Nowadays we are more stressed out than ever, and getting 8 hours of sleep is the most important aspect of leading a healthy life. Sometimes your physical surroundings stop you from falling asleep fast. Find out here, how you can sleep proof your bedroom.
Here are 8 ways to shut your brain off if it goes into overdrive every night.
Make meaningless mental lists
The more you think about having to sleep, the more you will stress out about not sleeping. The best thing to do is to think of literally anything else. Imagine how you would design your dream bathroom, or the best way to style yourself for a music festival.
Reverse psychology
This is where paradoxical thinking can come in. Tell yourself that you want to stay awake instead and try and fight sleep as much as you can. That should get your mind off trying to sleep early.
Try getting out of bed
Usually if you shut your brain off, you should be able to fall asleep in 20 minutes. If you’ve passed 20 minutes and you aren’t able to relax and fall asleep, consider getting out of bed and walk towards a dimly lit room. Sit in a chair, read a book, and just try and relax. Give yourself permission to fall asleep, then slowly go back to bed. Don’t look at your phone during this time at all.
Practice some deep breathing as a distraction technique
Dr. Andrew Weil, a bestselling sleep author, swears by the “4-7-8” breathing method. The method is said to relax you by increasing the amount of oxygen in your blood stream, slowing your heart rate down and getting rid of CO2 from your lungs.
Push your tongue lightly behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there the whole time. Exhale completely. Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and then release the breath through your mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat the cycle and you should fall asleep within 1 minute.
Become a midnight writer
Take some time, but not too much time to write down everything that is worrying you. Many people may scoff at this idea, but writing is a form of release and has been shown to help people deal with repressed emotions. No one will read anything you write, since you can rip up the paper and throw it away the next day. Once you’ve written it all down, tell yourself that you can deal with it all tomorrow. Then go to sleep.
Download a dimming app
Some people need to check their phones, or read articles online to help shut their brains off. The best thing to do is to lower your brightness completely, switch night mode on and dim your phone even further in order to eliminate all types of blue light, which is responsible for keeping your brain active. Read a bunch of mindless articles to help you fall asleep faster.
Actively plan your healthy life
Ask yourself the following questions if you are having a hard time falling asleep. Am I eating well enough? Am I getting enough sun exposure? Do I need to exercise in order to start feeling tired in the night time? All these questions will make your mind work into planning a healthier life, thus heling you fall asleep faster.
Think about what you want to dream about
Sometimes if you think about what you’d like to dream about, it helps you fall asleep and you’ll expect more peaceful dreams.
