It doesn’t matter how tired or sleepy you are. Sometimes, all it takes is for you to lay your head on the pillow for your eyes to pop open and refuse to close again. Frustration then settles in and you find yourself wondering how to fall asleep while trying a myriad of strategies like counting sheep.
If you’re looking for these sort of strategies, you’re already on the right track. Perhaps you simply haven’t tried the right one for you. Check to see if your best help to fall asleep fast is within the following strategies.
How to fall asleep fast and get the rest you deserve
Before learning how to fall asleep you need to remember to keep an open mind. If it was easy, no one would be going through sleepless nights.
Stay awake
The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest, right? When you want to sleep badly, the eyes refuse to get shut yet, during the day, you need to gather all your strength to keep them open.
This is a simple trick doctors use to help insomnia patients and it can help you too. Just simply lay on your bed and force yourself to stay awake. Make up your mind that you won’t have any rest that night. The more you want it, the likelier it will be for sleep to come fast.
Keep a schedule
If you need to wake up every day at the same hour to go to work, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of waking up at that same time on weekends when you could enjoy a full lazy morning.
Routine is powerful when it comes to sleep. So, try to go to bed every day at the same time to create one. Be sensible when choosing bedtime and consider other activities and tasks you have to do.
Once you find the right time, set an alarm on your phone. This will pressure you into getting everything done on time and will help prevent procrastination.
Eliminate distractions from the bedroom
Your bedroom should be used only for sleeping. Avoid being on your laptop while in bed, watching TV, playing on your phone and, if possible, remove anything related to work out of the room.
It might not look like much, but the brain will start creating a direct association between sleep and your bedroom. At some point, the simple act of entering it will have a relaxing effect as the body automatically prepares to sleep.
Wind-down
Find an activity that helps you relax. It can be reading a blood, watching a movie, playing games or even listening to music. Whatever works for you.
Now, every night, reserve 30 minutes before sleeping to do that relaxing activity to help the body wind down from all the stress and commotion of the day.
Just remember, the bedroom is strictly for sleeping. The relaxing activity should be performed in another room. If you still can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes lying in bed, get up, go to another room and repeat all process of doing a relaxing activity once again.
Hide the clock
Seeing the minutes going by while your eyes stay open will only increase your stress levels, which in turn will make it even harder to fall asleep.
Just turn the clock a bit so the numbers aren’t directly facing you. It’s a simple trick, but it can help a lot.
“4-7-8” method
This method is championed by Dr. Andwer Weil and it mixes physiology with the basic principles of meditation.
Before you dismiss this method as a hoax, just giving it a try. It won’t take long anyway to check its truthfulness.
Touch the back of your upper front teeth with the tip of your tongue until you find a little tissue ridge. Keep the tongue there for the duration of the exercise. Now, follow the next steps:
- Empty your lungs completely.
- Now, breathe in through your nose quietly while counting till 4.
- Hold your breath while counting till 7.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth while counting till 8.
- Repeat until completing 4 breathing cycles.
How to fall asleep faster: tips for kids
As far as (and doable) as possible, you can use the same tricks for adults aforementioned with kids. You can even adapt the “relaxing moment” for it to become an opportunity for parents and kids to come along, like a family reading session, for instance.
Having the parents with them while sharing a caring and sweet moment helps kids relax and feel secure. Sleep will come easier then.
Here is a quick list of other tricks you can use:
- No electronics in the 30min prior to bedtime.
- Avoid big meals for dinner
- No snacks after dinner, particularly if they are sugary.
- Set a sleep routine.
Don’t sing or hum to get the child to sleep or he/she won’t be able to fall asleep by themselves if they wake up in the middle of the night.
You should also consider enrolling your kid in a physical activity, like sports or dancing. The more active the kids during the day, the faster they fall asleep. Likewise, overweight can affect sleep quality, so you would be helping to prevent that.
Thoughful comfort
At last, consider removing any electronics from the child’s room. They should be happy and feel safe around their toys, but it’s one thing to be having trouble falling asleep and hugging a teddy bear, and another is turning on their electronic games. While the first will soothe the child, the second will work as stimuli to the brain.
Check out the following video to learn a few more tips on how to fall asleep faster and better:
