Cant Sleep | Why Cant I Sleep

Can’t Sleep? Try These Sleeping Tips

I remember an acquaintance that I had that claimed he could never fall asleep. He finally turned to sleeping pills, but became dependent on them and struggled to return to a normal sleep schedule. There are literally thousands of people that take prescription sleeping pills each and every night to aid them in their search for rest. Just like my acquaintance not knowing of the long term effects that taking sleeping pills would have on him, most people don’t realize how dependent they can become. Also, most often the effect that sleeping pills have on your body over time can decrease significantly. Sleeping pills should be the very last resort when finding a solution when you can’t sleep.  Click here to learn about natural techniques to help you get your sleep.

The first option should be to try something a little more natural: a sleep program. Before you think “yeah, I’ve heard of that and tried it, it doesn’t work,” read through the entire article to learn how a sleep program, if followed rigorously will have you sleeping better sooner than you can imagine. The biggest key is that you take control of your bedtime routine and your diet.

First of all, not everyone is going to have the same sleep program. Every sleep program must be very personalized. You may have tried things that others say have worked for them, and came to realize that even though it worked for them, it doesn’t work for you. Remember, not every one needs the same amount of sleep. Normally 6-8 hours is plenty for many people. However, some may sleep less than 6 hours and still function just as good as a person who sleeps 8 hours.

The first thing you should do is stop worrying about sleep, and try to live your waking hours to the fullest. The more alert and productive you are during the day, the better you will sleep at night. There are certain things you may do that can inhibit your sleeping ability. If you do any of the following and are struggling to sleep at night, try to not do them and see if it helps.

* Some people say that vigorous exercise a few hours before they sleep helps them. However, this can also be a reason for sleep deprivation for many people. Avoid exercising close to bedtime.

* You should not be drinking alcohol within a few hours of your bedtime.

* Staring at a computer screen or watching T.V. 1 hour before bedtime can cause sleep deprivation.

* Do not go to bed before your stomach is done digesting food.

You may notice that all of these activies mentioned are close to bedtime. The hours just before you go to bed are crucial in determining how well you will sleep at night. If you can’t sleep, try adjusting your pre-bedtime routine to something that is a little more relaxing.

If you are the type that takes a long nap every day and wonder why you can’t sleep at night, then you probably realize the reason for your sleeping problems. Long naps can throw off your sleeping clock and be destructive to your sleeping patterns.

Instead of exercising at night, get up a little earlier and exercise in the morning. Not only will you see better results from your execises, but sleep may come easier as well. There are other things you can do in the morning that may help you sleep better at night: getting up at the same time and eating a healthy breakfast are two more examples. As a final note, a healthy diet is extremely important to cure your sleeping woes. If you have seriously tried everything you can, then maybe think about medication, but again, it should be your last resort.

Reasons You Can’t Sleep

The following is an article written by Andrew Charles. I have added my own comments in italics about his suggestions for people not being able to fall asleep. I hope you find this helpful so that you are no longer asking yourself why you can’t fall asleep!

Are you one of those people who has trouble getting to sleep night after night? If so, this may be for any (or all) of the following reasons:

1. Trying to fall asleep

That’s right, trying to fall asleep is one of the biggest reason’s that prevents you from actually falling asleep. This is because, you have conditioned your brain to "not sleep" when you go to bed. Therefore, the easiest way to fall asleep is to re-educate your brain into falling asleep as soon as you lie down.

This is a good comment, but I would add that the reason for not being able to fall asleep when you are trying to, is that you are trying to! I know that I use to lay in bed and try as hard as I can to fall asleep. When I finally gave up and stopped trying, I fell asleep…imagine that!

2. Fear insomnia

Did you know that worrying about not getting enough sleep is about the worst thing you can do at night? So tonight, when you go to bed, if you find yourself asking if you are going to have another bad night’s sleep, just think to yourself "so what?" what’s the worst thing that will happen? By not making a big issue of it, you will find it easier to relax and before you know it, you will be fast asleep.

Okay so this one is similar to what I said in my last comment. I like his idea of saying "so what?". It is important to not make a big deal of not falling asleep. The more you think about it, the worse it will get. 

3. Worrying Your Night Away

You don’t need to suffer from depression to find yourself worrying the night away in bed, whatever the problem that’s keeping you awake, it’s usually a lot less of an issue the next morning. This can then become a regular mental association of starting to worry as soon as you turn the light out. The trick is to replace the bad association with an automatic habit of falling asleep instead.

This is perhaps the biggest reason that most people have trouble sleeping. We all can have a stressful day at work or home, and if we don’t have some way of relieving that stress before we go to bed, it will literally haunt us all night long. Make sure you know how to relieve stress and do so before bedtime. 

4. Succumbing to tiredness

A trap that many people fall into is to start taking things easy when they are feeling tired. The problem here is what’s known as the body temperature cycle. During the day, as you expend energy, your body temperature rises and you feel wide awake. Conversely, if you have a healthy sleep cycle, your body temperature will start to drop at night, you will start to yawn and feel sleepy. This doesn’t happen with insomniacs, the temperature doesn’t rise high enough during the day, nor drop enough at night, resulting in fragmented sleep. The answer here is to get exercise during the day to raise the body temperature, then just like a pendulum swinging, it will then drop lower at night enabling a good night’s sleep to be gotten.

I have never heard of this before, so I’m not sure if it is effective.  It never hurts to try and I know that getting exercise, especially in the morning can help. However, I usually get more tired when my body temperature rises, so, I’m not really sure how that works.

5. Spending too much time in bed

A very popular myth is that to maintain a healthy lifestyle, everyone needs 8 hours sleep every night. The fact is, around 20% of people actually, get by very well on 6 hours or less per night. Often, when you have had a poor night’s sleep, you will hit the snooze button in the morning to try to make up the hours. What you are actually doing is messing with your biological clock and putting back your sleep cycle. The next time you go to bed at your usual hour, this will be too early for your body clock, you won’t get off to sleep and you’ll start worrying, the whole cycle will start over again.

This is a very good point. Your biological clock needs to stay on time. Also, not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. Some people can go off 6 or even less and be just as productive during the day as those that sleep a full 8 hours.

This article was linked to MySleepTracks.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Charles
http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Reason-That-You-Cant-Sleep-at-Night&id=1231018

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