How to get better sleep

[Beth]

I know that sleep is really important to weight loss but I’m really struggling to rest at night. I just lie there awake for hours, even when I’m really tired. I can’t seem to fall asleep. Then, some nights when I’m lucky and I do fall asleep, I wake up a few hours later and still can’t get back to sleep no matter what I do.

I don’t want to take any sleeping pills. Is there any way to get to sleep just naturally so that I can feel better and be healthier? Natural tips are welcome. I don’t want to take anything for it.

[ffviifan]

I think we all go through patches when we just can’t get enough sleep. Life just doesn’t seem to allow us to have enough time to fit it in a lot of times.

Have you tried following a set routine every day so that you go to bed and get up at the exact same time every day even on weekends? I find that it helps, even though it’s hard getting up that early on a weekend. But as long as I continually do it, it’s like I program my body for a full sleep cycle so it stinks to get up early, but at least it’s easy to do.

Also, make sure that you don’t stay active right up until bedtime. Spend an hour in dim lighting and doing calming things before you go to bed. Try not to spend any time in bright lights. If you can brush your teeth with a nightlight in the bathroom, that’s way better than the overhead lights.

Also, don’t eat anything or have stimulants for like 3 hours before bedtime. An herbal tea is probably fine, but don’t put sugar in it.

[1000kw]

I find that chamomile tea is a relaly good thing to help me to get to sleep at night. If you have it a half hour or an hour before you want to go to bed, then you really relax yourself with it and are a lot drowsier. The only thing is make sure that you start off with a weak tea and build yorusel fup or you might end up drowsy in the morning, too. Don't drink it if you're only gonig to be able to sleep for a few hours. It needs to wear off.

[madscientist]

You really might want to talk to your doctor to find out if you aren't getting sleep because of something medical. Sometimes battling to get sleep is a symptom of something else. It's not necessarily something dangerous, but until you fix it, you'll struggle with sleep. It's worth the appointment.

[CuJo1992]

I find that if I go through the exact same routine every single day at bedtime than I actually start to talk myself into being ready to sleep. For about an hour and a half bfore bedtime I go through the same things in pretty much the same order and it seems to work for me.

[ChristySmiles]

Routine is the key to a good night of sleep. So you’re going to have to do some changes to your day as much as you possibly can and just stick to it every single day. I tend to think of this both as important before bed and when you get up. So while it is really important to stick to a certain bedtime routine (for example, an hour before bed, turn out the brighter lights, brush your teeth, change into your jammies, and do something calming and quiet like reading. Do all of this at about the same time every night and shut off your light at the same time every night.

It’s also really important to wake up at the same time every day and stick to the same routine. Don’t use your snooze button. Just pull yourself out of bed. Have a getting up routine and include a breakfast. It will make sure that you get into an actual sleeping and waking routine. For a while, this will not be easy. I’m talking weeks. But it sounds like it’s not easy for you now, so you may as well start an effort that will help you in the future. Once you start to get into the routine, you’ll find that you’ll actually start waking up without your alarm clock and you’ll slowly wake up and be ready to rise by the time your alarm actually does go off. You’ll also find that by the time you shut off your light at night you’ll really be ready to snooze.