Better Sleep For a Better You
By Donna Stark
It seems as if you have tried it all … the blackout blinds, the supplements, the foods that are supposed to encourage sleep … yet you still find yourself tossing and turning throughout the night and waking up completely wrecked. Exhaustion is a complicated feeling, isn’t it? Because if it comes from working yourself to the bone and accomplishing many tasks, it kind of feels good. But when it comes from simply not getting quality sleep, well, that good feeling is nowhere in the picture. I don’t know about you, but I would rather earn my exhaustion than to just wake up with it.
Finding What Works Best
Being able to get the quality rest that your body needs is critical to your health, but how do you get it when you just can’t relax enough to fall asleep? If your mind is racing about the day’s events, about what tomorrow will bring, or about how your week’s schedule is going to play out, then keep reading. Hopefully, these suggestions will help where all the others have failed.
- Plan before you go to bed - Are you thinking about your insanely busy day tomorrow or staring at the ceiling debating the best way to approach your hectic schedule for the week? Is your anxiety increasing because you just want to sleep, yet can’t stop your overactive brain? Give your mind a chance to turn itself off when it’s time for bed by beating it to the punch. Pull out a planner early in the evening and plan the day ahead by time-blocking all of your activities, appointments, and responsibilities. By seeing it written down on paper, you are giving your mind a chance to relax when it is actually time to go to sleep.
- Restrict your time in bed - What if, instead of staring at your walls waiting to fall asleep, you set a limit on how much time you spend in bed based on how much time you are actually sleeping? For instance, if you are attempting to get your eight hours in, but two of them are spent counting sheep, then try limiting yourself to only six hours in bed. Studies have shown that sleep will increase as a result of “bed-deprivation,” and as soon as you find that you are sleeping better by doing this, you can gradually increase that amount of time.
- Meditate - Meditation is known to relax the body and it has been shown to have a positive effect on getting a good night’s rest. It helps you break free from your everyday thoughts and encourages your body to enter into a state of relaxation. And really, isn’t that how we all want to enter our soft blankets at the end of a hard day?
Better Sleep For a Better You
The better you sleep, the better you will feel the next day. It’s certainly a goal worth striving for and worth all of the time and effort you put into it. So here’s to a better night's rest and many happy dreams!
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Pooler, Ga.