10 Tips to help you fall asleep faster

You’ve got an early day tomorrow, and you know you should be asleep — but instead you’re just lying there, wide awake, watching the minutes tick by on the clock. It’s called sleep-onset insomnia, and the irony is, the more you worry about falling asleep, the less likely you’ll be able to. But there are some easy things you can do to break the cycle. Below we discuss simple changes to your lifestyle and your sleep environment that can help you fall asleep faster and get a more restful night’s sleep.

Lifestyle Changes

Don’t get into bed until you actually feel sleepy. Climbing in bed and turning out the lights at 10 p.m. won’t guarantee you a solid eight hours of sleep. In fact, getting in bed while you’re still wide awake will likely have the opposite effect. This leads to the next strategy.

Give yourself some dedicated wind-down time. It doesn’t have to be a full hour or an elaborate routine, but try to spend at least 20 to 30 minutes doing something that relaxes you before you try to fall asleep. That could be taking a warm bath or shower, changing into comfy pajamas and sipping a cup of chamomile tea. Or something completely different — so long as it’s relaxing to you.

Watch something boring. Just about everything you read about improving sleep advises you to avoid screen time before bed. But the truth is, a lot of people do it anyway. If you’re going to watch TV or your laptop in bed, watch something unexciting. Think a Ken Burns documentary, or an episode of House Hunters. No scary movies, thrillers, or the 11 o’clock news. If it’s likely to get your pulse racing, turn it off. There’s even a website for it — Napflix, which serves up the most snooze-worthy videos on YouTube (think Bonsai tree pruning or tropical fish swimming in an aquarium).

Have an orgasm. There’s nothing like sex (either with a partner or solo) to prime you for a good night’s sleep. That’s because arousal and orgasm flood your body with feel-good hormones like oxytocin and prolactin, which make you feel relaxed and sleepy.

Try “belly breathing.” Controlled, deep breathing is simply a way to direct your mind away from thoughts that might keep you awake. If you find your mind racing as you lie down to go to sleep, place a hand on your belly and breathe in deeply through your nose — so deeply that can feel the air filling your abdomen. Hold it for a couple of seconds, and then breathe out through your mouth. Breathe mindfully like this for a few minutes, just trying to focus your attention on the rising and falling of your belly as you inhale and exhale. If your mind starts to wander, just bring it back to your breathing. The more often you practice this relaxation technique, the easier and more effective it will be.

Sleep Environment Changes

Turn your clock around. Watching the minutes tick by only makes it harder to fall asleep. Either put your clock somewhere out of sight or just turn it facing away from you.

Use a blue light filter on your device. The blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets can be a powerful sleep disruptor. It suppresses your body’s production of melatonin and throws your circadian rhythm off, making it harder to fall and stay asleep. Luckily, many smartphones these days have a “night shift” feature that adjusts the screen from cool (blue) to warm (yellow) light, which is less likely to keep you up past your bedtime. Likewise, there are apps you can run on your laptop or tablet that reduce blue light. Some popular ones are f.lux and Twilight.

Adjust the thermostat. If you’re too hot or too cold at bedtime, sleep isn’t going to come easy. While there’s no ideal temperature for everyone, most people sleep comfortably when the bedroom is between 60 and 67 degrees. As you start to feel drowsy, your body temperature drops, which in turn helps you drift off to sleep. A cooler bedroom facilitates that. Don’t cool it off too much, though — shivering in bed isn’t conducive to a good night’s sleep.

Wear socks to bed. While a cooler core body temperature helps you fall asleep faster and get more restful sleep, cold extremities (hands and feet) can have the opposite effect. If you tend to have cold feet at bedtime, put on a pair of cozy socks, rest your feet on a heating pad, or pile an extra blanket on the foot of your bed. If none of those appeal to you, try wearing a pair of warm slippers in the evening so that your feet will be toasty when you climb in bed for the night.

Invest in really comfy bedding. This is just common sense — if it feels really good to climb in bed at night, you’ll look forward to it. A quality mattress that suits your sleeping style, along with supportive pillows and soft, breathable bed linens, can mean the difference between tossing and turning and drifting off as soon as your head hits the pillow.

Everyone has trouble falling asleep from time to time, but instituting some healthy bedtime habits — and making a few bedroom changes — can help ensure those nights are few and far between. If sleepless nights are becoming a regular problem and lifestyle changes aren’t helping, it may be time to talk to your doctor about other options.