7 Techniques and Tips to Sleep Well (Quickly)

Sleeping well, resting and falling asleep is very important for good health, being in the mood during the day and even being productive. How you find yourself during the day depends a lot on whether you have rested and slept correctly. The solution to your sleep problems can be found in your daily routines and in beginning to use effective remedies and methods.

Your sleep routines, habits and lifestyle can be the causes of an evil or good dream and, therefore, of feeling rested. Therefore, being able to sleep depends largely on whether you have Healthy habits or not.

Ideally, you should find the number of hours of sleep that you find rested and set up a nightly sleep routine without interruptions. As for naps, the ideal is not to spend 20-30 minutes.

Here are 7 techniques, tips and tricks sleep well And better sleep. They are tricks that are often learned over the years, although you can practice them from today.

Techniques and tricks to improve the quality of your dream

1-Regulate your dream in a natural way

The Melatonin Is a natural hormone controlled by exposure to light and regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Your brain You should segregate it more at night, to make you feel drowsy, and less during the day so that you feel energized and alert.

However, some aspects of modern life, such as blinds, can disrupt the natural production of melatonin and therefore your Sleep cycle .

Spending many hours during the day in an office can make you feel drowsy and go into a bright light at night (in front of the TV or with lamps too bright), it can interrupt the production of melatonin and make it more Difficult to sleep.

Increase your exposure to light during the day:

• Take walks during the day, exercise, eat coffee outside the bar.
• Leave the blinds and curtains open to get up naturally.
• Move your place of work to an area where there is light.

Promotes the production of Melatonin at night:

• Turn off TV and computer : You may feel that a movie relaxes you or you fall asleep with your computer or tablet in front of you. However, this causes the production of melatonin to be discontinued and in addition, the television stimulates you instead of relaxing.
• Do not use devices that have too much light , Such as smartphones or iPads or at least try to minimize it.
• Use low-light bulbs Or low voltage at night.
• Try that when sleeping, the Room is as dark as possible .
• If you go to the bathroom during the night, keep the Light to the minimum To make it easier for you to go back to sleep.

2-Relax before bed

You will sleep better and deeper if you relax before going to sleep.

• Eliminate noise : If you can not avoid traffic sounds, people talking on the street or animals, you can put on headphones with relaxing sounds or use earplugs.
• Avoid heat : The ideal temperature for sleeping is between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius and with adequate ventilation.
• Use a Good mattress And clean sheets.

In fact, this is the best way if you want fast dozing. It is essential that you feel relaxed.

You can practice for example Autogenous relaxation . Here is the step by step:

1. It begins with deep breathing, the exhalation being double the inhalation. For example: inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds.
2. Inhale, close your eyes and as you exhale repeat 6-8 times:"my right arm is getting heavier"and concentrate on that feeling
3. Repeat 6-8 times:"my right arm weighs more and more"(hands, arms, legs, back, neck, men, feet, thighs, legs)
4. Repeat 6-8 times:"my right arm is warm"(hands, arms, legs, back, neck, men, feet, thighs, legs)
5. Repeat 6-8 times:"my heart beats quietly and relaxed"
6. Repeat 6-8 times:"my breathing is getting more calm"
7. Repeat 6-8 times:"my stomach is getting warmer"
8. Repeat 6-8 times:"My front is cold"

You can too To practice meditation . Step by Step:

1. Sit upright in a comfortable chair, putting one hand on your stomach and another on your chest
2. Breathe through your nose for 4 seconds slowly, so that the hand of your stomach rises and the hand on your chest rises very little
3. Hold the air for 4 seconds
4. Exhale through the mouth for 4 seconds slowly, expelling as much air as you can, while contracting the abdomen
5. The seconds that you comment are a proposal, make modifications until you feel totally comfortable. Practice is the key.

In addition, here are other Relaxation techniques .

3-Keep a fixed schedule of sleep

Maintaining a sleep schedule means getting up at the same time each day and going to bed at the same time, keeping the same hours of sleep. It does not have to be the exact time but it is very close. This way you will feel much more energetic and more awake.

