The world around us seems to demand constant stimulation at times. We’ve evolved as animals with a very simplistic lifestyle, into a complex society of media and communication. Before the technological and mechanical innovations of our modern age, our ancestors used to actually sleep about 12 hours a day, in two separate chunks [1].
But the notion of that much sleep seems absurd in modern society – we’ve got work to do and social lives to attend to. Now, on average, humans get approximately six to eight hours of sleep every 24 hours. The problem with how we’ve developed as a species is the creation of insomnia. Many times we find it extremely hard to fall asleep due to a restless mind and in this post I will give you a few simple tips and tricks that will help you to fall asleep even when your mind is racing.
Why Does Insomnia Exist?
Sure, insomnia can be due to medical conditions, aging and diet – but it’s also commonly developed from factors of modern living [2]:
Anxiety and Stress from social lives, dramatic events and demanding work schedules
Depression that comes from unbalanced sleep schedules, the above-mentioned factors for anxiety and stress, and as a side effect of certain medications
Prescription drugs given to people to alleviate depression, unbalanced blood pressure, allergies and ADHD
Substances that are consumed socially and personally such as coffee, tobacco, alcohol and drugs
Insomnia is a difficult condition to cope with – be it temporary or a recurring issue. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) states that polls revealed almost 60% of adults ages 18 to 29 having some type of insomnia, contradicting the notion that the disorder is more common in old age (only 44% of people older than 65 reported signs of insomnia)[3]. Because a balanced sleep schedule is so important to our overall health, it is worth the effort to overcome insomnia and return the body to a balanced sleep schedule.
Tricks to Fall Asleep When You Mind Is Busy
We’ve all experienced it at one point or another. You toss and turn in your bed with darkness around you, while your body is exhausted from the same busy day that is making your brain protest the notion of rest. People don’t have to be condemned to a life of unbalanced sleep in today’s society however. There are several ways to hit the kill switch and enter dreamland at the end of a long day.
1. Create a Relaxing Pre-bed Routine
The time leading up to bedtime is often hectic, so when people finally get their head to hit the pillow, their brains and bodies are still pumping at full power. Preparing yourself for sleep ahead of time and allowing your body to chill out before sleep will make a restful night much easier. Some people recommend taking at least an hour of your time, more can’t hurt, to easing yourself to sleep.
What you do during this time is completely dependent on your own preferences. Some people enjoy mild body relaxing exercises such as stretching, yoga or meditation. Others sit down with a cup of chamomile tea and listen to mild music. Many read books, as they tend to prepare your brain for the fictional world of dreaming while pulling people from the stressful outside world. Whatever it is that relaxes you, give it a try and monitor how sleep improves.
Further reading: read my previous article about the best 12 herbs for insomnia, and if you are interested in herbs and herbal remedies, you can find more useful information in my e-book the Herbal Remedies Guide that will teach you how to treat common ailments using herbs.
2. Monitor Substance Intake
Sometimes it’s our seemingly harmless daily habits that deprive us of a restful night. Caffeine is of course one of the top contributors to insomnia. If you drink coffee or any other drink with moderate to high caffeine levels in the evening, it could likely prolong your brain’s awakeness through the night. Try to limit yourself and set a cutoff time for caffeine if you think it might be affecting your sleep. You can drink water to flush your body or try foods with tryptophan, an amino acid that makes you sleepy (drinking water will also help you flush fat – check my fat flush water recipes). To get more information about foods that will help you get better sleep -read my post the best foods to get better sleep.
3. Live in the Now
In a modern society we tend to live in constant preparation for the future. This is one of the most simplistic yet harrowing contributors to sleep loss. Thinking constantly about what will happen next stirs up anxiety and stress that keeps people in a state of sleepless worry. This can happen from both positive and negative perspectives. The question many people are asking themselves is how to fall asleep when you have things on your mind.
A positive perspective would be exemplified by an excited child on Christmas or the day before their birthday. They’re often so excited that it’s hard for them to catch any Z’s. A more common and stressful perspective is the negative outlook on a demanding millennial age life. Try not to obsess about what the next day has to hold. It seems easy to do but becomes strangely difficult in a world where we’ve become dependent on a prepared mindset for success. Find some way to busy your mind by observing the immediate moment rather than fixating on the future. Try counting sheep, listening to sounds of nature, or even reminiscing older memories – as long as they aren’t stressful memories of course.
Another common suggestion is to write on a piece of paper a list of all the things that need to be done for tomorrow or the next few days in order of importance and plan your schedule. This will ease your mind and will better enable you to sleep. If it is obvious that your mind is active and you can’t sleep, then get up and go into another room and sit in dim light, doing something calm and relaxing. The act of getting up and out of bed can help to stop those running thoughts, as lying in bed with a busy mind teaches the body that the bed is a place to continue to be awake and think, and this is what we want to avoid.
There are plenty of different contributors to sleep loss and deprivation, more often than not they are preventable with the right habits. If you experience persistent sleep loss and can’t seem to figure out why, it’s worthwhile to visit your physician and check for underlying medical causes. But before you do that, try a few of the aforementioned tricks for getting better sleep and see if they shut your brain down at the end of a long and stressful day.