Tips to Help you Fall Asleep

• Phase 1 - Improve your Daily Habits - All of the activities you choose to do from the moment you wake up to moment your head hits your pillow at night can affect your quality of sleep.
  • As soon as you wake up try and open your windows and let the light in or turn on all the lights so it is real bright. This will help you to set you internal clock, which is sensitive to light and dark, to help you regulate your sleep.
  • If you exercise try and exercise earlier in the day like in the morning or on your lunch. Regular exercise, as little as 30 minutes a day, has been shown to improve sleep patterns. Exercising later in the day might stimulate your body making it more difficult to sleep at night.
  • Limit your caffeine and alcohol intake as both can interrupt your sleep patterns. Caffeine has been known to stay in your body up to 10-12 hours after it has been consumed so any coffee, tea, or energy drinks should be consumed prior to noon. Beware of hidden caffeine such as in chocolate. Don't take naps in the afternoon, if you feel the need to take a nap then take it earlier in the afternoon and limit your naps to 30 minutes.
  • Don't smoke - nicotine is a stimulant and smoking maybe making it difficult for you to fall asleep. If you must smoke then try not to smoke right before going to bed.
  • Don't eat within 2 hours of going to bed and if you must eat or snack try snacking on foods that help to promote sleep like foods containing tryptophan along with carbohydrates a combination that has been proven to calm brain activity. Try adding calcium to your nighttime snack which can help process tryptophan. Stay away from protein rich foods that contain the amino acid tyrosine, which can stimulate brain activity. There is no one perfect food combination so experiment with food and see if it can help you get a better nights sleep.


• Phase 2 - Improve your Sleeping Environment
  • Get a bed large enough to stretch out in and rollover
  • Neck and body pain in the morning? Make sure your mattress and pillow are the right firmness for you. You might need a softer or firmer pillow to support your neck and head depending on your sleep position. Need a softer mattress, consider getting a pillow top or foam top for your mattress.
  • Hide your clock - Staring at your clock can make you feel frustration and the light that may be coming off of the clock may not be helping either. Save yourself stress and frustration and hide your clock so that you don't concentrate on the time but give yourself the chance to relax and even if you are not sleeping your resting.
  • Just as you create light for yourself from the moment you get up you need to create the opposite effect at night. Close those drapes, no street lights coming into your window, no night lights, and no clock light. Still need help keeping light out of your room try wearing a sleep mask.
  • Perfect your room temperature. You will have more difficulty trying to fall asleep if you room is too hot or too cold or too stuffy. Play around with your thermostat and blankets and find your perfect temperature. A slightly cooler temperature tends to work for most people.
  • Only use your bed for sleeping. If you do things like watch TV or read a book in bed you mind will start associating your bed with other activities making it more difficult for you to fall asleep at night.
  • Silence is key, make sure there isn't a lot of noise keeping you up at night, can't control outside noise, try earplugs.


• Phase 3 - Bedtime Rituals
  • Make sure you start early enough in the evening so that you have time to get through the routine before bedtime. Start the routine at the same time every night.
  • It is important that when establishing a bedtime routine that you stick to it every night, even when you aren't at home. Decide on your course of action and give it at least a week or two before making changes to it.
  • Establishing a bedtime ritual gives your mind and body consistency so that it is easier for you to fall asleep. Remember that waking up at the same time everyday is just as important, so make sure you don't sleep in on certain days including the weekends.
  • Try to make sure that your routine only includes relaxing things like taking a warm bath and not stimulating things like watching tv, this way your mind and body can relax and rest.

