Everyone has had the feeling at least once in their lifetimes where it was difficult to fall asleep at night, and you tossed and turned for what felt like hours. If you are on the road all the time and sleep on an RV mattress or if you work early morning hours, this lack of sleep can be devastating.
You may want to consider talking to a medical professional about a sleep disorder like insomnia, but there could be natural steps you can take to fall asleep faster too. You can find tips that will help you as soon as tonight to fall asleep fast.
1. Make a Schedule
When you have a young child or a baby, you likely have them on a sleep schedule as you know they will naturally fall asleep at a certain time every day and every night. A sleep schedule can be beneficial to adults as well, especially with the busyness of life that many experience.
Keeping your sleep schedule as consistent as possible with a time that you wake up and a time that you fall asleep will help you to fall asleep naturally. Start with a time that you normally try to be in bed by and make adjustments as are necessary.
2. Cut Back on Caffeine
Caffeine is known for helping to keep you alert and for giving you a boost of energy. If you are drinking caffeine, however, within six hours of the time that you go to sleep, you may have a more difficult time falling asleep.
Try to stop thinking about drinking caffeine by 2 pm or by 3 pm if you are trying to go to bed by 9 pm or 10 pm. There are alternatives that you can choose to help you stay focused including exercise and even an energizing snack such as a fruit or vegetable.
3. Turn Off Blue Lights
It is perfectly okay to relax on your phone or to watch your favorite television show at night. The blue light in these digital devices, however, can interrupt your sleep cycle as it provides alertness to your brain. Blue light can actually limit how much melatonin is produced in your brain, which is necessary to get a good night of sleep and to help you fall asleep. Try to use glasses that block blue light or spend the last hour or so before you go to bed off of your phone or away from the television.
4. Follow an Exercise Routine
It should make sense that exercise can help you fall asleep faster. Try to exercise around dinner time or in the afternoon as exercising too late at night can actually give you a boost of energy right before it is time for bed.
Only exercise with a routine that you are comfortable with and that you know will bring relaxation and exhaustion to your muscles. Try to stick to the same time for your exercise routine every day so that you can again, provide your body with some type of routine.
5. Relax
The final way to help yourself fall asleep at night is to find some way that you can relax. A lot of difficulty in falling asleep is due to an inability to relax due to stressors in your life or due to anxiety.
Try to use meditation or yoga right before you go to bed that will clear your mind and will help you to focus on the goal which is sleep. You can even listen to white noise that will relax your mind when you are trying to fall asleep at night.
Final Thoughts
There is nothing more frustrating than an inability to sleep at night, and at that, an inability to fall asleep at night. Before you rush to your doctor for medication though, consider the five tips above that will help you to reset your brain so that you can sleep in peace. These will help to ease your anxiety and will assist in tiring your muscles and in the release of melatonin. If one of the tips does not suit you or does not work for you, move on to one of the others until you find what will help you best.
