead of doing work late at night, she tried to wake up early. She could work with a fresh mind in the morning, and she noticed that she could do a better job faster.

 

During the night:

She realized that sometimes she was putting too much pressure on her self to sleep. That pressure was causing increased worry. That worry was keeping her up. 

She realized that she could take steps to feel rested, but she can’t force sleep. So she decided to do what was in her power and let go of worry. 

She even made a flashcard to remind herself. It allowed her to shift her thoughts until it became a habit. It read, “I can’t force myself to sleep, but I can give my mind and body the best chance to rest. I will take those steps and allow the sleep to come over me. Sleep may or may not come. If it comes, great. If it doesn’t, it’s ok. I will feel that I utilized my time wisely.” 

Just taking off that pressure to sleep, increased her chances of sleep.

If she was not able to fall asleep, she did the following five things for 15 min each. Most of the time, she fell asleep. If she was still awake, she repeated those five things. Either she fell asleep, or she gave her mind and body the best chance to feel rested. Those five things were:

1. Meditation
2. Muscle Relaxation.
3. Music
4. Reading non-thrilling books.
5. Writing gratitude or floating bubbles.

By using the above techniques, Salima learned to sleep better without sleep aids. Her energy, efficiency, frustration, tolerance, and relationships all got better. You can also sleep better without sleep aids.

If you don’t take steps to rest better, it will affect your health and performance. If you do, you will feel rested, happy, and healthy. You will be able to perform at your best in all areas of your life.

If your rest problems continue despite the above measures, you may have a sleep disorder. In that case, you may need sleep medications, but they are best used with medical supervision. Talk to your medical provider for advice. 

Let me know if these tools help you and share it with others if you think it may help them. 

If you like to learn more about these tools, I have another great resource that you can get it for FREE. 

You can discover my most powerful stress management tools systematically in the audio version of my # 1 Amazon Bestselling book ‘Stress to Joy; Yourtoolkit to Restore Peace of Mind in Minutes’. You can get it FREE with 30 days free trial of Audible at https://adbl.co/2w9LL5W. 

What’s more, if you send me a snapshot of your review, I’ll send you my set of ‘Audio guides for Mastering Mindfulness’ as a thank you gift. 

There is stress everywhere, especially with this Coronavirus epidemic. Get your copy of the audiobook today and start transforming your stress to joy for a happy and healthy life.. 

Dedicated to Your health and happiness, 

Dr. Rozina

PS: To empower you further with mind training tools, I have started a weekly Facebook live. If you are a Facebook user, you can ask your questions live every Saturday at 11 am Pacific Time. You can find the link for past and upcoming programs at https://www.facebook.com/DrRozinaL/live/.

Our next topic is ‘Can Laughing Relieve Stress?’ Join me as I interview Patricia Brooks on ways to use laughter to face challenges and relieve stress.  https://www.facebook.com/DrRozinaL/posts/2608820682561416