Stages of Sleep

• There are typically 5 stages of sleep, stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM also known as Rapid Eye Movement. About 50% of the time is spent in stage 2 and about 20% of the time is spent in REM. A complete cycle through all 5 stages typically lasts about an hour and a half. Although its not typical to progress through these stages in sequence, sleep may begin in stage 1 and progress through stages 2, 3, and 4 but may return recycle through stages 2 to 4 again before actually going into REM. Once REM is over the body typically returns to stage 2. A person may go through these stages 4 or 5 times throughout the night.
  • Stage 1 is considered light sleep where the muscles begin to relax and a person is easily awakened. This typically lasts between five and ten minutes and is so light that a person who is awakened may not believe they were actually asleep.
  • Stage 2 is when brain activity starts to slow down, eye movement stops, body temperature starts to drop, and heart rate begins to slow. This stage typically lasts about 20 minutes.
  • Stages 3 and 4 are considered deep sleep when all muscle and eye movement cease. When a person is in deep sleep it is more difficult to wake them. It is during deep sleep when people tend to sleep walk and children may experience bed wetting.
  • During the REM stage dreaming starts to occur. Muscles tend to stiffen, the eyes move, the heart rate increases, breathing becomes more rapid and irregular, and the blood pressure rises.

Sleep Disorders

• There are over 70 types of found sleep disorders which can normally be categorized into three areas: Lack of sleep, disturbed sleep, and excessive sleep.
  
  
  • Sleep Apnea falls under the Disturbed sleep category.
    • Sleep Apnea is a common sleeping disorder that can be potentially very serious. In sleep apnea your breathing gets very shallow or can even stop while you are sleeping. During episodes of sleep apnea the sleeper wakes up to breathe again, disrupting sleep, and also suffers from a brief lack of oxygen.
  • RLS falls under the disturbed sleep category
    • Restless legs syndrome is a condition that is characterized by an irresistible urge to move one's body to stop uncomfortable or odd sensations. Some common descriptions of the odd sensations would be creeping, crawling, tingling, and pulling. This not only affects the legs but can also affect the arms or torso. Common symptoms of RLS include irritating sensations, urges to move, a worsening of symptoms in the evening or at night, and visible movements in the toes or feet.
  • Narcolepsy falls under the excessive sleep category
    • Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological condition in which a person falls asleep during the day at inappropriate times such as at work or school or falls asleep at random for short periods of time ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes and in rare cases an hour or longer. It is mainly characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, even after a good nights sleep. People with narcolepsy find it difficult to stay awake regardless of circumstances and can cause serious disruptions in their daily life. The cause of narcolepsy remains unknown.
  • Insomnia falls under the lack of sleep category
    • Insomnia is a sleeping disorder in which the person persistently has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.
    • There are three types of identified insomnia
      • Transient insomnia is short term insomnia that tends to last from a couple of days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in environment, by the timing of sleep, severe depression, or by stress. Its consequences - sleepiness and impaired psychomotor performance - are similar to those of sleep deprivation.
      • Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.
      • Chronic insomnia persists almost nightly and lasts for years at a time. It can be caused by another disorder, or it can be a primary disorder. Its effects can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue; but people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness. Some people that live with this disorder see things as though they were happening in slow motion, whereas moving objects seem to blend together. It can also cause double vision.

Foods that help sleep

• Tryptophan increases the brain's levels of serotonin (a calming neurotransmitter) and/or melatonin (a sleep inducing hormone). Foods rich in tryptophan include dairy foods, poultry, bananas, oats, and honey.
• Carbohydrate rich foods complement dairy foods by increasing the level of sleep inducing tryptophan in the blood.
• Try a low fat diet - research has shown that the more fat you eat during the day the less likely you will be to have a restful night.
• Avoid Caffeine up to 8 hours before bedtime as it can take the body anywhere between 3 to 12 hours to eliminate caffeine. Products with caffeine include coffee, tea, energy drinks, soda, and chocolate.
• Beware of the nightcap. Although alcohol may make you drowsy and help you to fall asleep you are more likely to have less restful sleep as studies show alcohol tends to affect sleep during Stage 4 and the REM stage as people awaken and then have difficulty falling back asleep.
• Curtail fluids 3 hours before bedtime so that you are less likely to get up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, causing interrupted sleep.
• Smoking is a stimulant with effects similar to caffeine so try to avoid smoking right before bedtime and if you awake in the middle of the night.
• Avoid heavy meals before going to bed, allow yourself at least 3 hours before going to bed as your digestive system slows down when sleeping and a full stomach may cause you to feel uncomfortable and disturb your sleep. Eating right before going to bed can also cause an increase in stomach acid and GERD giving you heart burn symptoms prompting disturbed sleep.

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