Love sleep but don’t get enough of it for one reason or another?
It’s time to learn how to sleep better at night — naturally. With a few lifestyle tweaks and help from nature, you can get your sleep back on track.
While sleeping pills might be a tempting solution, they aren’t without side effects. One surprising issue is if you take them too often, your sleep patterns could worsen and that’s the last issue you want if you’re already sleep-deprived.
Plus, sleep deprivation is a real problem (parents, you know what we’re talking about…) and can cause serious mental and physical health issues.
Luckily, there are alternative and natural options other than sleeping pills.
Skip the tossing and turning. Starting tonight, give these six tips a try to discover how to sleep better at night naturally.
1. Learn to Unwind
Easier said than done, right? Clearing your mind prior to bed is essential to getting a good night’s sleep naturally. Your bed is not the place to take office calls, scroll on social media, or respond to emails. Your bedroom and bed should be a haven to escape to after a long day. About an hour or so before bed, start your routine of settling down for the evening. If you do this every evening, your body will take note and start signaling to your brain it’s time to relax.
Here are a few methods for relaxing your mind and body:
- Designate the hour before bed as “quiet time” - Make it a special routine to settle down for the evening. That may mean pouring yourself your favorite type of tea, cozying up with a good book, or meditating quietly for a bit before hitting the sack.
- Skip blue lights - If you must be on your iPad close to bedtime, consider blue-light-blocking glasses. You can also install apps to block blue light on your smartphone.
- Reduce caffeine - While it’s beneficial for those early morning meetings, caffeine in any form consumed late in the day is known to cause sleep disturbances. When you start creating a usual quiet evening routine, make sure you’re successful with it by eliminating caffeine at least six hours prior. Next time you want a good night’s sleep, consider skipping over that after-dinner espresso.
- Enjoy a bath - Soak away the day’s stresses with a warm Epsom salt bath. Studies show warm baths or showers before bed tends to help improve sleep quality overall. This is because your core temperature drops after a warm bath and tense muscles loosen up, making it easier to fall and stay asleep.
Create an ideal goodnight routine that works for you. When you practice this over a period of a few weeks, it’ll become a habit and will make it easier for your body to learn how to sleep better at night naturally.
2. Keep Consistent Sleep Times
Irregular sleep schedules cause all sorts of issues. Your body’s internal clock keeps track of time based on a regular sleep schedule. When you stick to your designated wake-up and sleep times, it can help you fall into a rhythm more easily.
Some small changes that can make your schedule consistent:
- Good morning, sun - Expose yourself to the bright light upon waking right away. You can do this by opening your blinds right away or heading outdoors for a morning walk. Living in a seemingly sun-less place? Sit in front of a lightbox to wake up!
- Look at if you really need naps - Unless you need a power nap to make it through afternoon meetings or to make-up for lost sleep due to newborn nighttime feedings, skip catnapping. If you can’t focus or stay awake, consider that a short nap may be what you need.
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Keep weekend wake-up times the same - As lovely as it is to sleep in on the weekends, it messes with your wake-up schedule the rest of the week. When you arise at the same time daily, studies show it may make you feel more content overall, too. It also creates consistency at the start of each morning — no matter how the rest of your day may go.
When you discipline your body into starting and stopping the day at certain times, it makes waking up and falling asleep much easier, too! Your body will learn the habit. You just have to train it.
3. Create an Ideal Sleep Environment
An ideal sleep environment is quite personal. But research shows that a bedroom that’s quiet, cool, and dark will help you catch the deepest of ZZZs. When you start your bedtime routine about an hour before, you’ll be able to relax even more deeply if you like the space you’re in.
A few ways to create the best sleeping environment:
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Invest in a good quality pillow and mattress - If you’re dealing with regular back pain, sleepless nights, and discomfort, it may be time to invest in a better pillow and mattress. You spend a lot of time sleeping, so make your space as comfortable as you possibly can.
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Set the temp right - To stay comfortable during your sleep cycles, set your thermostat between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit to sleep well.
- Use cooling sheets - Sleep hot? Consider investing in some comfortable sheets that help you sleep. Breathable fabrics made of natural fibers like linen and cotton tend to be the best for sweaty sleepers.
- Nix any annoying noises - Do your best to stop aggravating noises (whirring fans, beeping, etc.) to help you fall asleep faster. Use earplugs, if needed.
Everyone needs different elements to help them fall asleep with ease. Whether that means earplugs, a whirring fan, four pillars, or something else, do what you need to do to get the best night’s sleep comfortably!
4. Try Relaxing Beverages
Drinking certain beverages for bed can signal to your brain you’re ready to hit the sack. Some drinks contain herbs or properties that can help you fall asleep easier. Skip a nightcap and instead fall into a sweet slumber with natural drinks like cherry juice or coconut water.
If you like including a drink in your bedtime routine, try these:
- Chamomile tea - This herbal drink is a favorite in treating both insomnia and anxiety. Its calming effects come from apigenin, an antioxidant that tends to induce sleep. Drink it about an hour prior to bedtime for the best effect.
