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This is important health information for you. Sleep is one of the most important activities we can do each day. Yet, for many of us, there are times when sleep is elusive, just out of reach, either because we have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, tossing and turning or restless. Fortunately, there are simple techniques that we can incorporate in a daily routine to promote sleep.
While home remedies, habits and the set up of our bedrooms can be useful for promoting sleep, if you or someone you know as persistent insomnia, it is important to see your healthcare provider, as some serious conditions can affect sleep and it is important to rule out any complicating factors. For example, if someone has sleep apnea, a condition or situation where a person actually repeatedly stops breathing during the night, and the multiple occasions of breathlessness actually cause wakefulness. Someone with sleep apnea may rise in the morning feeling as though they haven’t had any sleep at all—even after lying in bed all night—due to the incessant periods of loss of breath that jars a person awake. Being overweight is one of the risk factors that can exacerbate sleep apnea.
If you (or your healthcare provider) has ruled out any underlying conditions that may be leading to your inability to count sheep, and you’re wary of sleeping pills, start shifting some habits to get a good night sleep.
First, if you have nagging problems with sleep, keeping a sleep diary can clue you in to the patterns that are helpful—or not. Particularly when you are trying to uncover the reasons why you have trouble staying under the covers, and when you are trying to figure out what works for you, a sleep diary can be a valuable tool.
Then, you can incorporate habits, and track them in your sleep diary. Make your bedroom a haven or refuge, and not a place to work or watch tv, so that when you go to bed, your body associates the environment with sleep. Darkness is an important promoter of sleep. Not only because we associate darkness with sleep, but because our bodies actually produce melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep, in the presence of darkness. If you have a lot of ambient light from streetlights outside your window, or you have a job that requires you to get more sleep during daylight hours, you can try window shades or curtains that block out light. A sleep mask or eye mask is a powerful tool to induce darkness. While there are cheap nylon eye covers flight attendants pass out on international flights, softer ones can be easily found. Some eye covers may even be filled with buckwheat and lavender to promote relaxation of the muscles around the eyes.
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