Tips to Fall Asleep Fast
A great number of people have problems with falling asleep. Many of us got already used to tossing and turning in our beds for long time before getting into sleep mode, however, this is really distressful and sometimes even quite harmful to our body and mind. Lasting stresses, depression and anxiety, a lack of physical activities, various ailments and chronic pains, taking certain medications, as well as other possible reasons of physiological or psychological nature can cause difficulties with falling asleep fast.
If you want to shorten the time of falling asleep and make your sleep more comfortable, you can check out some recommendations and tips for real good sleepers here. If you could not find anything new or interesting for yourself, let me offer some more tips and pieces of advice for those, who have problems with falling asleep, who does not want to abuse sleeping pills and got sickened of staying awake in bed in the middle of the night unable to arrive zzz-land peacefully.
1. Generally, one of the best tips is not going to bed unless you feel at least a little sleepy. No matter, what time it is at the moment, 10 p.m., or midnight, or 4 a.m. If you are having problems with falling asleep and you are forced to go to bed, most likely you will stay awake in bed and get bored of thinking about useless things again. Therefore, if it is possible, go to bed only when you really feel sleepy. What should you do before the bedtime and how to prepare yourself better for falling asleep faster – see below.
2. In order to set yourself on a sleeping mood, do something relaxing and very pleasant before going to bed. Some people recommend writing the events of the day in a dairy, some recommend reading or playing the card game Solitaire. You can watch a light TV show like “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” or a repetition of your favorite sit/com 30-40 minutes before going to bed. Listening to some soft relaxing music can also work well. For example, listening to the albums of Mike Oldfield has been helping me for years to free my mind from all problems and stresses and calm down before going to sleep.
3. Now, if you are already in bed and fighting with the boredom of sleeplessness, try to make your mind busy with something interesting. Such known things as counting, getting focused on clock ticking, self-hypnosis, meditation or praying usually do not work. That is why you should try something, which will make your imagination work and keep you off thinking about your inability to fall asleep. Making up a story is one of the most effective techniques. Imagine that you are a writer and you are about to start writing a huge novel. Create a plot, think about the main characters, about the style and type of language you are going to use, and then start thinking about all little details of the story. This may help you fall asleep soon.
Or, you can create an imaginary companion for yourself and talk to him about everything you want: discuss your daily life, open your feelings, your fears or expectations, and so on. Also, a friend of mine told me recently about one more very interesting technique, which worked for her but made me laugh. She says that she sets on her radio on a foreign station, and a very low-volume chit-chat in a foreign language helps her to fall asleep much faster. You can try this also, it should be fun.