Four Tips To Encourage Sleep
Sleeplessness is an epidemic in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 30 percent of adults get less than six hours of sleep per night.
This is a far cry from the seven to nine hours recommended by sleep experts.
Besides the obvious mental and physical health issues that can arise from a lack of sleep, the odds of getting in a car accident also increase dramatically.
Short of taking expensive medications, there are several ways you can combat sleeplessness. Here are four tips for encouraging a visit from the sand man.
Take a Hot Bath
For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when they want to relax is a hot, steamy bath. While they are indeed a great way to shed the day’s stresses, they can also be helpful for lulling yourself to sleep.
Soaking in hot water relaxes both your muscles and your mind, causing your brain to shift into a sleep-receptive state. The effects only get better if you combine aromatherapy with a hot bath.
Fragrances such as lavender, rosemary, chamomile, mint and jasmine all possess sedative effects that will quickly have you nodding off.
The easiest way to do this is to purchase aromatherapy oils from your local health food store and add the recommended amount to your bath water. However, you can also use whole herbs and let them steep for a while before getting in.
Watch Relaxing Videos
If you’re one of those people who can’t seem to pull themselves away from the computer to get ready for bed, then you may want to consider using it to your advantage.
In recent years, the popularity of relaxing videos has exploded due to their ability to soothe viewers to sleep. You can find them on any of the major video sites.
Many of the people who make these videos suffer from sleep problems themselves and want to help others who are afflicted with this potentially debilitating problem.
Viewers can choose from a variety of topics that include guided meditation, massage roleplays, virtual haircuts and even people painting.
Read Before Bed
Reading before bed is a great way to help yourself fall asleep. It distracts your mind from the day’s pressing matters and allows your body time to relax.
This is especially true of fictional stories, which have the added benefit of giving you some pretty neat dreams. However, it’s best if you lie in bed while reading because it’s very common to fall asleep while doing so.
Turn On a Yellow Light
Although widely available electricity has its benefits, it has supported a steady increase in sleep disorders throughout the decades.
Rather than going to bed with the sun as people used to do, we now have artificial light from television, light bulbs and computer monitors keeping us awake well into the night.
This isn’t so much from the distraction of entertainment as it is the fact that their cool-spectrum light disrupts the production of melatonin, the neurotransmitter that makes you sleepy.
If you like to read or surf the Internet before bed, this can be a problem. However, there is a solution. Light on the warm end of the spectrum doesn’t inhibit melatonin production, so you can simply invest in a yellow, orange or red light bulb to use at night.
For your computer monitor, there are programs that will adjust the tone of your screen to eliminate the cool-spectrum light.
