Simple Tips To Fall Asleep Quicker

Use The Military Method

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This was specifically developed in order to help soldiers fall asleep within 2 minutes, sleep is obviously very important for them. It's essentially a 5 step way to try and get to sleep straight away; it includes relaxing your face, resting your arms at your sides, taking deep breaths and visualising a peaceful setting.

Listen To Some Calming Tunes

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Noise is something that obviously harms our path to a relaxing sleep, but instead of trying to ignore any external noise, you might benefit from listening to some relaxing music. You might want to consider creating a playlist, something around the 20 minute mark to help you fall asleep!

Relaxing Your Muscles

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There is actually a technique known as progressive muscle relaxation which has been used to assist people in getting a faster, more relaxing sleep. You slowly work through all the various muscle groups and by the end you should feel at peace, and hopefully if all goes well, you'll be feeling relaxed enough to drop off.

Use Imagery Soundtracks

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Guided Imagery soundtracks have become a more and more popular technique in the last decade, and they are now actually readily available on streaming applications. It essentially helps you focus on the smaller details of a fictional world: the sights, the smells etc and this directs you to a sense of sleep.

Practice Meditation

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Meditation is a technique that has been known to help people drift to sleep faster. Supposedly, it takes a while to truly feel the effects of meditation so you have to be in it for the long run. The hope is that meditating will help you let go of any negative emotions before you shut your eyes and put your head on the pillow.

Exercise More!

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Exercise is always something that will make you feel much better in many walks of life. It's great for refreshing you, but it has also been suggested that regular exercise will only do you favours when it comes to falling asleep. It may relax your mind, or simply tire you out so much you can't stay awake!

Have A Bath Before Bed

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A hot bath is something that has been used for years in order to calm yourself down and have some time to yourself to relax. So why wouldn't you use this to your advantage before trying to get to sleep? Everyone get your candles lit (good scents only) and maybe put some relaxing tunes on again.

Oil Aromatherapy

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Essential oils have long been used as a way to treat medical problems, and one of these ways is aromatherapy. This is where you inhale the scents or vapor of the oil; which apparently can help you sleep better. There are a few different types you can use which we can go through now!

Use Lavender

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Lavender oil is the most popular essential oil that you can use to help you drift off. It's even been known to help those of you with insomnia to get to sleep! You don't even need to use lavender oils, it works even if you place bits of lavender on your pillow. Some pillows even come with Lavender in them!

Bergamot

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You probably know bergamot as a herb, but it's also one of the most used oils in aromatherapy. It's been known to help improve your mental health and also lower your blood pressure. These are some of the reasons people feel sleep is improved following its use! Get trying it!

Drink Chamomile Tea

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Chamomile is another plant that's been used in aromatherapy, but its actually more useful when being digested! Chamomile contains antioxidants that are known to lower sleepiness, and also even stop you waking up through the night. It's a cheap and effective way to drift off. Tastes great too!

Create A Feelings Diary

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It has been found that disposing of your negative emotions and feelings can be a sure-fire way to calm yourself down before trying to fall in to a sleep. If you can get your worries down on paper, so it's a physical thing in the world, you supposedly, will feel as though there is less weight on your shoulders.

Stick To A Schedule

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Having a sleep schedule that you stick to religiously can be very important when it comes to keeping yourself refreshed during the day. Your body will also get used to this schedule, and so when you're chopping and changing when you sleep and you when you wake you'll only cause yourself problems.

Make Your Room Colder

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When you try to fall asleep, your body naturally tries to cool down; so if your bedroom is overly warm then you're going to struggle finally falling asleep. Everyone's preference will be different, but you'll find your optimal temperature; many people use late showers or baths to help them reach the temp!

Use The Special 4-7-8 Technique

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One doctor developed this special technique that he has tested on himself and a number of patients. Essentially its the combination of trying to sleep mixed with yoga breathing techniques. Supposedly it makes you less stressed; the basis of it is breathing and holding your breath over a small period. Give it a look!

