20 Sleep Strategies to Refresh your Body and Recharge your Brain

Americans struggle with sleep more than ever with as many as one in three people having serious problems falling asleep at night; are you one of the 50 million people who struggle with one of the most basic of human needs?

Creativity and health go down when you don’t get enough rest.

Below are twenty sleep strategies proven to help your body and brain work together to help you get the refreshing sleep you need. As you read through these strategies be thinking of what patterns you can change to get the sleep your body needs.

1. Turn off Digital Blue Lights

Your cell phone, tablet, laptop, desktop or TV creates a soft blue light which tends to stimulate the brain. Turn digital devices off about an hour before bedtime to build the best sleep hygiene pattern.

2. Build your Circadian Rhythm

Proper sleep hygiene is about rituals and rhythms. The more you can ‘train’ your body to sleep and wake up about the same time every day – even on holidays and vacation, the more your body clock will create a pattern for deeper and more satisfying sleep.

3. Skip Clock Watching

If you tend to wake up throughout the night skip watching the minutes click by on a bedside clock or electronic device. The more you are worried about ‘only three hours until I have to get up,’ the less you will be able to mentally rest and fall back asleep.

4. Give up Napping

Better nighttime sleep is the goal, so replace midafternoon sleepiness with a brief walk, big glass of water or inspiration song. Perk up with activity to protect your nighttime sleep pattern.

5. Change Pillows

Most people know to change their mattress every decade but few know to change their pillow much more often. Using pillows to cushion parts of your body or create proper alignment with spine and hips tends to ease joint pain for many and allow for restful sleep. There are custom pillows designed just for specific joint pains and can be very effective to help your body avoid the pain that may be keeping you awake.

6. Skip Caffeine late in the day

A morning cup of java will not affect your sleep at night, but caffeine throughout the day can hurt your body’s ability to fall into a restful sleep. Soda, tea, chocolate and some weight loss pills can contain hidden sources of caffeine so improve your sleep by removing these from your diet in the late afternoon or evening.

7. Nutrition for Relaxation

The old saying of eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a peasant applies for better sleep. Skip eating a huge dinner, since it can overwork digestion and prevent falling into a deep sleep. Having a light evening snack about an hour before falling asleep tends to work best for most people.

8. Avoid Alcohol

Drinking alcohol can make some people very sleepy, while it makes other people impulsive or mean. Alcohol induced sleep is not a deep sleep, and can lead to a pattern of alcohol dependence to fall asleep or multiple times of being awake during the night as blood alcohol changes. Better is to have some herbal tea, milk or other soothing drinks as part of your nighttime sleep rituals.

9. Break the Potty Break Pattern

You may have heard that as human’s age, they get up more times at night to go to the restroom. Want to break that pattern? Manage your intake of fluids about two hours prior to bedtime so your bladder doesn’t need to be emptied at 3am every night. Avoid the temptation to grab your phone as a nightlight on your way to the restroom since a Facebook post or text message might mentally perk you up enough to not fall back asleep. Better to get a low-wattage nightlight to plug in to prevent stubbing your toe or tripping on the way to the restroom.

10. Leverage the Light

The human brain will make melatonin as the lights get lower. Leverage this natural pattern by dimming the lights in your home about two hours prior to bedtime. Lower light is another powerful way to train your brain to get sleepy and get you better sleep. If you like to read at night, use a light dimmer to achieve the same brain effect until you get sleepy enough to turn out the lights for the deep sleep your body needs.

11. Silence is Golden for Better Sleep

Barking dogs, trains, airplanes or busy traffic can create the type of noise that prevents deep sleep. Some people benefit from ear plugs, others report masking the noise with a substitute ‘white noise’ works better for them. These sound machines are easy to find at appliance stores or online or on the APP store and they create soothing sounds to help you fall asleep faster.

12. Journal the Worry away

The sleep deprived often talk about not being able to ‘turn my brain off,’ which is a sign of intelligence, and often a sign of sleep deprivation. Solve this pattern by writing down the worries troubling you, the major decisions to be made or stresses of the day.

13. Schedule and Routine are your best sleep buddies

The more you put your body on a sleep schedule, the faster you will fall asleep and stay asleep. Your body has a clock and responds best to predictable times to fall asleep and wake up, even on holidays or the weekend. Create the habit of better sleep and see how quickly you can think clearly and feel better the rest of the day.

14. Sleep Rituals create Mental Relaxation

The human body responds to predictable patterns. Think of how you start to feel hungry at 12 noon, even if you had a late breakfast. Your brain begins thinking about eating and that thinking leads to stimulation of appetite. Sleep works in much of the same way. Building relaxation techniques, like a warm bath, or reading an inspirational book or listening to calming music will help craft this pattern, which you can use in any time zone to feel in charge of falling and staying asleep and then waking up refreshed.

15. Exercise Early

Regular exercise helps your muscles stretch and cardiovascular system stay healthy. A huge workout is fine early in the day, but as the day goes on it is best to lighten the workout pattern to allow the huge spike of energy from exercise to wear off in preparation for sleep. Heavy workouts late at night will not help you sleep, it will only ramp you up. Go easy as the day goes on and watch how quickly your sleep improves.

16. Make your Bedroom Sleep Friendly 

Make your bedroom environment sleep friendly with protection from outside light sources, removing noise distractions and removing televisions from the bedroom. While some people report being able to fall asleep to the television, it doesn’t seem to put them into a deep enough sleep. Solve this by removing anything in your bedroom that prevents the deep, restful sleep your body needs.

17. Chill the Room before you Chill your Mind

Earlier a different kind of ‘chill’ was mentioned, that being the value of journaling out fears and worries a few hours before bedtime. This kind of chill is about temperature, since most people report falling asleep easier if temperatures are around 70 degrees.

18. Manage your Mattress

Mattress manufactures suggest changing mattresses at least once per decade for good quality sleep. Today there are dozens of types of mattresses available to overcome any sleep challenge you may be facing. Take a weekend afternoon to mattress shop and see your options as you consider managing the place you will spend 1/3 of your lifetime. Your bed.

19.  People only – no Pets Allowed

Perhaps the most controversial sleep strategy is a basic one. Beds are for humans. While many people allow their dog or cat to sleep in their beds, it doesn’t make for a better night of sleep. Pets have fur, dander, pollen, and sometimes fleas or ticks that can affect your health.

20. Pray to end the Day 

Little children are taught to say bedtime prayers as part of a restful ritual. Adults can do the same. Move beyond ‘now I lay me down to sleep,’ to a deeper conversation about giving your worries to God as you simply fall asleep and rest. Letting go of the worry won’t make it go away forever, but for eight hours you can rest up to face them with new confidence the next day. 

Sleep is one of the most basic human needs. Take these strategies to heart as you focus on building a better quality of life for yourself and for those you care about.

Want many more practical ways to manage stress? Visit www.LifeworksGroup.org for our blog full of counseling tips and strategies to make life work better for you.