5 Tips for better sleep: 

The article by Prewit on sleep was a real eye opener for me.  Thanks to that article; now I go to bed much earlier.  The article invoked my curiosity into the subject of sleep, which in turn led me to do an extensive research on the topic.  Many of my perceptions on sleep were shattered & many doubts cleared too.  I love all my blog readers & want you to benefit from these findings.

A good sleep is caused by the hormone Melatonin.  Besides being a sleep hormone, Melatonin is also an anti-aging agent, immune regulator, anti depressant & an extremely powerful antioxidant. This explains all the benefits of sleep, which includes; longer life, weight loss & better health. The good news here is that Melatonin is primarily produced in the pineal gland present in our brain.  Here are friendly tips which will help us to release this hormone naturally.

Tips for better sleep:

• Make your bedroom as dark as possible:  Even a small amount of light can disrupt the production of melatonin by the pineal gland.   Even a night lamp is discouraged.  If this cannot be avoided, I recommend that you use eye mask.  If you are someone who needs to use the bathroom in the night, make sure that the bathroom is fitted with a zero watt dim light.  Exposure to bright light will immediately stop all production of melatonin & one will find it difficult to sleep again.

• Ease into your sleep:  When our body relaxes gradually, the production of melatonin is encouraged.   Here are certain tips that will help us to ease into sleep.

1. Remove television from the bedroom. It is also recommended that one stops watching television at least 30 minutes before sleep time. Watching TV is a stimulating activity to the brain & thus does not aid in relaxing.
2. Bath in lukewarm water is also a great relaxer.
3. Consider massaging your legs & arms, partners can do this for each other.  This is even better than reading bedtime story to kids.  Kids are generally more active than adults & this leg & arm massage will be like an instant sleeping pill for them.
4. Read book that are light on content, books with beautiful scenery or holistic content get my top billing.

• Eat right:  Eat at least 100 minutes before sleep time.  This is to ensure that our body is done with the process of breaking down food by the time we go to bed.

Drinking milk before bedtime has been a tradition in most Indian homes.  Ayurvedic practitioners knew long back that dairy products help induce sleep.  Today, science has proven that dairy products & banana contain an essential amino acid called tryptophan which helps in secretion of melatonin. Chocolate also has tryptophan, but is not recommended before sleep since chocolate contains caffeine too.  Foods that take long to digest viz., spicy & oily foods have the potential to cause stomach upset.  Thus these food items are to be avoided for dinner.

• Fixed Sleep pattern: It is advised that we have fixed sleep timings so that our brain recognizes this & automatically starts producing melatonin at that time period.  Our internal biological clock also regulates our energy levels during the day, so this probably become the most important tip of the day.  Fixed sleep patterns also ensure that we get up without the help of alarm clock. Being rudely jolted out of the sleep by a loud alarm clock is certainly not good for health.   Alarm set at lower volume, allowing sunlight into the bedroom or using Sun Alarm is recommended.

• Cheat into sleep: Personally, I have been blessed with sound sleep since the days I can remember.  But there are many who keep turning & tossing in bed for sleep to set in.  Here are some tips to chest sleep to come to you faster.

1. Exercising 4-5 hours before sleep time will ensure that sleep comes naturally to you.
2. Eating a mixture of chopped onions & curd 15 minutes before sleep time will ensure that the body is in the right temperature to fall asleep.
3. Visualize the numbers backwards from 100 (99…98…97….96….).  If you forget in between start from 99 again, I promise that you will not even reach 50 before sleep engulfs you.

After reading Sleep secrets (part 1), I have started sleeping by 11 pm instead of 1 am. But I need to work even more on my lifestyle to bring the time ahead by 1 hour. With the modern lifestyle, I guess 10 pm would be an ideal time to sleep. These 2 hours of sleep before midnight is equal to 4 hours of sleep after 00:00 Hrs.

Looking forward to some inspiration from the readers for the next article on “Sleep myths”.

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