Make Sure You Get Some Daylight

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If you don't get any natural daylight for yourself, you'll find that your body's inner clock might get a little messed up. Natural light (and some artificial light) will allow your body to know that it needs to stay awake, and you're less likely to feel tired and want to nap. Who doesn't love the sun anyway!

You Also Need Darkness At Night

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In contrast though, it's also important that you spend time in the dark before you go to sleep! It has been proven that darkness will promote your need to sleep as it produces a thing called melatonin. This is required to be produced in order for your body to drift off, so maybe chill out with the lights off before you try to drift off.

Practice Yoga

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Yoga is obviously something that people use in order to calm themselves down and ultimately relax, this works as a result of releasing any stress. The yoga exercises have been known to introduce the melatonin in the body, and thus help you fall asleep more efficiently.

Keep Away From The Clock

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We all wake up during the night for some reason or another, and it can really damage our sleep cycle for the foreseeable future. If you're like me, you'll look at the clock when you wake up to check the time, this has been known to cause anxiety within your sleep, as if you're on a schedule. Keep all clocks away!

Stop Having Naps!

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If you're struggling to sleep at night, then it might be tempting to start napping during the daytime. Although you might feel slightly refreshed afterwards, it'll make you feel much worse when it comes to sleeping again. Supposedly, you'll take longer to sleep and you'll also have a poorer quality kip.

Avoid Carbs Before Bed

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The food you eat for your dinner can truly affect the quality, and efficiency of your sleep! Instead of a high carb diet, you'll want the complete opposite, with higher levels of fat. Obviously, don't just eat fatty foods, that won't do anything for you healthwise, if you really need your carbs, eat at least four hours before you want to sleep.

Get A Comfy Bed!

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This seems obvious, but you shouldn't underestimate how important a comfy mattress can be to your quality of sleep. The perfect mattress for you and your sleep habits will allow you to get away quickly and not have to worry about spending half the night tossing and turning again.

Get An Orthopedic Pillow

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Not only is your choice of mattress important, but also you have to find the right pillow for you too! The pillow you choose can benefit you by helping your body curve and the temperature you're feeling! It might seem superficial, but a slightly more expensive pillow might be the difference between your sleep being good or bad.

Wear Comfortable Clothing

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Although in the winter months it might be amazing to wear a onesie and wrap up warm, in the hotter months of the year you need to find the right level of clothing for you. The fabric of clothing that you choose to wear will affect your nightly temperature, something that's important to sleep.

Put Your Phone Away

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You probably don't realise how bad using electronics can be in the hours leading up to your sleep. The melatonin we discussed before can be suppressed by the light that comes from our phones and televisions. Try and keep your phone away from you in the hours coming up to bedtime!

Stop Drinking Caffeine

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Caffeine is obviously a drink that people use as a way to keep themselves awake, we often tend to have our coffees first thing in the morning in order to get ourselves going. But you need to stop drinking caffeine within around 6 hours of you going to sleep or you might find yourself feeling too alert.

Find The Right Sleeping Position For You

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We all have our own preferred sleeping technique; typically there are three ways we sleep: on our backs, on our stomach, or on our side. Supposedly back sleepers have the best sleep, but this also can cause more issues like blocked airways. Ultimately we all have a preferred position, so use it to your advantage.

Read A Book

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This can be a great way to keep yourself away from your phone in the hours before bed; you could instead enjoy thrusting yourself in to the world of fiction. Again, avoid using e-books as these also emit the blue light we talked about before, it's time to go old school and a pick up a physical paper book again.

Trick Yourself

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This might seem a little obscure, and I'm not entirely sure how it actually works, but researchers believe you can trick yourself into falling asleep. Instead of trying to go to sleep, you should try and stay awake, this will stop the anxiety your feeling surrounding trying to fall asleep instantly.

Take Supplements

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There are a number of supplements that you can take which have been known to encourage people to fall asleep faster than they would without. The most popular of which tend to be either magnesium supplements or you can get the melatonin hormone supplements that will do an even better job.