At Trouble Sleeping, we love sharing sleep tips and it’s important to us that everyone has a good understanding of what can help you get a better night’s sleep.
Hopefully you know what ‘good sleep hygiene’ is, but what about 5 less well-known sleep tips that might hep when you are really struggling?
In this blog, Dr Lindsay Browning shares some alternative sleep tips that you may not have heard before.
Tip 1 – Eat before bed
Although eating a large meal right before bed can make sleep harder, so can going to bed hungry – which is not something we hear about often.
If you’re actually hungry when you go to bed, you won’t feel calm enough to sleep. Therefore, whilst you shouldn’t be eating lots, you might want to have a small snack.
Ideal pre-bedtime snacks include:
- a brown bread turkey sandwich (since turkey contains tryptophan which our bodies use to make melatonin)
- a low sugar oat cookie and a glass of milk
- a handful of nuts and a kiwi fruit (shown to aid sleep).
Tip 2 – Do a ‘brain dump’
If your mind is whirring as you try to fall asleep, then it could be that you need to make time earlier in the day to write things down. I often recommend this to my clients.
To effectively do a ‘brain dump’, I suggest that you find 15 minutes towards the end of the day, but not too late in the evening, and write down anything that is on your mind. You could consider it your “daily worry time”! It can be like a journal entry or a list or even just random notes.
Writing things down helps to get them out of your mind, leaving your brain, clear and calm at night.
Tip 3 – Remove your clock from sight
Although it’s natural to want to check the time in the night, if you’re struggling to sleep, constantly looking at the time can actually make things worse.
Don’t have a clock that you can see from bed – neither on your bedside table or on the wall and easily in view.
Also, if you wake in the night and get rid of the clock, you are more likely to fall back to sleep instead of continually checking it, to see how much time is left before you have to get up.
Tip 4 – Repeat the word “the”.
This one of the top rated tips that I use with my clients. If you find yourself thinking about something you don’t want to as you’re trying to fall asleep and you can’t get it out of your mind – the same thought going around and around – then simply repeat the word “the” silently to yourself every two seconds.
This will help to break up the thought. It’s a simple as that, but surprisingly effective.
The word ‘the’ works well as it doesn’t have any real associations – negative or positive.
Tip 5 – Try cognitively challenging mind distractions
Like repeating the word ‘the’, distraction techniques can help to replace worrying thoughts and calm your busy mind in bed.
Counting sheep is the most commonly known distraction technique. However, it is not often effective because most people can simultaneously count and still worry about which bills they have to pay tomorrow!
Instead, you should count backwards from say 100 or 1000. If that’s still too easy and you find you mind wandering, try doing it backwards in sevens, which is more cognitively challenging.
Another more cognitively active distraction technique is to imagine yourself in a beautiful scene, whilst lying in bed. For example, imagine yourself on a beautiful beach with the warm tropical breeze caressing your face, as you smell the salty sea air. Really focus on creating a full picture – use all of your imaginary sense. This will help distract your mind from the other worries.
One last sleep tip – more people should know about…
Ask about CBT-I
If you’re really struggling to sleep and you feel like you’ve tried everything (even my other 5 less well-known tips), then speak to your GP about CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia). It is the NICE recommended treatment for insomnia.
I’ve included it here in my less well-known tips list because I know that it is still a treatment that lots of people do not know about. People turn to medication, apps and other remedies and I’m keen that everyone knows about the benefits and success rates that CBT-I can have, especially if you have been having trouble with your sleep for a while.