There’s nothing as disappointing as getting to bed only to realize that you can’t fall asleep. If you’ve once experienced this, then I believe you understand how terrifying and detrimental the repercussions can be. According to most professional doctors, an average adult should have a night of uninterrupted sleep for 7 to 9 hours.

Failure to that, there’s a high possibility that you might face partial or severe health risks such as poor concentration which can be serious especially if you drive a lot or if the nature of your works demands a lot of concentration.

Often though, there are many reasons that can prevent you from enjoying a night of restful sleep. Although they differ from person to person, some of the common causes of sleeplessness are; anxiety, stress, digestive issues, high anticipation, stimulants (such as high caffeine levels), artificial lights, and distracting noise.

Although most people have gone ahead to think of creative ways of reducing the time it takes to fall asleep, here are eight scientifically proven ways that will help you travel to the land of Nod with enthusiasm.

Try meditation

When I was a kid, I would occasionally find myself having sleepless nights. Although my mom would comfort me, there’s one trick she taught me which ended up being my back-up strategy whenever I found myself in a stressed or worrying situation.

She would ask me to close my eyes, breathe in and out several times then cam my mind down by focusing on a specific thing. Just the way I would do it, meditation has now been proven as one sure-fire way of coping with stress, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness.

Adjust your thermostat

According to science, the ideal sleeping temperature of an average human is between 60°F to 67°F. Anything below or beyond this will prevent you from having the comfort that you deserve. You see, at night, your body temperature lowers automatically. This creates a conducive environment that triggers various processes within the body. These processes are the ones that promote sleepiness.

Now, apart from the temperature, one more tip, as advised by Thesleepadviser, is to consider the quality of your mattress and the rest of the beddings as they too can dictate the quality of your sleep.

Make sure your specific mattress has an open-cell structure to allow precise air circulation. The blanket and the bed sheets too should be breathable enough to prevent extreme sweating which is a major cause of sleeplessness.

Cover your eyes

Just like a clock, your body too works by sending signals to your system to alert it when its time to sleep or wake up. These signals are usually sent by a section of your hypothalamus to your circadian rhythm (a 24-hour clock in your brain) to inform it when its time to do what.

Since the circadian rhythm is alerted by light, dimming the lights or turning them off altogether is one smart way of getting some sleep. For those living in urban metropolitan cities (where there’s a lot of light penetrating to your bedroom from the outside), covering your eyes with a dark eye mask or a cloth will help you get a good sleep

Take a hot drink

I can’t explain it exactly, but there’s a relaxing effect that’s triggered when you drink something hot before going to bed. I think it’s the calming warmth that alerts the body telling it its time to get some cozy sleep. Whatever the case, drinking something warm, such as green tea, milk mixed with honey, decaffeinated tea or hot cocoa, will really help your body to relax and get some sleep.

Listen to some music

When I mention music, I don’t suggest that you blast the whole apartment with rock or hip hop music. What I simply mean is you play some soft, soothing, acoustic music that will mask those sounds from the outside from causing any sleeping interference.

If no external sounds are interfering with your sleep, then you can try playing instrumental music as they will help you to meditate on the rhythms as words can be distracting at times.

Work out

Performing some light workouts is another hack that has been discovered to promote sleepiness. Performing some slow-pace strolls, jogging, cycling, and stretching can calm the central nervous system while allowing the body to release excess tension for quality sleep. You can either do these light exercises outdoors at least 2 hours before sleeping or in your bedroom just before sleeping.

Read a boring book

Reading is an old and fascinating hack that has been used for ages to help sleepers fall asleep faster. Even if you’re not an avid reader, at least reading a book for approximately 20 minutes will help you to forget all your troubles for a short period thus making you fall asleep.

To those people that are not fond of reading, reading a science fiction book will make you feel bored and sleepy forcing you to fall asleep even without noticing.

For those avid readers, avoid reading your favorite novels as this can make you read an entire book all night. Instead, dim the bedroom lights then read an inspirational book in general. Also, make sure that it’s a physical book and not a Kindle, Smartphone or Tablet.

Write a journal

Finally, if you’re restless or maybe you feel like your mind is racing; simply grab a pen and a piece of paper and start writing those thoughts down. For those experiencing serious spikes of insomnia, having a journal beside your bed can really prove to be helpful.

You can write about anything such as your troubles, your happy moments, your ideas, or things that you’re looking to accomplish in the future. This hack has been proven to reduce stress levels as it keeps the brain active until it tires.

Conclusion

So, there you have it all. If you have been having trouble falling asleep lately or maybe you’re a victim of insomnia, these eight hacks can really help you to fall asleep much faster. However, while implementing them to the latter;don’t forget to consider your sleeping environment as it is the focal point that dictates the quality of sleep you can get.

Other than that, if you feel like you’d like to add something else on top of what we’ve already mentioned, then feel free to contact us in the comments section below.