You've certainly had those frustrating nights when you felt like The Princess and the Pea... There was nothing that would have helped you fall asleep. But if these turn into habits, you are in desperate need of help.
Here are some simple tricks that will bring you back to a normal sleeping schedule and will allow you to return to your everyday activities.
- Green Tea
The main reason that green tea can help cure
insomnia is because of the l-theanine content. This is an amino acid found in
the Camilla sinensis plant which is where green tea comes from.
L-theanine has been well researched and has been shown to help reduce stress and anxiety and promote a restful sleep. Though green tea does contain caffeine, the l-theanine content of the tea helps balance the caffeine out. By day, green tea helps keep you alert. By night, it helps promote sleep and even helps you fall asleep.
- Aromatherapy Lavender is the trick here, as studies have proven that it aids in sleep. It's also a cheap, nontoxic way to slip into a peaceful slumber. Find a spray with real lavender and spritz it on your pillow before bedtime. Even a lavender-filled pillow would be efficient!
- Bedtime Snacks
High carbohydrate, low-protein bedtime snacks can make sleeping easier.
Carbohydrate-rich foods like toast tend to be easy on the tummy and can
ease the brain into
blissful slumber.
Drinking a glass
of warm milk before
bedtime is an age-old treatment for sleeping troubles, as it relaxes both body
and mind. Other foods recommended are cottage cheese, chicken, turkey,
soybeans, and tuna.
Along with a glass of milk you can also have a few cookies. Sugary foods eaten about 30 minutes before bedtime can actually act as a sedative, and you can wake up without the morning fuzziness that accompanies synthetic sleeping pills.
Honey has the same sedative effect as sugar and may get you to bed more quickly. Try adding 1 tablespoon honey to some decaffeinated herbal tea or even to your warm milk for a relaxing pre-sleep drink.
- Establish a Bed Time
Ritual
Mothers usually bathe their children or read them
stories before bedtime. Establishing such a ritual may also be helpful for
adults. A hot bath taken two hours before bedtime is a wonderful way to relax
your body and make it ready for sleep. For most people, taking a bath closer to
bedtime may be stimulating and may delay sleep.
- Limit Caffeine and
Alcohol
Although alcohol can make you feel drowsy and may actually put you to sleep, it has the unpleasant side effect of waking you up later on in the night with a headache. Caffeine, on the other hand, stimulates your brain. Limit your coffee intake to two cups a day. After 5 o'clock in the evening, consume no foods or beverages that contain caffeine.
P.S.:
If you don’t fall asleep within 30 minutes, get out of bed. Do something
low key like reading or folding laundry until you feel tired. Then go back to
bed.
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