Feeling the effects of stress, or just an overactive mind handling a multitude of tasks?
Hang up those keys!
Lack of a good night’s sleep to severe insomnia and can leave you at minimum a bit lethargic or worse to having dangerous effects on your job, driving, mental acuity, depression and so on.
One of the worse things I find is trying to get to sleep with either too many things or a single worry going through my head at night before bed, the result is often at best a poor night’s sleep or none at all. It’s dogged me for years with an overactive creative mind that has a hard time switching off.
Then I found a few techniques that work for me and hopefully for you as well. My routine is at the end of this post.
So, here are 11 ideas to choose from for a great night’s sleep!
- Hanging up the keys – Just before sleep, take all the thoughts you have and, in your mind, change them into imaginary door keys (I like the old-fashioned type in different sizes) Once you have your key or bunch of keys imagine walking over to a hook somewhere, mine is in my bedroom on the door frame. Hang them up and know all those thoughts are locked for now and available tomorrow morning.
- Turn off online distractions – At least half an hour (preferably an hour) before sleep, turn off your mobile phone or PC and any fluorescent lighting. Us humans were never meant to be bombarded with megabytes of information, particularly under blue light. All it does is turn your mind into a racetrack of additional unnecessary thoughts.
- Sleep needs a calm environment – Listen to a meditation (I use Insight Timer) Often you’ll fall asleep well before it ends, and that can be as little as 10 minutes.
- Read a good book. A printed book although Kindle can be fine I find the light from the pages annoying, maybe not the case for yourself. Like the meditation I will fall asleep after a few pages.
- Drink Tea (Herbal, no caffeine and that also means no coffee!) I use the sleep blends from the supermarket.
- Drink water before sleep – Water before sleep is important, helping with hydration, digestion, and cleansing your body from toxins. but restrict your water intake to at least 2 hours before bedtime to avoid disrupt our sleep with night visits to the loo.
- Avoid or limit alcohol – Trying to sleep with alcohol being broken down by your liver can disrupt REM sleep, you may fall asleep initially yet find most of the night restless as your body experiences a shorter sleep cycle. Everyone reacts differently so if you must consume alcohol do it in moderation and earlier in the evening on a full stomach.
- Eat at least 3 hours before sleep -. Going to bed on a full stomach means your body is awake and busy digesting. I have a light meal or smaller portions, keep the sugar intake down. Heavy meals take longer to digest so maybe take a walk after dinner to help with the digestion, plus benefit from the exercise as another sleep-inducing benefit.
- A hot shower or bath – Earlier in the evening, around 90 mins before sleep, will according to research change your body’s internal temperature to facilitate sleep. Cold showers may not help as they stimulate the body, again, we are all different so if a cold shower works for you, go for it.
- Exercise – a walk or other aerobic exercise such as yoga, swimming, bike ride or light weights, just avoid vigorous exercise. Make sure you have completed your exercise no more hour before bed.
My routine – consists of an early dinner, hot shower, herbal tea, no social media, or other online distractions,read a book, then gather my thoughts and hang them as keys on the door. Works for me! Yours may be totally different.
