How to Sleep Better at Night Naturally
How to sleep better at night, naturally…finally!
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Zombies may be fictitious, and yet I was convinced that I had become one.
My husband was a fan of the TV show, The Walking Dead, and I used to joke that I was a real-life zombie when our kiddos were small – no apocalypse needed.
Now I’ve left my zombie days behind but I still have those nights where sleep is elusive.
After determining the cause of my sleepless, restless nights, I was able to incorporate these tips to help me fall asleep faster and get more, better quality sleep.
When insomnia struck
Without a great night of sleep, I wasn’t one of those blood thirsty, human eating zombies, but I definitely didn’t feel like myself the next day.
More often than not I found that I would morph into an impatient, angry and frustrated zombie. Yet most of the time I was a walk around in a fog all day or crash at 3:00 pm kind of zombie - forgetful, unmotivated and dead tired.
The most frustrating part is that some nights when my head hit the pillow, I would simply lie awake. Wide awake in fact - watching the minutes and sometimes hours tick by.
I was so exhausted and desperate for shut eye but I could not fall asleep. Or other nights I would fall asleep, but have crazy, restless dreams that made me feel like I didn’t get any shut eye at all.
After I jokingly told a friend that I resembled a zombie, I realized that it truly wasn’t a joking matter.
It was high time for me to take my insomnia seriously and make sleep a priority. In order to return to the land of the living (or at the very least, the highly functioning) I had to figure out how to fall asleep easier and get the quality and quantity of sleep that I needed.
Getting to the root of my insomnia
In order to figure out how to fall asleep faster, and get longer, better quality sleep, I first had to identify what was sabotaging my sleep so that I could find the appropriate fix.
I chalked up my difficulty falling asleep to three main factors:
Over-thinking - My biggest problem falling asleep was shutting my mind off. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was either mentally clicking away at tomorrow’s to do list, obsessing over some worry or concern, or fielding a wave of ideas for things I had to work on.
Late night cramming - Once my kids were asleep, I would tackle the laundry, clean the kitchen, return emails or start a project for work. My mind was turning up to hyper drive to get things done when it should have been winding down from the day.
Screen watching – I don’t watch TV anymore but when I did, watching late night TV, filled mostly with violence, left me feeling high strung and stressed out right before bed. Now I mostly curl up with a good book, but more often than not I’m reading an ebook on my iPad which is still watching a screen late at night.
Though these are common contributing factors to insomnia, if you have trouble sleeping there may be other things keeping you awake at night.
Anxiety and stress are major culprits to disrupting sleep.
Wrestling with the current world situation with COVID-19 is leaving many people stressed about job security, income and cash flow, social isolation and their own fears of illness.
Pain is also a common cause of sleep disruption leading to difficulty falling asleep or getting good, quality sleep each night.
Of course, simply having caffeine too late in the day or eating late in the night can also easily influence sleep quality.
Before you try to tackle a solution, it is best to do a little digging to figure out your own problem areas first.
How to fall asleep faster and get longer, better quality sleep.
Strategies that work for me
Once you identify some of the underlying issues impacting your sleep, it’s easier to implement strategies to help you fall asleep faster and get longer, better quality sleep.
Sleep medication is not something I would consider, especially since it just masks the problem. Plus, sleep medication can come with several risks.
It can be addictive, cause excessive drowsiness and problems with memory and attention. If mixed with alcohol, it can prove dangerous and possibly deadly because they can slow breathing and heart rate.
Instead, I’ve implemented these changes over time that now help me leave my zombie days behind and wake feeling well rested.
1 - Create an effective sleep environment
To start, it’s important to set up the best sleep environment possible. For me, this meant:
Setting our bedroom thermostat to 70 degrees (not too hot but not too cold for me either)
Decreasing the bedroom lights at least one hour before I went to bed
Eliminating work or TV in our bed
Setting a consistent bedtime
Purchasing a comfortable mattress and pillow
It’s been relatively easy keeping work or TV out of the bed. It’s been slightly more challenging sticking to a consistent bedtime but I’m managing so that my body knows when it’s time to get ready for sleep.
2 - Conduct an end of the day mind dump
Since over-thinking was a major factor, I now plan tomorrow’s to do list after dinner. This seems to help me collect my thoughts at a reasonable hour so that I’m not rehashing the day and thinking about tomorrow at bedtime.
If late night brainstorms still occur, I have a notepad on my nightstand so that I can capture the idea and get back to sleep.
