I thought I'd talk about a few non-medical ways of helping you get off to sleep, just some sensible do's and don'ts that might help you fall off each night.
DO
- Try to stick to a routine - the body and brain respond well to routine and most of the time your body will recover from a short bout of insomnia by simply following your normal routine.
- Just try to follow a normal healthy lifestyle, but don't go to extremes. Do your normal exercise - whether it's a visit to the gym or walking to the bus stop. Eat sensibly and do enjoy a bit of something nice, be it chocolate or a glass of wine.
- Have a relaxing bath or shower before bed.
- Try putting some lavender in the bedroom - maybe some drops of lavender essence on the pillow. A lot of people swear by this to help them get to sleep.
- Drink camomile tea if your brain is overactive before you go to bed - it does seem to help calm me down.
- Something relaxing - maybe read a book in bed, or watch a relaxing tv show before going to bed (don't watch tv in the bedroom). Anything that will help your brain to slow down.
- Have sex. We all know how relaxed it helps us feel!
DON'T
- Go to bed hungry. I'm convinced that one of the reasons I couldn't sleep when I was younger was going home every night and starving myself to loose weight.
- Go to bed straight after a large meal.
- Exercise late in the evening.
- Start working late in the evening.
- Drink too much or eat too much - either in the evening or during the day. Keep things moderate!
- LIE IN BED TRYING TO GET TO SLEEP. If you're not asleep within about 20 - 30 minutes, get up and go into a different room and do something else.
You have to experiment a little to find out what works for you.
I know that the best thing I can do is to promise myself that I'll have a good half hour read before I go to sleep. I look forward to getting through the next chapter or two of my book. And guess what happens? As soon as I start reading, I'm asleep within 5 - 10 minutes. And if I wake up during the night and can't get back to sleep, I get up and go into the sitting room and sit down to read for half an hour. And 9 times out of 10, I'm asleep in a few minutes.
You have to find out what works for you.
Hope you have a good sleep tonight!
Bernadette
