Do often find it hard to fall asleep? Or, have you always had trouble staying asleep through the night? Many people suffer from sleep troubles at some point in their lives. Having problems with your sleep can affect you in many ways and it’s very important to make sure you are getting the most out of your sleep.
Sleep can affect your overall health, energy, brain function, and even your weight. So if you feel that you need to improve your sleep, you should start taking action now. It’s always a good idea to improve your sleep and there are plenty of ways that you can do this.
Before we talk about the different things you can do to improve your sleep, let’s take a look at why sleep is so important and what benefits it can give us.
Benefits Of Sleep
There are a lot of different benefits you can experience from getting good sleep, some of which you may be surprised by. The most obvious benefits include boosting your energy for the following day. When you have a good amount of sleep, you should feel more energized and rested, which can help you to make the most out of your day.
Another benefit is that your brain should function a lot better after a good night’s sleep, rather than a bad night’s sleep. You will have had the rest that your brain needed to function to its best ability the following day. Some lesser-known benefits of sleep include lower stress levels, improved memory, and focus, and can help to spur creativity too.
So, as you now know, good sleep can provide you with many benefits and may have a bigger impact on your life than you might be aware of. This is why it’s so important to make the changes we are going to be discussing, and improve your sleep so that you can experience these benefits.
7 Ways To Start Improving your Sleep Naturally
Some of the things that you can change are very simple and can be made straight away - others may take a little time. However, they are all just as important as the other, and even changing a few of these things can help you and your sleep in the long run.
Here are 7 ways to improve sleep naturally.
1. Avoid Caffeine Before Bed
One important thing you should try and avoid before bed is caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system which can stop you from relaxing, especially if you have drunk caffeine right before you are meant to be going to sleep.
If you think about caffeine, you would normally associate it with a ‘pick me up’ drink, i.e one to give you energy. So, if you are taking this before bed, you are going to have more energy but nothing to do with this excess.
Caffeine can actually stay elevated in your blood for 6-8 hours, so it’s best to avoid caffeine for that amount of time if you can. Instead, you could also have a decaffeinated version if you would still like to have an afternoon coffee. This shouldn’t have the same negative effect.
2. Sleep And Wake At Consistent Times
You should make sure that you have a regular sleeping pattern as much as you can. This means that you are going to sleep and waking up at consistent times each day. If you can make sure to set an alarm at a time where you will be getting the recommended hours of sleep (around 8 hours), you should try and wake up at this time every day.
However, if you are getting different hours of sleep each day this can mean that you have an irregular sleep pattern. Irregular sleep patterns can have a negative effect on your overall health and wellbeing. It can also mean that you experience poor sleep too.
Being consistent with your sleep and when you wake up can really help you achieve better long-term sleep quality. So, try and work out the best times for you, where you can get the hours you need, and try to make your sleep pattern consistent.
3. Meditate Before Bed
Trying to relax before bed is a great way to make sure you get the best sleep you can. A good way to wind down and relax before you sleep is to meditate. This could be a guided meditation or just practicing on your own.
Through meditation, you can clear your thoughts and focus on the present moment. This can help to relax you and clear your mind of any worries you might have. This is perfect to do before you go to sleep as you should feel more relaxed and find it easier to get to sleep.
Meditation and other relaxation techniques can also help to treat insomnia too, so if you have trouble falling asleep - this is definitely worth a try.
4. Use Self-Hypnosis
Like meditating, self-hypnosis can also be a great tool to help relax you before you sleep. Self-hypnosis tracks can be used to relax you and clear your mind before you go to bed. The tracks are normally guided tracks, just like our ‘Improve Sleep’ hypnosis track, where you will be guided through the hypnosis.
Hypnosis can also help to lower blood pressure and decrease your heart rate too, which is similar to the effects meditation has on the body too. This can improve your sleep as you should feel more relaxed and less stressed.
Self-hypnosis is a safe and natural way to improve your sleep and also reduce your stress too. If you want to find out more, try our Improve Sleep hypnosis track.
5. Exercise During The Day
Regular exercise can really help to improve your sleep. Exercise has many benefits such as boosting positivity, maintaining a healthier lifestyle, and also helps to reduce the symptoms of insomnia.
Regular exercise during the day has shown to improve your deep sleep and also decrease the amount of time it takes for you to actually fall asleep. However, exercising before you go to bed is not recommended.
This is because our adrenaline will kick in and we will find ourselves with more energy, which is not ideal. This could make it hard for you to fall asleep as you would find it harder to relax and wind down before bed.
Try to keep up with regular exercise and after a while, you should start to see the benefits, but make sure you do this in the day and not before you go to bed.
6. Avoid Bright Screens Before Bed
Our phones and TVs are always accessible to us, so it’s no wonder we find it hard to put down the phone or turn the TV off before bed. However, these bright screens can have a very negative effect on our sleep.
Blue light is emitted from smartphones and TV screens and it can have a negative effect if you are exposed to it before you sleep. Blue light tricks your brain into thinking it is still daytime, which can then reduce your hormones such as Melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that can help you to relax and get deep sleep.
Therefore, reducing the amount of blue light you are exposed to before you sleep can be a great way to improve your sleep. Try to turn your TV off at least an hour before you sleep, as well as your phone. You can also install apps on your phone that block the blue light on your smartphone too.
7. Change Your Sleep Environment
You might not think it, but the environment that you sleep in can also affect how good your sleep is. Your ‘sleep environment’ would include the bedroom temperature, your bed/mattress, the light in the room and also the noise surrounding your bedroom.
All of these things can affect how you sleep, so make sure your sleeping environment is perfect for you. Try to minimize the external noise that enters your room and also the amount of light that enters your room - as this can disrupt your sleep.
Your bedroom should feel comfortable, relaxing clean, and enjoyable. The few changes you can make to your sleeping environment can really help you to improve your sleep.
Improve Sleep With Self-Hypnosis
Improving your sleep is very important when it comes to your health, wellbeing, and energy. It’s important to get a good sleep and these changes should help you to achieve just that. One of the main changes to make should be to relax and clear your mind, as this can have huge benefits with regards to sleep.
Self-Hypnosis and meditation are both powerful ways to relax before you sleep. You could even use the self-hypnosis tracks to meditate on things too. Our ‘Improve Sleep’ hypnosis track can help you to feel more relaxed, reduce any worrying thoughts and help you to drift off to sleep.
If you want to try our ‘Improve Sleep’ hypnosis track for yourself, click here to find out more.
