Many of us struggle with both getting to sleep and staying asleep and we have probably tried every trick in the book including avoiding electronic screens before bedtime, avoiding caffeine before bedtime, and the deep breathing techniques / meditation.

Some work, some don’t so we offer some fairly surprising tips about getting to sleep that may be worth trying if you have issues in this area of your life which is having impact on other things.

 Try to stay awake!

Yes. As silly as it sounds, this reverse psychology stems from a Scottish study who told one group of insomniacs to lie in bed and stay awake with their eyes open, and told another group to try to fall asleep as they normally would.

After two weeks they found that the group which had been told to try and stay awake fell asleep more quickly and easily than the other group.

 Get up.

Yes, get up and out of bed, sit in a different environment and read a book or something equally calming.

This is particularly useful when you wake up during the middle of the night. Beds should be associated with sleep and not with lying awake, so by changing the environment you will break the association and when you’re feeling sleepy after a couple of chapters, go back to bed to sleep.

Change your body temperature.

The ideal body temperature for sleep is one that is cooling. Your body will naturally get sleepy as the temperature cools down in the evening.

To accelerate this, have a warm bath or shower before bed and try to keep your room around 18° C if you can.

Plunge your face into cold water!

This one is a real surprise and it sounds like totally the worst thing you could possibly do!

However, according to the Mammalian Dive Reflex plunging your face into cold water can help reset the nervous system and aid the sleep process. It may not sound logical but by doing this you will slow the heart rate and become more relaxed.

The Brain Dump

We have referred to this elsewhere and it is logical that if you go to bed with the events of the day and thoughts of tomorrow on your mind then you will find sleeping a challenge.

The brain dump involves a notebook and pen by your bedside and for you to write down all the issues that may be on your mind. When that done – light out and go to sleep safe in the knowledge that you will not forget important issues in the morning because they are recorded.

Good luck and if you have any tips that work for you, please let us know!

Mayfair, we care.

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768097/