3 - Use meditation or guided visualization
Meditation has had the greatest impact on my ability to fall asleep.
Meditation and guided visualization is a mind-body technique that has shown to decrease stress, reduce pain, alleviate allergies, and yes, improve sleep (source).
I will now turn on a meditation at bedtime if I don’t seem tired or if my brain won’t turn off. After just 15-20 minutes my body is less tense and I’m drowsy if I haven’t already fallen asleep.
There are several mediations and guided visualizations to listen to for free on YouTube or you can try downloading an app such as Calm, Headspace or my favorite, Chopra.
I also never miss one of Oprah and Deepak Chopra’s free 21 day meditation series.
Though they are not geared for sleep specifically I like to listen to them at bedtime. I find Deepak’s voice very soothing and the meditations help me to relax.
4 - Set realistic priorities
It finally registered that I could no longer morph into the Tasmanian Devil, working furiously to get “everything” done in the evening.
I’ve had to set more realistic expectations and prioritize what I can and cannot do in the evenings so that I have sufficient time to let my body and mind wind down for sleep.
A must for me - having the kitchen table and counters clean by the end of the day.
The toy room, living room and even the laundry room just have to wait if they are in complete disarray. Prioritizing has been invaluable as it saves me time and energy at night plus it makes me happy come morning having at least a clean kitchen.
5- Unplug and step away from the technology
Once I understood that staring at devices with blue light emissions have shown to decrease levels of melatonin, the hormone secreted at night to induce sleepiness (source), I have made it a point to wear blue light blocking glasses if I’m reading on my iPad after 8:00 pm.
There are many options for purchasing blue light blocking glasses, many of which are inexpensive and fashionable.
These are my favorite pair as they are extremely light weight.
Even though I often wear my regular glasses at night (after removing my contact lenses) I actually wear my blue light blocking glasses over them with no problem.
Check out my post on wearing blue light blocking glasses.
6 - Try magnesium
Some nights I still feel like I need a bit more help relaxing at night to sufficiently fall asleep so that’s when I take this magnesium supplement before bed.
Magnesium helps to relax muscle tension, stimulate melatonin synthesis and deactivate adrenaline, all of which I knew would help me to fall asleep faster (source).
Magnesium comes in many forms but I recommend magnesium glycinate as it is a highly absorbable form of magnesium and does not have a laxative effect to it like magnesium citrate.
Magnesium threonate is also a great form as it too is highly absorbable and is great for overall cognitive function, memory support, relaxation and better sleep.
You can also get magnesium by taking an Epsom salt bath at night. Plus, a warm bath at night can be relaxing and calming before bed to help you sleep.
I put I about 1-2 cups of Epsom salts with 5 drops of lavender essential oil in my evening baths.
7- Try phototherapy using the Silent Nights patch
Phototherapy can also help you to fall asleep faster and get better quality sleep and sleep longer.
Phototherapy uses light to stimulate changes in the body. To learn more about phototherapy, you can click here.
The phototherapy patch that helps with sleep is the Silent Nights patch.
This patch has shown to regulate serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the precursor to melatonin which is the hormone secreted by the pineal gland that regulates your circadian rhythm and sleep. Silent Nights has also shown to increase the length of sleep by 66%.
The patch does not contain any medication or chemicals and can be worn at night at acupuncture points at the neck, head or feet. Just place it and forget it until morning!
8- Try flower essences for sleep
Bach flower essences are made by infusion of wild plants and flowers, and are considered homeopathic remedies.
Bach Rescue Sleep is a combination of 6 Bach Flower remedies – 5 found in their Rescue Remedy as well as White Chestnut which helps remove stress and repeated unwanted thoughts to help you sleep more soundly.
This is a great remedy to try if your insomnia or sleeplessness is due to a restless mind, stress or repetitive thoughts keeping you up at night.
The flower essences are all natural and non-habit forming.
I love the sleep liquid melts which are small capsules that you place on your tongue and which melt almost instantly. These fast-dissolving capsules release 4 drops of Rescue Sleep.
One of the best things you can do for your health is to get plenty of good quality sleep. Plus, it’s free!
If you’re having trouble falling asleep, waking through the night, or just not getting enough sleep then try one of these suggestions.
Whenever I now have occasional night where my sleep is lacking, that’s when I revisit this list to see what I can change or use to help my sleep the next night.
So, I’m happy to say that overall I’m back in the land of the living, no longer a member of the walking dead. I leave the zombies to TV.
