Ah the Bliss of a Great Night’s Sleep! But it’s a Game Changer when you wonder why can’t I fall asleep? So Here are Some Tips for Getting Better Sleep!
When you can’t fall asleep once you’ve slipped into bed, its super annoying, right? Sleep is that blissful moment when you doze off to dreamy slumber-land! The next day you wake refreshed, ready to climb out of bed and see what the new day brings!
But for many, getting into bed at night causes anxiety because they worry they’ll have another fitful night’s sleep. Likely you’re looking at the clock every 20 minutes, mentally counting down how much time they still have left to salvage. If you tell yourself ‘go to sleep, think of nothing, relax the muscles’ but instead your mind wanders. You relive every embarrassing moment of your life while visualizing your To-Do list and how its not getting DONE which makes you even more anxious! Then you drag through the next day guzzling coffee while barking at the kids, spouse and dog, and thinking about falling back into bed that night. You pray that you’ll get some ZZZZZLEEP!
There are many things that you can do before bed to help relax and ease into a beautiful night’s sleep. World Sleep Day is an annual event, celebrated by those that try to learn better sleep habits! Its meant to call attention to important issues related to sleep, medicine, education and social aspects of sleep. So in honor of that day of awareness, we’ve researched dozens of sites. We’ve looked at articles and blogs to help combine what we feel are the best ways to build the perfect sleep-machine, feather your nest, and rack up the REMS!
In no particular order, some of the sleep-producing action items are below:
- Vacuum and dust your room, open the windows to get fresh air in and stale air out. Wash your pillows with an eco-friendly detergent (your face is on them, after all!) launder your comforter and duvet cover, and put fresh sheets on the bed. Yep, this is some WORK but when done; you’ll have a fresh clean room and cozy bed. This can bring great joy when you enter your room at night and slip between the sheets.
- Turn the heat down, or the air on, until you get a cool and comfortable room between 60-68 depending on your preference. Studies show that a cool room causes less tossing and turning. Your body temperature lowers during the night and you’ll feel more comfortable in a cooler room.
- Buy the most comfortable bedding you can. You’re snuggled into your nest for a 1/3 of your life, so make it count! Invest is bedding that makes you feel wonderful. BedVoyage bamboo bedding can help you with the amazing array of eco-luxury bed sheets, duvet covers, coverlets and shams to feather your nest!
- Your bedroom is meant for rest and romance, only! If you have your desk, workout equipment and a large screen TV in your bedroom, chances are you are not getting enough of the magical R&R that is meant to happen there. Relocate those items, and then when you go to bed you won’t be looking at them thinking ‘dang, I didn’t work out today or finish that work project.’
- Remove Blue LED emitting items from your room before sleeping, this means smart phones, pads, and laptops. They can upset your normal sleep patterns, called the Circadian Rhythms, which suppresses the production of melatonin needed for sound sleep. Its suggested that you remove them 30-60 minutes before you try to fall asleep. You can read more here.
- Drop a bit of lavender or chamomile essential oils onto the light bulb of your bedside lamp about 15 minutes before lying down, releasing a relaxing scent into the room. You can also set a diffuser on your dresser, or spritz your pillow with lavender to release the scent all night. Another tip is to infuse your bedding by applying a few drops of your favorite essential oil to a cotton ball, toss it into a lingerie bag, and then into the dryer with your freshly laundered bedding.
Those are the ways to get your room ready for bed, but now; how about your body and mind! Many of us have heard of the typical sleep recipes we grew up with: sip a mug of warmed milk, take a hot bath, make some sleepy-time tea, but we found 3 recipes that looked easy and very soothing, and you may just have all of these ingredients in your panty or essential oil cache now!
The 3-ingredient Recipe for Falling Asleep in Minutes
To make this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- 4 oz of magnesium oil
- 10 drops of lavender oil
- 10 drops of chamomile oil
Combine these 3 ingredients in the listed quantities in a dark colored glass spray bottle. The dark color will help keep the essential oils from losing their potency because exposure to sunlight will cause them to deteriorate. Shake the spray bottle well to combine these ingredients.
Spray this mixture on the bottoms of your feet before bed to help you fall asleep in minutes, rub in well so that don’t get oils on your linens, or you can put on a pair of socks! The skin of the feet can absorb the essences of these 3 simple ingredients, which help the body to relax and prepare us for an excellent night’s rest.
Simple Sleepy-Time Recipe to Fall and Stay Asleep
To balance your sugars and regulatory glands before sleep, so that you don’t wake during the night:
1 TB coconut oil
1/2 tsp raw honey
1/8th tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
In a jar, combine all ingredients, mix well and put the lid on. Place ½ TBS of the mixture under your tongue before bed, and you can do it again if you wake up in the middle of night. The coconut oil is a fat that satiates hunger, preventing insulin levels from spiking. The sea salt nourishes the adrenals, reducing stress and cortisol. The cinnamon is a blood sugar stabilizer. The honey is the ‘sugar’ that will top-off your glycemic storage, which will give you the energy to sleep throughout the night.
Bed-Time Tea That is Soothing and Reduces Inflammation and Cholesterol
- 2 TBS dried chamomile in a tea bag, or 2 tea bags of organic store-bought chamomile tea
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened plant milk of choice (such as almond or soy)
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 TBS raw honey, or more to taste
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a sauce pan, turn off the heat and add the tea, let steep for 3-5 minutes, then discard the tea bags. Now stir in the coconut oil, milk, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and honey. Taste and add more of any ingredient you’d like. Re-heat on low and enjoy! An added tip: this mixture is glorious with coffee in the morning, just swap out the tea water for coffee, and use less milk.
Hop around on the internet and you can find many more tantalizing sleep recipes, as well as dozens of things you can do to prepare your room for optimal sleep!
Sweet Dreams~
