Do you ever find yourself lying awake in bed, waiting for your eyes to shut, your mind to calm, and for sleep to take over? Falling asleep can be harder than it sounds, and it’s important that you find ways to solve this problem to avoid harmful fatigue.

Sleep is one of the most important habits for physical and mental health. While enhancing cognitive functions like learning and memory, sleep also improves energy levels and allows you to participate in more daily activities. Sleep impacts mood and resilience, so with better sleeping habits you will be able to thrive during life’s challenges.

You may understand the importance of sleep, but still have a difficult time easing your thoughts while trying to fall asleep. We recommend that you learn some methods to help fall asleep, as these can be a huge help in your daily life.

Tips for falling asleep:

  1. Try listening to soft, relaxing soundtracks (i.e., ocean waves, lullabies).
  2. Switch up your night routine. Set the tone of the evening and allow yourself to relax before getting into bed. Take a hot bath or do a face mask – any form of self-care that might make you feel relaxed and ready for bed.
  3. Cut back on caffeine. When other methods aren’t working, sometimes your diet might be what is holding you back from a good night’s sleep. Try to decrease the tendency to eat past dinner time and reduce your consumption of mind-stimulating foods and drinks like caffeine and alcohol.
  4. Practice yoga, meditation, and deep breathing exercises. These are all good practices to implement in your daily life, but especially before bed when needing to decompress and relax. Some more specific mindfulness imagery methods are described below:
    1. Find something easy and repetitive to focus attention on while lying in bed. Try counting sheep or tiles on the ceiling – these repetitive actions get tiresome and uninteresting over time, and the brain relaxes as it focuses on the task. Slowly, you will start to close your eyes as sleepiness consumes you.
    2. Use your imagination and picture a beautiful landscape or fantasy world. Go through all the details of the environment and paint an elaborate picture. Hopefully you will be asleep by the time you reach the tiny details.
    3. Starting at the top of your head and making your way to the toes, focus your attention on each body part. Notice each body part feeling more relaxed and falling asleep one by one.

References

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