- Cherry juice - If you love cherries, then you won’t have a problem downing some tart cherry juice to nod off to sleep. Just two 1-ounce servings daily can help you improve your sleep. Cherries are rich in melatonin, the hormone that creates sleepiness.
- SWEET DREAMS shot - If you enjoy organic health shots, give our newest calming shot a try. Our SWEET DREAMS shot has melatonin and chamomile, designed to help you fall asleep faster into a sweet slumber.
- Coconut water - With its rich potassium and magnesium content, coconut water is known to help relax muscles and make you a bit sleepy. It also has vitamin B, which can help minimize your stress prior to bedtime.
Note: Skip drinking fluids approximately 1-2 hours before bed, especially if you’re prone to waking in the night to use the bathroom.
5. Give Natural Supplements a Try
Sometimes you just need a little extra assistance to help you fall asleep. That’s where natural supplements can be super helpful, especially if you’re not interested in relying on heavier, prescribed sleep medications.
Some supplements to consider for falling asleep:
- CBD - Some preliminary studies show that CBD can help improve sleep patterns. Researchers believe 25 milligrams to be the sweet spot for dealing with anxiety that may interrupt sleep or daily life. You can get CBD in capsule or tincture form. Best of all, it doesn’t contain THC, which is what causes the “high” for those who typically use cannabis.
- Valerian - This herb is made from the valerian root and is commonly used for those dealing with insomnia. It appears to act as a sedative in the brain, making it easier to fall asleep. Try it in extract or capsule form.
- Melatonin - This is the all-important hormone that tells your body it’s time to fall asleep. It also comes in capsule or liquid forms to help you fall asleep. For most healthy adults, it’s safe to use for a few weeks or months to help get a sleep schedule back on track.
Want a tasty goodnight supplement with melatonin? Try our newest shot, SWEET DREAMS!
- Magnesium - This mineral is important to the body and happens to be common in quite a few foods — everything from almonds to spinach — but sometimes we need a bit more. Depending on your age and gender, you may need up to 400 milligrams daily. Magnesium is known to regulate melatonin and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is how you calm the body and relax. Consider a magnesium supplement daily (or before bed) to help you get a restful night’s sleep.
- SWEET DREAMS - This goodnight shot contains two powerhouse evening supplements guaranteed to get you to relax. SWEET DREAMS has both melatonin and chamomile, designed to promote sleepiness and help you get to sleep faster.
- Ginkgo biloba - Need to get to bed at a certain time? Take around 240 milligrams of this herb 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime. You’ll feel relaxed and the stress will melt away, helping you fall into a deeper sleep.
- Lavender - If you enjoy aromatherapy to help put you to sleep faster, then you might give oral lavender a try, too. Whether you try it in tea or capsules, it tends to have a relaxing impact to help individuals fall asleep quickly. It’s also been shown to improve the duration of sleep, according to a study published in the Evidence-Based Complementary Alternative Medicine journal.
No matter which natural herbs or supplements you use, speak with a healthcare provider first. You may also want to check with your pharmacist to ensure your current medications won’t interact with any of the supplements you try.
6. Discover How to Lull Yourself Back to Sleep
If you don’t have issues falling asleep but rather staying asleep, that can be just as disruptive to quality sleep, too. Worrisome thoughts, anxiety, and stress are all reasons you might wake up in the night. If this happens to you, consider the following to go back to sleep.
Lull yourself back to sleep by:
- Writing down worrisome thoughts - If certain negative thoughts or worries are keeping you awake, write it down. Journaling it out or simply writing it down can put it out of your mind.
- Doing a low-key activity Tossing and turning? Get up and go into another room to do a simple activity (like reading) until you feel like you can fall asleep again. Wear your brain out but skip anything physically tiring that might actually wake your body up.
- Making yourself comfortable - Sometimes discomfort can keep you feeling restless. Try and pinpoint what it is that’s uncomfortable or agitating you. Then, make a change to fix it. Get another blanket, heat your warming socks, turn down the temp, etc.
It Takes Practice to Learn How to Sleep Better at Night Naturally
If you have inconsistent sleep patterns, it’s important to note that better sleep won’t come instantly even when you start tweaking your nighttime habits.
But, with practice and time, you’ll eventually learn how to sleep better at night naturally. This will help you get your best night’s sleep to stay productive and energized to tackle life.
If you’ve made lifestyle and sleep routine changes yet still don’t notice improved sleep cycles, it may be time to call in a professional.
If you have symptoms like snoring, extreme fatigue, constant leg movements, or a burning sensation in your throat, a medical diagnosis may be required. This can help rule out serious sleep inhibitors like sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Chat with your doctor to see if a sleep study may be for you.
Otherwise, following a simple unwind routine and re-programming your body’s circadian rhythm may be all you need to fall into sweet and deep sleep faster every night!
ABOUT SWEET DREAMS
Need to chill out and just go to bed? Take a shot of SWEET DREAMS to ensure you have the sweetest of dreams. With its key sleepytime ingredients of melatonin and chamomile, this shot will practically rock you to sleep with its soothing effects.