You’ve been in bed for so long, yet you can’t sleep because your mind is wandering. Now you searched the internet on how to fall asleep fast and bump on this site.
Here I will try to help you sleep a lot faster. Not because the article is too long that it will make you fall asleep reading it all, but because we’re once like you. We’ve researched ways for you not to say “I can’t sleep” again ever.
Before we dive into the tips on how to sleep faster, let us first discuss why people need to sleep and the effect if we deprive ourselves to have enough time of sleep.
What are the reasons why do we sleep?
A hormone called Melatonin helps us human to sleep. It is secreted by the Pineal Gland deep in the brain; it helps to control the body rhythms and sleep-wake cycles. We, humans, have a built-in clock in our body called the circadian rhythm. It governs the day to day body alteration between sleep and wakefulness and works on a 24-hour basis.
Sleeping is a period of critical body processes and functions. Sleep is where the body undergoes repairing and detoxification. With poor sleeping patterns, it usually leads to poor health. We need sleep for optimal mental, emotional, physical, and overall wellbeing.
Here are some important effects of sleeping in our brain and body:
- Sleep helps our brain consolidate memories about the information and emotion we take.
- Long term memory development.
- During sleep, extra blood flow from the brain are diverted to the body to restore.
- Growth hormone is produced during sleep that helps repair bones and muscle.
- Regeneration and restoration of cells. Very important especially for children’s development stage as they need longer sleeping time than adults.
There are people who make up for the amount of sleep they are deprived. However, it does not work that way. Still, the best thing to do is to keep your sleeping habits consistently. This kind of healthy routines will allow us to meet our sleeping needs that will keep us on top of our everyday activities. It takes discipline for any betterment, not just in sleeping but basically anything you want in life.
Here’s a little info on what are the recommended sleeping hours for different ages.
Sleep Duration
Recommendations:
- 0-3 months old baby needs 14-17 hours of sleep
- 4-12 months old baby needs 12-15 hours of sleep
- 1-3 years old toddler needs 11-14 hours of sleep
- 3-5 years old preschool needs 10-13 hours of sleep
- 6-13 years old school age needs 9-11 hours of sleep
- 14-17 years old teens needs 8-10 hours of sleep
- 18-25 young adults needs 7-9 hours of sleep
- 25 years older needs around 7-8 hours of sleep
What are the effects of sleep deprivation?
Now you have the general knowledge why we people sleep and why it is important, let’s have a general idea of what are the effects of our being if we lack sleep.
Most of us people now are not having the required sleeping hours for optimal results. With the advent of new technologies, it has been found out that average person’s sleep is decreasing over time
. With this said, we must monitor our sleeping habits for us not to be surprised whenever symptoms of sleep deprivation occur.
So here are the common and scary things sleep deprivation can give you:
- Memory loss and permanent cognitive problems
- Attention and learning problems.
- Sleeplessness causes accidents on the roads.
- Chronic sleep loss can cause fatal heart problems and increase cancer risks.
- Kills sex drive.
- Lack of sleep make you feel more depressed.
- Sleep deprivation causes your skin to age faster.
- Insufficient sleep lowers your immunity system.
Just remember this, most people can withstand one week without eating, but not all can face one week without sleeping. Sleeping is more important than eating. One-third portion of our lives should be dedicated to sleep. It’s like our gadgets that we need to recharge over time to make it usable for the next day. The more you use it, the more often you should charge it.
How to Fall Asleep Fast
Finally, after you’ve learned the reasons why do we sleep, and the effects of sleep deprivation, you must give more importance to your sleeping patterns now as much as before. If you’re the kind of person who struggles every night having the hard time going to bed always asking yourself how to fall asleep fast, below are the tips we gather just for you to not ever shout I cant sleep! again, ever.
Limit your naps.
As much as possible avoid sleeping during the day. Yeah I know, we always need that precious sleep during noon time where we need to do the power nap! (with tadah! sound) That’s just fine, but make sure to limit your midday or afternoon naps by 15-20 mins.
Exercise during the day.
Let’s quote a verse from the Bible in Ecc 5:12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much but the abundance will not suffer him to sleep. It has also been found out that those people who have physical activities have a better sleep compared than those who have a poor physical lifestyle.
Reduce your caffeine intake.
I know you love Starbucks or even just the 3-in-1 instant coffee you can buy from convenient stores but make it sure you find out when to take it. Make sure you are not taking caffeine couple of hours before going to sleep.
Turn off Monitor and Television.
Turn off all the devices, gadgets, etc that will prevent you from sleeping. You should practice disciplining yourself or else, forget reading this article.
Learn how to meditate.
People who practice meditation manage to sleep within 5 minutes they go to bed. If you practice how to clear your mind at will, exercise it on a regular basis, it can help you not just with sleeping but on other aspects of life as well
Make your bed a conducive place for sleeping.
You should train and program your subconscious brain that whenever you are in your bed, there’s no other thing you will do but to relax and sleep.
If you’re always working while in bed, your subconscious will be programmed to stimulate all the needed parts of your brain and body to get the work done. This is bad for your sleeping habits because your brain is active when it should not be.
Play your sleep music.
Some studies shows classical music, or any slow rhythm music playing in 60 to 80 beats per minute, can help you go to sleep fast. A study in 2008, experimented with students of ages 19 to 28 who listened to relaxing classical music for 45 minutes before going to bed showed better sleep quality. The study also showed decreased symptoms of depression.
Visualize your favorite place.
An Oxford University study showed in the journal “Behaviour Research and Therapy,” people who are having a hard time to sleep were asked to imagine a relaxing scene, fell asleep 20 minutes faster than those people doing nothing at all.
Concentrate on your breathing.
This may take a little practice to not wander about anything, just focus on your breathing and it will actually help you fall asleep faster.
Aromatherapy for better sleep.
A study at Wesleyan University on 2005 showed that sniffing lavender oil three times for 2 minutes every 10 minutes interval increased their amount of deep sleep.
Don’t smoke before bedtime.
Smokers say that smoking makes them relaxed, but that’s a brain’s chemical trick. The truth is, nicotine is a stimulant. If you smoke before you sleep, chances are you’ll wake up as much as you would if you drink coffee before bed.
Turn off all the lights.
Turning lights off will signal your brain to make your body into the sleeping mode. Bright lights will only tend to do the opposite.
Sleep with your eyes slightly open.
In a normal way of sleeping, we tend to close our eyes entirely. However, if we try to sleep with our eyes slightly open, our focus will be on the slit and not on wandering about anything.