Ten Top Tips for a Great Night’s Sleep
How well we sleep affects our overall well-being, and I have met many people who struggle with getting off to sleep or who wake in the night. Here are some pointers for a quality sleep that are worth considering:
- Make a bedtime routine: try to go to bed at roughly the same time each night and have a routine that you stick to.
- Keep technology out of the bedroom: phones, tablets, laptops and TV’s all stimulate the brain into alertness. If you need to use your phone for an alarm keep it as far away from you as possible. If you wake in the night don’t start checking emails or Facebook, this will make the mind alert.
- Get up: If you wake in the night and simply can’t go back to sleep get up for a while. Maybe half an hour. Read something boring or do something that relaxes you, then brush your teeth again (to trick the mind into thinking it’s bedtime) and go back to bed.
- Avoid caffeine after 4pm. Yes ordinary tea has caffeine too, so if you are a tea lover look out for the de-caff options.
- Make the bedroom a place of zen: declutter, re-decorate, put up beautiful pictures, treat yourself to new bedding, good pillows. Make the bedroom a place you really feel relaxed and at ease in.
- Job done: tidy up what odds and ends you need to do before the late evening so you aren’t going to bed with busy-brain, still processing and thinking about stuff you need to do.
- Get what’s in your head down on paper: got something rattling around that you are afraid of forgetting or not dealing with that’s keeping you awake? Write it down and include some action steps. Now, put it away, somewhere out of the bedroom and go back to bed.
- Sweet aroma: lavender oil is believed to have relaxation properties, and sprinkling two or three drops on your pillow a few hours before you go to bed might soothe you off to sleep. Be careful not to use too much as too many works as the reverse; a stimulant.
- Being grateful: thinking of things just before you go to bed that you are thankful about puts the mind in a positive state which may help a restful sleep. Many of us are too good at picking holes in what we did or didn’t do and this can turn into worry that detracts from a good nights rest.
- EFT, tapping. How can I fail to mention the tapping? So good for so many things, including a restful nights sleep.
Watch the EFT video for a good night’s sleep