So:

• Get up at the same time every day : In fact, and you have been able to verify, this is done naturally, although only if you have slept enough. So, ideally you should get up alone, but if you do not and you have to use alarm, it may be a sign that you should set an earlier time to go to sleep.
• Set an hour to go to sleep : There are people who go to bed at 12, others at 11. Ideally, you go to sleep when you feel tired and do not try to stay up late. To change the bedtime, you will have to adjust yourself by making small increments or decrements of 15 minutes.
• If you've slept a little, take a nap: when you've slept a lot for staying late or going to parties, It is better that you take a nap instead of sleeping late.
• As for naps, watch how you feel. If you see that napping causes you not to feel like sleeping until very late, eliminate it. On the other hand, you do not have to nap for an hour, with 20-30 minutes you have enough to rest . Another good advice is to try to sleep shortly after eating.
• Avoid drowsiness after eating : If sleeping after eating makes it harder to fall asleep at normal times, try to avoid sleeping while being active; Doing homework, taking a walk, etc.

If you have a job or a fixed schedule to meet, ideally you go to sleep so that you get up naturally.

If you do not have a job or do not have a fixed schedule to meet, get up without an alarm clock and let the natural routine be established; In time you will go to sleep and you will get up at the same time.

4-Control stress: practice mindfulness and meditation

I have already explained to you a few simple steps to start practicing meditation. To control stress, I recommend you this article .

These are some key components of Practice of mindfulness Which Kabat-Zinn and others identify:

• Pay attention to your breathing, especially when you feel intense emotions.
• Realize what you feel in each moment; The sights, sounds, smells.
• Recognize that your thoughts and emotions are fleeting and do not define you.
• Feel the physical sensations of your body. From the water that slides on your skin when you shower to the way you rest in a chair.

To develop these skills in daily life, you can try these exercises that are used in the Kabat-Zinn MBSR program:

1- Body exploration : You focus your attention on your body; From your feet to your head, trying to be aware and accepting any sensation, without controlling or changing those feelings.

2- Exercise of the raisin : It is a question of slowly using all your senses, one after another, to observe a passage in great detail, from the way you sit in the palm of your hand to its flavor on your tongue. This exercise is done to focus on the present and can be done with different foods.

5-Book your bed to sleep and sex

You should avoid associating your bed with work or something that causes you stress or anxiety. Use your bed only to sleep and have sex, so that your brain associates it only with those practices.

You can also read in low light, listen to relaxing music or meditate in bed before bed.

6-Eat well and exercise

• Eat little at dinner and not too late : The ideal is dinner from 20:00 to 21:00 although in Spain we are accustomed to do so much later. Also, avoid eating fatty or heavy foods to make your digestion lighter.
• Avoid alcohol : Although it can make you fall asleep earlier, it also causes you to wake up in the middle of the night.
• Avoid coffee : Caffeine can cause sleep problems 12 hours after taking it.
• Avoid drinking too much before bed So you do not have to get up to go to the bathroom during the night.
• Leave the tobacco : Nicotine is a stimulant and in addition, you can suffer abstinence from it at night.
• Practice at least 30 minutes of daily exercise And avoid it 2 hours before going to sleep, as it will make you feel active and energetic.

7-If you wake up at night, relax

Sometimes it is difficult to go back to sleep after waking up. Try the following to go back to sleep:

• Relax with meditation , Concentrating on the breath.
• Do some activity for 10-15 minutes . You can read in dim light or have a relaxing tea (which does not have caffeine). Avoid stimulating TV lights, smartphones or tablets.
• Avoid worries : You can set a fixed time the next day to think about them, it is a technique that works.

8-Other tips

• Take a Hot bath 90 minutes before bed . Lowering body temperature after it will make you feel drowsy. Other people also work for you. The cold showers .
• Develop a Bedtime routine So that your brain receives signals that it is time to sleep: listening to relaxing music, reading, drinking a relaxing tea, doing relaxation exercises, etc.
• Write a Dream diary : Will make you discover certain habits that can influence your insomnia. It should cover questions such as: Were you worried or anxious before bed? Have you slept? Have you exercised shortly before bed? Have you drunk caffeine? How many hours have you slept? How long did it take you to fall asleep? What are your hours of going to sleep and getting up?...

And what has served you better sleep?