A good night’s sleep can affecting everything from your motivation to your weight. Here are some tricks that can help you fall asleep faster.
Sleep can be interrupted by all sorts of things, including daily stress, the lighting in your room, disruptive noises, the last meal you ate before bed, or an overactive brain. While some of these factors can be easily controlled and prevented, others are much harder to manage.
Most of the time these intrusive factors affect us even when we’re incredibly tired. Here is how to trick your body into falling asleep faster.
Pretend to be in REM sleep
This idea is a little out there, but it makes some sense. REM is short for rapid eye movement, signaling that super deep sleep where our eyes move behind our eyelids and we rest deeply. Lay down comfortably in bed and try to avoid thinking about anything. Close your eyes and follow the random patterns that appear behind your eyelids.
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According to Lifehacker, you should know you’re on your way to sleeping once you start to see complete images, which is super trippy but sounds like solid advice.
Sleep during the night
Sleeping at night is very important, offering benefits that naps and mid-day sleeps are unable to provide. Sleeping during the day is harder and it may also disrupt your circadian rhythms, which have been associated to heart conditions, weight gain, cognitive impairments, and more. People should aim to get between 7 and 9 hours of nighttime sleep.
Eat foods that contain melatonin
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You shouldn’t go to bed hungry or full, and you should also eat foods that promote the development of melatonin, the hormone that regulates your wakefulness. Foods that contain tryptophan, such as chicken, eggs and cod, are good for sleep since they promote the development of this hormone.
Make sure your room is sleep proofed
One of the best ways to ensure you sleep like a baby is having a room that’s dark, quiet, and comfortable, allowing you to make the most out of the hours you spend in bed. If redesigning your room is too much work, you can always use comfortable earplugs and a sleep mask.
