Sick and tired of dealing with insomnia? From healthy drinks, night practices, and sleep apps, here’s the all-natural sleep routine to get you that perfect night’s sleep.
Related: Can’t Sleep? Weighted Blankets Can Help Reduce Your Insomnia And Anxiety
As a light sleeper and someone whose mind is constantly racing, I often find myself struggling to fulfill that healthy 7 – 9 sleep hours nightly. Just last week I was up for two days – waking up at 9 am and only sleeping at 7 am the next morning. It’s an understatement to say that my mind and body were not happy with me. Sleep insomnia is quite often these days, with the current pandemic and our workstations just being a few inches away from our bed, it’s a challenge to get any peace of mind. That’s why in my never-ending search for tips and tricks to fall asleep, I was able to formulate all-natural sleep routine that can help the mind and body relax before going to bed.
Here’s the all-natural sleep routine to clock in more hours every night:
Set Your Bedtime
This might be a no-brainer already but what I’m specifically talking about is practicing sleep restriction therapy. Essentially, this is a practice wherein you reduce the hours you spend in bed to help your body crave for it more. First, pick a fixed wake-up time which let’s say is 8 am then get your average sleeping hours which for example is 6 hours (Important note: don’t go below 5 hours). This means you’re only allowed to go to bed at 1 am. This will help avoid the unnecessary overthinking and aimless screen time that can cause your mind to stay awake. If you’re sleeping continually for 6 hours every night, start to add 20 to 30 minutes on the front-end of bedtime while keeping your wake-up time the same until you’ve reached the healthy 7 to 9 hours a night.
Weighted Blankets
Like a good protective hug, weighted blankets can help reduce anxiety while you lay in bed. First introduced by occupational therapists as a treatment for behavioral disorders, weighted blankets came from the idea that the pressure from the blanket can increase serotonin. Seratonin is the chemical in our bodies responsible for making us feel happy and calm that we can get from exercising or even just thinking about happy memories. With this, the weighted blanket provides just enough physiological calm to help ease anxieties.
Bottoms Up
While I do love a glass of wine or two to wind down, it’s not a night drink that’s a healthy cure-all. If you’re not a fan of tea either, a risk-free alternative is Good Night Drink which is a fizzy drink without the nasty bloating and preservatives. Non-alcoholic and all-natural, if you’ve tried the ever-famous carbonated water La Croix, this has the same addicting flavor. Its active ingredients are lemon balm which is a calming herb used to reduce stress and hops, a well-known bittering agent used in traditional medicine mainly to promote sleep. Keep this by your bedside table and drink it ideally 30 minutes before you sleep to feel your body and mind be put at ease.
Good Night® Drink is available on BeautyMNL, Lazada, Shopee, and Zalora.
Essential Oils And Lullaby Apps
Setting the mood for bedtime is as important as the other steps. If you’ve been working-at-home, making sure that your bedroom transforms into a place of tranquility is a great way to help your mind switch modes from work to rest. That’s why a humidifier and essentials oils are a great investment to make this quarantine. It provides ambient noise, maintains indoor humidity, and provides aromatherapy which is also known to promote deep sleep. My personal favorite scents for bedtime are mint, lavender, and cedarwood.
If that’s not enough a new trending way to fall asleep is the use of ASMRs (Autonomous sensory meridian response). Head on to Spotify and try out the current trending podcasts for sleep audio content like Sleeping Pill with Inka and sleep meditation podcast Audio Wellness Services. But if you want to go the traditional route, check out Sounds Like A Good Night Sleep Music playlist on Spotify for soothing melodies and relaxing piano songs.
