Semi-insomnia is more common than you think. Nearly three-quarters of adults in the US say they suffer from a lack of sleep at least once a month. 11%, or around thirty-two million Americans, state that they don’t get enough sleep every night. If you wake up tired in the morning, you’re not alone!
Apart from making you cranky and irritable, you can experience a ton of side effects that you actively want to avoid. Whether it’s weight gain, memory problems, or a weakened immune system, struggling to rest soundly at night is a huge problem. As a result, you may assume that it takes a lot of hard work and effort to drop off and catch flies.
On the contrary, it’s surprising how accessible the methods are, even if you don’t know about them yet. Weirdly, even though a lack of sleep is an issue in the US and worldwide, most people are unaware of the solutions. Sure, you understand the link between your smartphone and REMS, but you’ve tried putting down the devices and it didn’t work.
Thankfully, there are other strategies that you have probably never attempted before that are useful. Continue reading to find out about the four most surprising and effective.
Put Your Feet Up
You’ll be doing it for seven to nine hours, so it seems excessive to prepare for relaxing by winding down and relaxing. By putting your feet up, you shouldn’t take it as a euphemism for chilling out; it’s meant literally. Go and sit down, and instead of planting your feet on the floor, elevate them.
If you’re wondering where this trick will get you, the answer is pleasantly surprising. When you stand up or sit down, the fluid in your body starts to pool in certain places. Your ankles are a hot spot, especially when you’ve been on your feet all day. As a result, when you finally go to sleep, the elevation of your feet and legs pushes the water back into your bloodstream.
Anybody who has to get up multiple times during the night to go and pee can put it down to this factor, among other things. By simply allowing the fluids to enter your bloodstream earlier, you can urinate before bed, removing them from your body and preventing you from waking up when you’re in a deep sleep.
Peeing a lot during the night may also signify everything from drinking too much water before bed to drinking too much caffeine. That includes tea!
Yoganna Love Breathing Exercises
Breathing – you can do it in your sleep! Well, you can when you finally drop into a deep slumber. Until that point, you can use the motion of your thoracic cavity to encourage REMS. The reason it works is down to the fact breathing is proven to reduce stress and improve the blood flow to your muscles and vital organs, two essential features of quality sleep.
However, learning to breathe may not be as simple as you may imagine. For one thing, the majority of people breathe to survive, whereas you want to do it to sleep. What’s the difference? The latter is about deeper, longer inhalations that fill the body with O2 and remove CO2, and exhalations that instantly put the mind at ease.
Don’t worry if it sounds a little specialized because yoga is on hand to help. Breathing is essential to all the activities included in the practice, particularly ocean breath or victorious breath, so learning the technique could transform your lifestyle. Studies show over 55% of people who did it found it helped them get better sleep.
It beats counting sheep!
Make Your Breakfast At Night
These tips get stranger and stranger! Yes, making your breakfast the evening before is counterproductive on many levels. For one thing, the milk won’t keep. For another, the coffee will go cold. And lastly, the cereal will be soggy to the point where it’s inedible. All in all, it appears to be a terrible idea.
Yet, when you choose breakfast foods that are ideal for soaking overnight, it can revolutionize your routine. The key is to make overnight oats and let them stand in milk in the fridge. When you do this, two things happen. The oats absorb the fluid, leaving it in a porridge-like state that’s ready to eat without cooking, and you don’t have to waste time in the morning.
This may not sound like much, but the extra twenty to thirty minutes you spend in the kitchen is negatable. With overnight porridge, you only need five minutes to eat your brekkie and leave the house, allowing you to stay in bed for longer and catch up on your Z’s.
Making your breakfast the evening prior is a very good tip if you miss your regular bedtime or struggle to fall asleep as it provides extra flexibility.
Do Something Different
The frustrating thing about insomnia is that you feel as if you have to stay in bed and wait for sleep to wash over you. It’s almost as if moving or getting up makes it worse, so you’re stuck in the same position hoping for something to change. Of course, nothing will be different unless you tweak your approach.
Although it sounds obvious, doing something different in real-time is something most people who can’t sleep fail to do. It’s sad since it’s very easy and effective. For example, sleep experts say that you should leave and go to another more relaxing space. You can read or attempt to drop off there.
Remember that moving around will improve your body’s blood flow and make you more tired, and not alert.
Do you struggle to fall asleep? What are the surprising methods you have found to work?
These are great tips! Putting my feet up and doing breathing exercises work for me.