Stress at work. Your home losing its value. Your 401K dwindling. Trouble paying the bills. Global Warming. It all adds up to a virtual Pandora’s box of things to think about, worry about and fret over. No wonder so many Americans suffer from insomnia. NPR recently reported that 60 million of us have moderate to severe sleep deprivation. Millions of people lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, thinking their agonizing thoughts and wishing they were asleep.
What can you do to help yourself sleep?
Here are 10 tips for a better night’s sleep, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills. Please feel free to comment and add your own tips as well.
- Skip the caffeine, alcohol and tobacco. A can of soda with dinner may not seem like a big deal, but caffeine can last up to 15 hours in your system. It might not be causing the problem, but it certainly won’t help you if you are already sleepless. Alcohol might make you drowsy at first, but it usually causes a fitfull night of sleep.
- Try visualization. When you can’t turn your thoughts off, purposely think of something else. Focus on it as hard as you can. My own trick is a white room. When my thoughts are racing and I can’t sleep, I picture an empty white room. When I feel thoughts trying to encroach on my mind, I focus harder on the white room. Refuse to let your mind wander to anything else but that room.
- Take a bath. A warm bath before bedtime is a great way to relax body and mind.
- Pay attention to what you eat for dinner. Dr. Sears recommends eating foods that are high in carbohydrates and medium to low in protein for dinner if you have trouble sleeping. Try pasta with parmesan cheese, hummus with whole wheat pita bread or non-spicy chili with beans. Sesame seeds and turkey are great sleep inducers because of the amount of Tryptophan they contain. Don’t eat a heavy, spicy meal right before bedtime.
- Invest in a white noise machine. I’ve had the same one for 10 years. I first began using it to drown out my college roommates. Now I use it to mask my husband’s snores and the dog barking next door. The little lifesaver cost me about $20, but it’s value in helping me get a good night’s sleep is priceless.
- Establish a bedtime routine. It works for toddlers, so why not the rest of us? Take a hot bath or shower, slip into some comfortable pajamas, drink some herbal tea, go to bed. Repeat.
- Exercise. Aside from the health benefits, 15 minutes to an hour of physical activity goes a long way to help you sleep. Just be careful not to exercise too close to bedtime. Allow at least an hour for your body to wind down before attempting to go to sleep.
- Keep a journal by your bedside. If ideas, worries or thoughts are keeping you awake, write them down. Sometimes the simple act of releasing thoughts to paper is cathartic enough to calm your mind enough to let you sleep.
- If you are lucky enough to have a willing spouse or partner, ask them to give you a massage before bed. Kneading tense muscles in a slow, circular motion is a fantastic way to relax and drift off to sleep. Sometimes you might even fall asleep before your massage is over!
- If all else fails, see a doctor. No amount of tips, tricks or remedies can replace the oversight of a doctor if insomnia persists.
One more way to curb insomnia is to take a CHOICES: Drop It At The Door workshop. CHOICES is proven to help reduce stress, diffuse conflict and help you manage anger, especially in the workplace. CHOICES teaches participants that negative energy, stress and anger are all emotions you choose to take part in. By actively choosing to stay calm and release your fears, you steer your life in the direction YOU want it to go. Releasing stress and letting go of anger are important parts of getting a healthy night’s sleep.
It works.
For more information or to schedule a training session, call ARISE Life Skills and Training at 1-888-680-6100 or visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org. Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook and Myspace.
Posted by ARISE life skills 
