To help you go to sleep - some simple remedies for mild insomnia and sleep disorders.
First let's get a few things straight:
This is not a medical page, and it does not claim to provide treatments for clinical conditions or sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea).
These are just a few simple ideas - a technique if you care to use it that way - to help you go to sleep.
Most of us have difficulty sleeping at some time in our lives - especially if we are worrying about something, or are under stress for any reason.
A few simple changes to how we approach sleep can make a big difference.
Insomnia and sleep disorders are caused by a very wide range of things, and the symptoms are almost as numerous as the possible causes. For the detailed information and qualified advice about insomnia, sleep disorders and sleep apnea/apnoea there are all sorts of specialised resources on the web - please note that this is not one of them.
All this page claims to do is provide a few ideas for getting to sleep. That simple.
If you've a real medical condition, or are fifty pounds overweight, or a chronic alcoholic, or if you've done a really bad evil thing, then this page ain't for you - so don't complain about it being unscientific or lacking medical substance and credibility - you've been warned.
Also obviously do not eat or drink anything which is suggested below that you know disagrees with you.
Take from this what you will. It works for me whenever I need it, and it works for others too I understand. So if you simply need a bit of help getting to sleep, and you'd rather not resort to liquor or drugs or a depressing visit to the doctors, perhaps give this a try.
Sleep well.
some simple ideas to help you go to sleep..
1. Start making it dark in your house or apartment earlier in the evening than you normally do.
Avoid a quick spell in the gym doing five hundred press ups, or a couple of hours playing the latest 'Axe-Murdering-Car-Jacker III' computer game just before your bed-time.
Think about how our ancestors got ready to go to sleep - they finished their working day, they had some grub and maybe did a little gentle frolicking in the hay, it got dark, and then they went to sleep.
These patterns are built into our DNA. If you divert from them you will not be following or satisfying your body's natural urges. Think about your lifestyle, especially what you do as bed-time approaches.
2. Eat some carbohydrate before bedtime. Carbohydrate foods are things like potatoes, rice, pasta, porridge oats, bread.
Twelve hours could pass between your evening meal and breakfast. If you are hungry while asleep this will not help you to stay asleep.
3. Drink warm milk with a spoonful of honey before retiring to bed.
Alcohol is a temporary crutch and not a sustainable cure for insomnia.
Fizzy pop or squash drinks with millions of additives are not particularly conducive to a good night's sleep either. Ditto Red Bull, coffee, etc., use your common sense.
4. When you are in bed, try this relaxation technique:
It's best to start with your face. Relax your jaw. Make sure your mouth is slightly open.
Really concentrate on relaxing your face. It will be tense almost certainly - relax it.
If you are worried about sleeping, or anything else, you face will be tense, and this makes it very difficult to get to sleep, so relax all of your face. When your face is fully relaxed you can imagine and feel your worries drifting away.
Imagine them floating away into the distance until they disappear.
Like clouds. Or bubbles.
There they go..... all gone.
Especially relax your jaw and your forehead - and open your mouth a little.
Then work you way up from toes, ankles, knees, etc.
Relax each section before moving on to the next.
Check every now and then that your face and jaw and forehead are still relaxed, and if worries reappear imagine them drifting away again until they disappear.
5. Imagine any remaining tension flowing out of your body through your toes, fingers, the crown of your head. Imagine it and feel it.
Imagine your toes and fingers tingling as you release. Feel your body relaxing - there will be little sensations that you can feel as you relax and surrender. Feel for these sensations - focus inwardly on how your body feels.
Feel your heart gently beating. Feel your breathing getting slower. Feel all over relaxing.
6. If you are still awake, check your breathing. Your breathing will have slowed. Concentrate on slowing it further.
Breathe into your neck, then your chest, then abdomen.
Avoid 'trying' to breathe. Let your body do it for you. It's actually quite a well-proven phenomenon - your body will breathe by itself..
Exhale fully.
Use words (imagine - keep your mouth still) to help slow your breathing - breathe in 'love', breathe out 'peace' - or suitable calming alternatives. Imagine the words and sounds passing through your mouth.
7. Think of the colour purple. Make it appear in your mind's eye. Other colours may appear at first, but aim for the purple. Relax into the waves of purple.
8. Roll your closed eyes upwards three times, at any pace you like. (This happens naturally when you are falling asleep and evidently triggers some sleep chemical in our body).
..... and repeat stages 4 to 8 until you are asleep (or until it's time to get up - no, seriously - if you've a mild sleep disorder or fleeting insomnia, then you might not even reach stage 8 first time around).
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