I regularly find that most people who have trouble with sleep do not have an effective way of winding down in the evening. In fact, many of us don’t wind down at all and expect our bodies to shift from one state (wakefulness) to the other state (sleep) with no transition time in between.
We need to have effective ways of winding down in order to allow our bodies natural process of producing melatonin (the sleep hormone) to happen so our body and mind can follow a natural rhythm into sleep.
When this process is not allowed to happen effectively we may experience problems in getting to sleep, waking up frequently during the night or distressing/disturbing dreams.
So here are my tips for how to wind down in the evening to achieve your best possible sleep at night.
Watch the video here…
[divider number=”1″ title= “Put a full stop on the day”]
Decide on a point in the evening to put a full stop on the day. After this point, don’t do any more tasks, don’t check email or focus on anything stressful. After this time, everything you do should be calm and done for relaxation.Perhaps read a book, go for a walk, watch some TV or do anything else you find relaxing and enjoyable. Some people find it helpful to visualise drawing a line under the day.
[divider number=”2″ title= “Avoid anything too stimulating”]
Think about how you would relax a child ready for bed…we are no different. Avoid anything too stimulating before sleep so make sure you keep your lights low, turn sound down, watch calm things, avoid overly exciting books. You might choose to do some yoga or stretches to further wind down.
[divider number=”3″ title= “Relax…on purpose”]
Most people believe they are relaxing when doing things such as watching TV but most people I speak to admit they are still aware of their minds churning over and often cant concentrate on what they are watching. I suggest making a conscious decision to relax by using an audio to guide you in an effort to achieve deep relaxation. Sometimes it can take a while to get use to this kind of relaxation but it is a brilliant way of assisting your brain activity to calm to where it needs to be for quality sleep.
We cannot simply expect to sleep well every night without giving ourselves the best conditions in which to do so.