5 things that would make you sleep better

Insomnia is not just a nuisance that makes you feel sleepy throughout the day, but it can negatively impact all aspects of your life.

The impact on the physical body can cause a loss of concentration, headaches, depleted energy levels, loss of coordination, shaking, daytime fatigue or sleepiness, which can all affect productivity at work, increase the risk of accidents and can make driving dangerous. Lack of sleep can also affect mood, causing irritability, anxiety and depression which can affect your mental health and cause relationship difficulties. Insomnia can lead to you being unable to fall asleep, stay asleep or cause you to wake up too early. As a once in a while occurrence, it can be frustrating, as a chronic condition it can be physically and emotionally draining. GP’s do not like to prescribe medication to aid with insomnia, as the medication can be addictive, dangerous if used incorrectly, and it does not solve the problem, instead they recommend following a sleep hygiene programme at home, to see if you can rectify the problem with a change in the environment or in behaviour, as this is the least invasive method of treating insomnia.

Here are 5 tips to implement into a daily routine in order to increase the chances of revisiting the land of nod:

Unwind

As bedtime approaches start to unwind. Turn off that laptop, put down any work and try and avoid any screen-time- and that includes television and mobile phones. The blue light emitted from electronic screened devices alerts and activates the brain, communicating to the brain that it has work to do and cannot shut off.

Reading focuses the brain, stopping it reliving the events of the day or obsessing on uncompleted to-do lists, and it helps with relaxation and tires the eyes, which are all conducive to sleep. Relaxing baths can also help relax the body and the mind and prepare the brain for sleep.

Avoid alcohol, caffeine and eating too late

Not only are alcohol and coffee stimulants which will keep you awake through the night, they also stimulate the kidneys increasing the probability of having to wake up throughout the night to pee. One trip to the toilet…two…three…wide awake!!! Although alcohol may initially help you to fall asleep through providing a sense of relaxation, the stimulant effect actually reduces the quality of the sleep, preventing the body from entering into a deep sleep known as REM. Alcohol also increases the need for toilet visits during the night, increasing the risk of being unable to go back to sleep, all of which will make you feel tired and unrested the next morning.

As our metabolism is having to continue working to break down the energy from the food, and muscles in our digestive system are still having to operate, which again can prevent us from entering into that deep REM stage of sleep. It is recommended that we do not eat a heavy meal late at night so that we can give our digestive system time to digest the food and prevent the impact upon our sleep time.

Make the bedroom a sleep friendly environment

Anyone who works nights can tell you about the annoyances of an unfriendly sleeping environment, chinks of light creeping through the curtains, external noises invading your slumber, with playing children outside making it sound as though you are trying to catch a few ZZZZZ’s in the middle of a playground! The same can be said for trying to sleep at night, that annoying toothbrush charger flashing away in the corner, frustrating your brain and making you think you’re sleeping in a 90’s school disco, that clock on the living room wall that just keeps ticking TickingTICKING!!! That spring in the mattress that no matter where you turn digs deeper and deeper into your side, making it feel as though you are sleeping on a medieval torture device.

Creating an environment that is conducive to sleep is so important in combating insomnia. Spend a bit of money and get that comfortable mattress!!

Address any light issues in the room, buy blackout curtains to extinguish those pesky streetlights if necessary. Unplug those annoying chargers— or put them in another room. Light can restrict the production of the hormone melatonin, which the body produces to assist sleep.

One thing that I personally have found is a major contributor to those pesky tossing and turning nights— address any temperature issues! There’s no worse contender for keeping you awake all night than a bedroom that makes you feel like you’re sleeping on the surface of the sun! Temperature can be a difficult element to address, opening the window might not help, and it might let in annoying sounds and sneaky bugs, some might not be able to afford air conditioning, and others might find the white noise of an electric fan as annoying as the heat itself, it is all up to personal preference. Personally, the white noise of a fan aids my journey to sleepy town, but this is not the case for some, so experiment and see what works for you. Maybe you need to plan in advance and have the windows open and the fans on throughout the evening, to ensure the optimum temperature for when you finally do retire to bed, try it and find your own preference, because in my experience, temperature is the biggest contributor to a restless sleep.

It's also recommended to only use the bedroom environment for sleep - and other nocturnal activities - whether with a partner or on your own! Don’t use the bedroom as an office, or as a place you lay and watch TV, in fact don’t have a TV in this room at all! If you keep the bedroom for sleeping only then your brain knows what to expect when you go in there, and you can trick it into behaving itself. If your bedroom is also the place you eat, watch TV, do your work and study, then how is your brain to know what is expected of it when you retire for the night.

Condition your brain like you would a small child, this is the bedroom, this is the bed, when you lay on it you are expected to sleep. The brain is easily confused —give it a little helping hand!

Keep a 'to do diary'

There’s nothing worse, you lay down to sleep and that’s when your brain decides to wake up, and you start obsessing. “I didn’t send that e-mail to Bob” … “I was supposed to order those stationary supplies and now we’re all out of post-its” …. “Tina’s birthday is on Thursday, and I need a gift…. hmmmm she liked that purse we saw in town the other day”. Do yourself a favour, get it out of your head and write it down! If you’ve written it down then you don’t have to think about it anymore and at least that’s one less thought going around and around inside your head keeping you awake. It also stops you forgetting whatever it is you’re obsessing over potentially forgetting! I’ve done it so many times myself, I worry that I need to remember to do something in the morning, so I think about it over and over hoping to commit it to memory, and then after finally falling asleep, the next morning, I forget to remember the thing I was obsessing about remembering! What a tangled knot we weave for ourselves!

It is a good memory aid to remind you to do something— which also stops us overthinking in the nights to come “oh no…. I forgot to do…” Just keep a diary or a pad and pen next to your bed— simple!!

Create a regular routine

This is quite a simple technique, and another trick to programme our minds. I know life can be all-consuming at times, when we’re trying to balance a job, parenting and also squeeze in a social life, but routine is a key to getting a regular night’s sleep. Our brains are like little computers, and like computers they can be programmed! If you have a set bedtime each night, and a set wake up time too, your brain can get into a sleeping pattern. It knows that ‘now’ is the time to sleep and ‘this’ is the time to wake up! It’s quite a simple but effective tip.

Have a set time for when you put your pj’s on, when you brush your teeth, when you put the cat out or get into bed, all these little routines communicate signals to the brain, letting it know that you are preparing yourself for sleep. But remember, if you cannot sleep one night, don’t break your routine!!! Do not nap during the day, or stay awake until inappropriate times, try as best as you can to muddle on until the routine starts again the next day, a break in the cycle can just hinder future nights sleep, so although its hard, try and stay awake the next day until the designated bedtime, and train that brain into behaving itself and abiding by your sleepy time.

And remember, if you can’t sleep, instead of lying in bed tossing, turning and getting yourself more and more frustrated (which further impacts your ability to sleep), get up. Do something, try and distract yourself. Do not turn on the TV, as stated above, the light from the screen will send signals to wake up your brain, try instead to read a book, or get up and do some housework, these activities should help you feel more tired, so eventually when you return again to bed, you should hopefully be more successful. If you are not, do not panic, you will manage to fall asleep again, remember this will not last forever, and just try and instil some of the tips mentioned above to help create a healthier sleep environment and aid in the possibility of the return of a peaceful night’s sleep.