Falling asleep at a reasonable time, or even at all, can sometimes be a difficult task. So next time you find yourself lying awake at night wanting to fall asleep quickly, try some of the suggestions below.
15 Tips For How To Fall Asleep Faster
We can’t promise to teach you how to fall asleep in 5 minutes, but we’re sure these tips will help get more rest if you do them consistently.
1. Meditation
Meditation is all about relaxing your mind and focus. Meditation can help your brain slow down and your body releases the stress from the day. If you’re new to meditation you can find books or guided videos to help you get started.
2. Breathing
Breathing is something our bodies do without needing us to focus on it. However, concentrating on your breathing can give your body health benefits such as creating a calm that allows for you to fall asleep faster. Try closing your eyes and counting to five as you inhale, then five as you exhale. There are other techniques to control your breathing and you can explore to find the right ones for you.
3. Get Off Your Phone
Staring at a screen all day every day is a common experience for most of us. Whether it’s for your job or to scroll endlessly through social media, everyone spends a lot of time on their devices. Before you go to bed, try to put down your phone thirty minutes before you want to fall asleep.
4. Reduce Your Caffeine
For many of us, caffeine is the fuel that gets us through the day. It’s known for its ability to give people energy, which is exactly the opposite of what you want when you’re trying to fall asleep at night. As a general rule, you shouldn’t consume caffeine three hours before you want to sleep, so switch to water before bedtime.
5. Reduce Your Naps
When it’s been a long day, sometimes a nice nap is all you want. Naps aren’t bad in moderation, but if you’re relying on them to get you through the day then it is actually unhealthy for you and your sleep schedule. Try to limit your nap times and you may have an easier time falling asleep at night.
6. Exercise
Exercise provides plenty of health benefits, including that it helps you to fall asleep at night. Now, you shouldn’t exercise and then go right to sleep, but adding in thirty minutes of exercise time may help you fall asleep better.
7. Supplements
There are sleep supplements designed to help you fall asleep. Sometimes you can be doing all the things right but still cannot fall asleep. Natural supplements like melatonin can help you sleep at night.
8. Listen to Calming Sounds or Music
Music and white noise can help you sleep better. The music should be soothing, so you probably don’t want to listen to heavy metal as you try to drift off to sleep. Finding a sleep playlist or rain sounds can help lull your body to fall asleep.
9. Hot Shower or Bath
A hot shower or bath before bed will help you relax. So, find your favorite soap smells or bubble bath, put on your favorite playlist, and hit the shower before getting into bed.
10. Read
Reading a physical book will help your mind relax. Avoid reading off of a tablet device before bed, screens are bad when you’re trying to read.
11. Allow Yourself to Relax
Now this one may be simple in concept but can be hard in practice. Sometimes when you can’t fall asleep right away you can start to overthink not being able to fall asleep. When you first get into bed, allow yourself to relax and find a comfortable position. Sleep will come if you relax.
12. Count
You’ve probably heard the advice to count sheep when you can’t fall asleep at night and this can honestly help. You can count whatever you want, or even make lists, the point of doing this is to get your mind focused elsewhere and you’ll find yourself asleep in no time.
13. Keep a Schedule
Our bodies love a schedule. If you go to bed and wake up around the same time each day, your body will start to produce chemicals around the right times to aid in making you feel sleepy.
14. Darkness
This may seem obvious, but try to create as much darkness as possible when you’re falling asleep. Our sleep-inducing chemicals are activated by the darkness.
15. Eat
Eating carbs before you go to bed can help you fall asleep. You don’t want to eat a giant meal before bed, but something small can be beneficial. Try eating healthy oatmeal before bed. Oats Overnight has many flavors available for you to select from and it can serve as a snack or even a whole meal. Check out our selection and find the right one for you.
