How to Get the Sleep You Want
5 Ways to Overcome Your Insomnia
It’s 1:00 AM and you feel restless. You’ve been trying to fall asleep for the past 2 hours. You’re lying in bed wide awake. You’re stressed because you know you will dread waking up in the morning. You’re tired of being tired. Tired of living your life with no energy.
When you go to your friends for advice, all you hear is “have you tried going to bed early?” As if you haven’t tried that already. Discouraged, you give up and accept that you must be a “Night Owl.”
If this is you, you’re not alone. I too was in the same boat. Especially since the COVID-19 lockdowns, to say that our sleep schedules have become out of control would be an understatement.
Did you know that about 40% of Americans get less than the recommended 7 hours of sleep every night? (According to this study by Gallop).
Even before the lockdown, I’ve always had trouble going to bed early. Up until just a few weeks ago, I was going to bed at 2:00 AM and having a miserable time waking up to go to a job I don’t like.
Fast forward to this moment, I am currently up at 5:00 AM writing this article. And I’m not just going through the motions. I feel wide awake and energized. How did a night owl who hated waking up early become an early bird? Read on to find out.
Whether your motivation is to avoid miserable mornings or to have the time to work on your passion projects, falling asleep earlier will give you an edge in your career and health.
Create an Ideal Environment for Sleeping
There is no doubt that changing ourselves is a difficult process. Self-change is difficult because we often become the product of our environments. But what we often ignore is that as humans, we also have the power to change the environments surrounding us. When I say the word “environment,” I am not only talking about our physical environment but also the one we create in our minds.
And since going to bed earlier is a change in behavior, we must always start in our minds.
We first have to change the way we think.
But here’s the trick. Changing our mind also involves following through with our actions. Our new beliefs become reinforced and solidified in our minds when our actions are consistent with what we say we believe.
Since your goal is to sleep earlier, you must first believe that it is possible. And secondly, you must act like a person who falls asleep early. So how do you act like people who go to bed early?
They aren’t more special than others. It’s just that they know how to set boundaries and stick to their schedules. They know how to change their environments in a way that helps them get to their goals. So what does an optimized environment for sleeping look like? Let me paint the picture for you.
An ideal room for sleep is clean, organized, and free of distractions. This means no phones, TVs, or laptops on the bed. I personally stop using my phone at least an hour before bedtime. This is because the blue lights from our phones, laptops, and TV screens prevent our bodies from producing melatonin.
We become more awake during our bedtime because we lack the chemicals we need in our bodies to fall asleep. The idea is to make it easier for yourself to stay asleep.
Create a Bedtime Routine
Much like how your environment can affect the way you sleep, your bedtime routine also has an impact. First of all, what is a bedtime routine? A bedtime routine is just like what it sounds like. It’s a routine before bed that helps you get ready to have high-quality sleep. It is a way to get your mind and body ready to catch those Z’s at night.
Everyone’s nighttime routines look different but there are certain activities that you have to put in place for it to work. Here are five tips for creating a bedtime routine that will help you fall asleep.
1. Get Ready for Bed an Hour Before Your Bedtime
Practicing personal hygiene is a very active process. You want to do this as far away from your bedtime as you possibly can. I usually feel more wired and awake after I shower or brush my teeth.
With that said, I strongly recommend that you take care of yourself right after you finish dinner. This way, you don’t undo the work of winding down after you finish your bedtime routine.
Remember that the idea is for you to get yourself ready to slow down and relax.
2. Perform Your Bedtime Ritual at least 30 minutes before bed
The purpose behind starting your ritual early is the same as my first point. You should block out enough time for yourself to slow down. Rushing into bed is the worst way to fall asleep. It’s not a good feeling when you think to yourself “I should have been in bed an hour ago!”
It’s a totally different experience when you know that there’s plenty of time to relax. When you engage your mind from a place of abundance, you’re more likely to be at peace. And when you’re at peace, it becomes much easier to meditate on thoughts that help you rest.
3. Meditate or Pray for at least 5–15 minutes
Meditation allows your mind to slow down. If this activity sounds boring to you, that’s exactly the point. You want to enter a state of boredom. If you don’t know where to start on meditation, I recommend using guided meditation apps like Headspace, Calm, or Abide.
People who meditate are less likely to show fewer symptoms of insomnia according to this study done by JAMA Internal Medicine. Participants were also affected less by daytime drowsiness.
A few benefits of meditation include:
- Increased melatonin levels
- Decreased blood pressure
- Decreased resting heart rate
For 5 to 15 minutes of your time per night, you can reap benefits for both your physical and mental health that no drugs can bring. But don’t just take my word for it, find out for yourself by trying it out.
4. Journal and Reflect on Your Day
Jot down how your day went and some of the lessons you learned. Writing down your thoughts helps you organize them in a way that makes sense. In my personal experience, journaling has helped me manage my restless thoughts at night.
Most importantly, the purpose of journaling is to make plans for your day tomorrow. Most of our worries and anxieties have to do with our future. This means that we’re most likely to worry about what we have to do tomorrow.
Still don’t believe me? If you need more science to convince you, then you’re in luck. There’s been a joint-study done on this by Baylor University and Emory University through the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
In the study, they found that students who wrote down their to-do lists for tomorrow fell asleep at an average of 9 minutes faster than students who simply wrote down what they accomplished for the day.
When we write down our thoughts, we are removing them from our minds. We don’t have to hold onto the thoughts that weigh us down and keep us up at night. We can simply put those thoughts away on paper and come back to them tomorrow.
5. Think Happy Thoughts
Now you’re ready to actually fall asleep. When you get into bed, the key is not to focus on sleeping. When you actively use your mind to fall asleep, you’re actually undoing all of the work you’ve done to relax.
Just focus on your breath. Relax your body and be still.
Think about all the things that bring you joy. If you like being out in nature, visualize the place you want to be. When you let your mind drift into your happy thoughts, you will naturally become more relaxed and enter a euphoric state.
Sleep can become an activity that you look forward to. A place where you can be far away from your worries. A sanctuary where you can recover and re-energize yourself for tomorrow.
Author, C.S. Lewis said it best.
Many things — such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly — are done worst when we try hardest to do them.— C.S. Lewis
Sleep deprivation is a serious problem. And at times, it will seem impossible to overcome. But the good news is that we, as humans, have the power to change ourselves.
We can change our beliefs, our environments, and eventually our behaviors. Knowing that you can get the sleep you need every night, what do you look forward to accomplishing tomorrow?
You’ll surprise yourself with how much you can get done with a good night’s sleep.
