You’re tossing and turning in bed, trying to sleep.
After a while, you muster up the courage to look at the clock, 3 hours have passed by and in two hours, you’ll have to get up for work.
So, you shut your eyes tight and pray for sleep, but nothing.
Sounds familiar?
You’re part of the statistics — 50 to 70 million adults in the United States suffer from a sleep disorder with insomnia being the most common one with about 30% of adults diagnosed with it and 10% diagnosed with chronic insomnia.
Ouch.
Unfortunately for people with a sleep disorder, getting a good night’s sleep is not an easy feat.
If you’re unable to sleep at night, you’ll be glad to know that you’ve stumbled upon the secret to a good night’s sleep.
The Secret to “A Good Night’s Sleep” Revealed
Scientists in the United States have revealed the secret to a good night’s sleep.
The Secret: Have A Purpose in Life
When you have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, it results in fewer disturbances at night and improves quality of sleep one receives.
Even though the researchers used the elderly as subjects for the study, they stated that the results apply to all people regardless of age.
This means that it has already been pre-decided on whether you will sleep well at night or not.
The researchers suggested a solution to help people find a purpose in life, pointing towards mindful therapies to achieve it.
Practice Mindfulness Therapies to Sleep Better Naturally
Mindfulness assists in stress reduction and promotes happiness.
It brings improvements in both psychological and physical self as well as brings about positive changes in behaviors, attitudes, and health.
In short, practicing mindful therapies helps you sleep well at night.
Here are a few mindful therapies you can practice at home:
- Mindfulness Meditation – Sit quietly in a comfortable place in your room. Now, focus on your natural breathing. You can also say a specific word or mantra, repeating it silently. Thoughts will come and go from your head, but you to refocus on your breathing or word or mantra.
- Sensory – Observe sounds, smells, tastes, sights, and touches, naming them as you sense them and allowing them to pass.
- Body Sensations – Observe subtle body sensations such as a tingling or an itch you feel and allow them to pass.
- Urge Surfing – Cope with cravings, especially true for people, dealing with alcohol and substance abuse withdrawal symptoms and behaviors, and let them pass. Observe how your body feels during this time and replace the cravings with knowledge that will make them go away.
- Emotions – Let your emotions come and let them pass without judgement. If you are feeling angry, sad, happy, or frustrated, name your emotions. Accept that they are there and allow them to pass.
Practicing mindfulness therapies is just one way to induce sleep at night, but there is a vast library of tricks and tips on how to sleep through the night.
5 Tips to Help You Sleep Better at Night
If getting a peaceful sleep at night has become a constant struggle for you, these tips can resolve your struggle:
1. Increase Bright Light Exposure during the Day and Decrease Blue Light Exposure in the Evening
Your body’s natural body clock, the circadian rhythm, influences your body, brain, and hormones, helping you stay awake and instructing your body to sleep.
Bright light or natural sunlight during the day keeps your body clock functioning properly, resulting in improved energy in the daytime and improving sleep quality at night.
Researchers expose insomniacs with bright light during the day, which resulted in improved quality and duration of sleep.
Additionally, it decreased the number of hours for insomniacs to fall asleep by 83%.
At nighttime, it’s the opposite.
Bright light in the day will influence your body clock, making you stay awake at night by tricking your brain into thinking it is daytime.
This stops your body from producing melatonin, a sleep hormone, that relaxes your body and helps you sleep quicker for longer and without interruption.
- At night, you need to put any electronic device that emits blue light such as computers and mobile phones away. Here are some ways to reduce blue light exposure at night:
- Wear glasses that restricts blue light.
- Download an app that restricts blue light from emitting through your computer, laptop, and mobile phone.
- Do not watch TV and turn off any lights at least two hours before you go to bed.
2. Avoid Caffeine Late in the Day
Caffeine can improve your focus and elevate your energy levels, but drinking it late in the day can cause you stay awake at night.
Caffeine stimulates your nervous system and prevents your body from relaxing at night.
Researchers stated that drinking caffeine 6 hours before going to bed drastically worsened sleep quality, as it tends to stay in your blood for 6 to 8 hours.
You should not drink a lot of caffeine after 4 PM.
3. Try Not to Take Long Naps in the Day
Short “power naps” are good, but long naps, and that too, at odds times of the day, are bad. They can reduce your sleep quality at night by confusing your body clock.
Researchers found that napping for 30 minutes or less can heighten brain function during the day whereas taking longer naps in the day can negatively influence your sleep quality and health.
4. Sleep and Wake Up Around the Same Time Each Day
If you sleep and wake up around the same time each day, your body clock will program itself to do that.
There are some people who do not even need an alarm clock, as their body clock makes them drowsy and wakes them up at the same time each day.
You can reset your body clock by waking up and sleeping at the same time every day.
Researchers noted that people with irregular sleeping patterns who slept late on the weekends could not sleep properly at night.
5. Optimize Your Bedroom Environment and Set Your Bedroom Temperature
External light, arrangement of furniture, and outside noise can all affect sleep quality.
You need to optimize your bedroom by minimizing outside noise, eliminating external and internal lights such as from alarm clocks, and create a relaxing, calming, and quiet environment.
Researchers studied the bedroom environment of women and discovered that around 50% of them slept better when no light and noise was present in the bedroom.
When you feel too cold in the winter in your bedroom, getting a good night’s sleep will be out of the question.
The same goes for in the summer. You need to set the temperature of your room to around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but is also depends on your own comfort level.
Researchers found out that bedroom temperature influences sleep quality more than outside noise.
You can adopt these sleeping techniques for adults to help you sleep, but even if you’re a senior, teenager, or child, practicing these sleeping habits from the start will ensure you do not experience a decrease in your sleep quality.
Apart from practicing these sleeping techniques, you also should fill your pantry up with food for good sleep.
5 Foods that Promote Good Night Sleep
You need to eat the following types of food before bedtime to sleep well at night:
1. Almonds
Almonds not only reduce the risk of developing chronic medical conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, it also helps increase sleep quality by regulating melatonin, the sleep hormone, in the body.
2. Chamomile Tea
Chamomile tea, rich in antioxidants, reduces the risk of chronic medical conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
It also promotes a good night’s sleep due to apigenin, an antioxidant, that attaches itself to specific receptors in the brain that reduces insomnia by promoting sleep.
Researchers found out that drinking 270 mg of chamomile tea two times each day for 28 days made them fall asleep 15 minutes quicker than those who did not drink it.
3. Fatty Fish
Fatty fish such as trout, mackerel, tuna, and salmon offer several health benefits.
They also promote sleep as noted by researchers.
In the research, men at 300 grams of salmon three times each week for six months and slept about 10 minutes quicker due to the increased production of the sleep-promoting chemical in the brain, serotonin.
4. Kiwi
Kiwi offers an incredible number of health benefits such as lowering cholesterol, improving digestive system, and reducing inflammation.
It can also improve sleep quality if you eat before going to bed.
In a research, 24 people ate kiwi before sleeping every night and researchers found out that they fell asleep 42% faster than people who did not eat anything before going to bed.
5. Tart Cherry Juice
Tart cherry juice promotes sleepiness if you drink it before going bed. It contains high levels of melatonin, a sleep hormone, which regulates sleep.
Researchers asked insomniacs to drink 8 ounces of tart cherry juice two times each day and found out that it improved their sleep quality, helping them sleep an hour and a half longer.
Not only do you know the secret to a good night’s sleep, but you also know the tips on how to sleep through the night as well as the food to eat for good sleep.
