12 Steps to Peaceful Sleep

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12 Steps to Peaceful Sleep

So, you want to learn how to get a better night’s sleep? You are not alone.

• Millions of people around the world are sleep deprived and they don’t even realize it. Getting a good night’s sleep can impact your life in many ways including being more productive and alert.
• It can also impact your life in a negative way if you don’t get enough rest each night. Many people suffer from chronic pain, disease, and even obesity as a result of not getting enough sleep on a regular basis.

Here Are 12 steps To Help You To Achieve A Peaceful Night’s Rest:

Step 1: Engage

When you settle into your bed, consider how the room feels around you:

• Keep room temperatures of between 62 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (17-21 degrees Celsius) for sleeping. The reason is that our core body temperature drops at night. In fact, this drop is a signal to the brain to say goodnight. A warm room can inhibit this process.
• Keep pillows full and fresh by replacing them every 1-2 years.
• Is there noise that can be removed. Short of letting everybody in your house know that you’re trying to sleep, consider purchasing quality custom-made earplugs. If those are a no go, have a look for sleep-specific noise-cancelling headphones.
• Clean the clutter, using a closed hamper to keep piles of clothes from your view does a lot for maximising your sleep.
• Control your internal clock by keeping the room dark (this means NO screens of any kind). The hypothalamus (responsible for your inner clock) releases cortisol when light is detected. As a result, your body temperature raises, and your wakefulness is restored.
• Can you release the thoughts hounding you?
• Use aromatic candles in the rooms. Aromatherapy has been known to stimulate the olfactory and limbic systems in your body. Of course, they relax your emotional state and recall positive thoughts and feelings. If you have a pet that sleeps in the room with you, consider moving it somewhere else if it often disturbs you in the night.

Step 2: Stop Worrying About The Future

Not being able to turn off our minds is a giant problem. They’re a dial that can’t be turned off, worry about things like:

• What’s going to happen tomorrow
• Replaying conversations in my head
• Fretting over goals I hadn’t reached
•  Wondering why am I not where I want to be in life

I’m not alone in experiencing those feelings. These fears hang in the balance of many people’s minds. A way to clear the air and form a response for them is to simply jot them down. You can jot them down in a journal, notebook, stationary pad, etc.

• Writing down every one of your woe some thoughts, by hand, empties the mental clutter so you can have a spiritually nourishing slumber. This steers your mind clear of thinking about them.
• Another thing you can do is to shower and brush your teeth. If you feel dirty, you’re going to obsess about it – just as you would with your mental “clogs”.

Step 3: Breathe

• After you have settled yourself in your bed, take a few moments and focus on your breathing.
• Try breathing five big, deep breaths in and out. Pay attention to how the air feels moving in and out of your lungs.
• Paying attention to how your body feels is important as you release any tension and stress from the day during your breathing exercise.

Step 4: The Dangers of LED

• Screens (in most cases a smartphone) are the #1 reason why people can’t sleep. Blinded by the blue light in LED screens, our brain shuts down the release of melatonin. Melatonin is known as the “sleep hormone,” which controls our body clock. iPads, phones, TVs, laptops – anything with a screen must be eliminated.
• If you’re prone to waking up in the middle of night, grabbing your device and checking social media for a minute or two, you won’t find it a good way to doze back asleep. Resist the urge to grab your smartphone or laptop and assess why you think you woke up in the first place.

Step 5: Nap During The Day

• Believe it or not, 20-minute power naps have been shown to drastically increase productivity in the workplace. Even if you’ve had your body’s sleeping allocation for the day, naps increase alertness, creativity and enhances our mood.

Step 6: Stick To A Sleeping Schedule

• Adjust your biological clock and help it do what it’s meant to, by going to sleep every night at the same time, if it can be helped. A stable sleeping pattern aligns your bio-clock to recognise when it is time to sleep. This is crucial towards ensuring a full night’s luxurious sleep.
• Sometimes, sleeping schedules go astray. That’s life – things happen. Try your best to get back on track as soon as time permits.

Step 7: Reverse Psychology

• An important part of preparing for bed is to retrace your steps for the day to remind yourself of everything you have to be thankful for in your life.
• Starting where you are as you prepare for sleep, take mental walk through your day all the way back to the very first moment you opened your eyes that same day.
• You might find this difficult to do because we are used to recounting our days from the start, but the backward exercise will ensure your brain doesn’t wander too far from its task.

Step 8: Give Yourself Permission

• As you start to feel good about the day you just lived, give yourself permission to go to sleep. Start with one small part of your body and work your way around the entirety of your body and allow yourself the space to fall asleep.
• If you continue working through thoughts of the day, try deep breathing again to focus on the rise and fall to stop the thoughts from preventing you from falling asleep.

Step 9: Exercise Regularly

• Regular cardiovascular exercise (running, swimming, burpees, etc.) dramatically improves the quality and duration of your shut-eye time. The body needs only 30 minutes of intense aerobic exercise for our body heat to remain high. It stays high for around 4 hours.
• During your body’s cool down period, your brain will be receiving frequent signals that it’s time for sleep. This is made possible through the release of melatonin, hormone.
• If you have ever woke up feeling like you didn’t want to move your body because you were so comfortable than you know how great it feels to be fully relaxed. That’s the goal.

Step 10: Skip The coffee before bed

• As this current study shows, late-afternoon caffeine can cause problems for your sleep, even if you aren’t aware of it. To avoid sleep disruption, restrict your caffeine consumption primarily to the morning hours. If you do have a midday cup of coffee, make sure to finish it before 2 p.m. 
• Being tired makes us more likely to feel the need for caffeine, and that extra consumption can in turn make sleep problems worse.

Step 11: Nicotine and Alcohol should be avoided near bedtime

• Nicotine is also a stimulant and should be avoided near bedtime and if you wake up during the night. Having a smoke before bed, although it feels relaxing, is actually putting a stimulant into your bloodstream.
• Alcohol is a depressant; although it may make it easier to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night. As alcohol is digested your body goes into withdrawal from the alcohol, causing night-time awakenings and often nightmares.

Step 12: Are You Asleep Yet?

• It’s every bit possible that you might not even make it to the tenth step in this restful sleep exercise. If you fell asleep already, good for you.
• If you are still struggling, give yourself time to figure out what is going to work for you.
• Don’t forget to try reducing your activity before bed, taking a hot bath or shower. A light snack may be sleep inducing, but a heavy meal too close to bedtime interferes with sleep. 
• Make an appointment to see your General Practice if lack of sleep is persistent and it's affecting your daily life.