Sleep is very important to us if we want to perform in our daily life. Without enough sleep we are not able to perform in the way we are used to. Sleep is associated with consolidating memories and a lack of sleep creates depression, mood changes, irritation, a lack of attention and much more. Normally we should sleep at least 7 hours a night but a lot of people don’t even come close tho these 7 hours. If we sleep for a considerate amount of time less than 6 hours a night than we speak of Insomnia.

Most people who have troubles falling asleep don’t have Insomnia but they are simply having troubles falling asleep. This article will explain some basic ways to fall asleep. Most people that have troubles to fall a sleep are failing on some points of sleep hygiene. This has nothing to do with washing your hands before you go to bed but with some essential points so your body will know that it has to sleep.

Sleep and Alcohol

A lot of people drink alcohol because this will help them fall asleep at night. But alcohol does not increase the quality of sleep and the result is that people are more tired when they wake up compared to when they don’t drink. However, most people only associate alcohol with falling asleep fast so they continue to use it. In normal sleep you will go through a few stages to fall in to a deep sleep. When you drink alcohol you will not reach the further stages and your sleep is more superficial. The result is that you are still tired when you wake up.

Eating and Sleep

Sometimes you want to eat a little snack before you go to bed because you are still hungry. Eating before you go to bed will not increase sleep quality, instead it will keep you awake longer. You can divide all the work the body is doing in 2 systems: the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. Eating a snack will trigger the parasympathetic nervous system to increase digestion and heart beat instead of lowering it and this will not help you much falling asleep at night. Therefore you should not eat within 2 hours before you are planning to go to bed.

A bed is for sleeping

In the past a bed was solely for sleeping, but nowadays there are not much people that don’t have a television or refrigerator in their bedroom. You will watch television when you are lying in bed because that is more cozy than when you are watching television in the living room. If you are doing all kinds of activities in your bedroom than your body will not know it is sleeping time when you go to bed. In order to increase sleep hygiene you should only use your bedroom for sleeping and not for watching television or eating a snack.

Shake that body

If you don’t do enough exercises than your body will not be really tired when you go to bed. Sitting on the couch all day, or sitting behind a desk at work will not tire your body enough in the way that it needs sleep. Try to do some exercises when you get home in order to increase tiredness. If you go running every night, your body will need more rest to recover and sleep is the best way to do that. You will give your body a routine instead of a static day curve of doing not much at all. Don’t do exercises within 2 hours when you are planning to go to bed because than your body is too active to fall asleep.

These are only a few ways to fall asleep but if you try them all out than they might work. However, sometimes the reason for not falling asleep is more serious and than you should consider visiting your doctor and ask him for his professional advice.