Tips for Overcoming Insomnia

Here are few tips for overcoming insomnia and other sleep problems in adults:

1. Starting the process of getting to sleep starts before you even get to bed. Let's think first about your bedroom. In these busy times, what can often get in the way of sleep is that other factors can start to intrude into the bedroom. This is particularly true of people who work from home, where work materials can slowly, but surely find themselves into the sleeping space. Your first rule then is the bedroom should be for sleep and sex only.
2. Also in relation to your bedroom, you should be aware that it is important to exclude as much noise and light as possibly. This seems obvious, but there is a good reason for this in that darkness and a lack of noise act as a signal to the brain that it is time to sleep. For those people who live in built up areas this can be difficult to achieve, but a good starting point is to install thick curtains.
3. Many people who suffer with insomnia do so as a result of a poor routine. They will go to bed at a range of times, sometimes they will read and others they do not. If you have significant sleep problems and want to learn how to get to sleep fast, then it is important to develop a good sleep routine - think of it as something of a ritual that you should keep to every night. It does not matter too much what your routine is provided that you avoid drinking caffeine in the evening and doing strenuous activity just before you go to bed. You may want to include having a relaxing bath, having a milky drink and reading a chapter of a book (nothing too stimulating though, so avoid thrillers). Above all, make sure that you keep to a regular bedtime.
4. Turn your alarm clock where you cannot easily see it. Why would you want to do this? Well simply because there is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night, looking at the clock and then worrying about how late it is and how little sleep you are getting. This in turn raises stress levels and inhibits sleep.
5. Try relaxation techniques. There are a range of options here. One technique involves the subject focusing on their extremities (i.e. fingers and toes) and imagining them slowly relaxing. You then move your way up the body imagining each part becoming more relaxed. Another technique involves imagining being in a particularly relaxing location (a desert island perhaps) and then think about how each of your sense would experience that situation - the wind on your face, the sound of waves crashing on the shore and the smell of tropical flowers.

Using Relaxation Techniques to Help Get to Sleep

One of the main persistent barriers to sleep is stress. In order for us to achieve good quality sleep then we need to be in a truly relaxed state, and obviously stress prevents us from achieving this. There are a couple of possible solutions to this. First of all, you could just remove whatever is causing you stress. However, this is clearly considerably easier to say than to achieve. If your main source of stress relates to your relationship or your job then you cannot just remove yourself from this situation.

An alternative then is to find ways to deal with this stress more effectively. Here a couple of relaxation techniques that I have often found useful:

Visualization

Lie in your bed with your eyes closed, making sure that you will not have any interruptions. Think about somewhere relaxing that you would like to be. It doesn't matter whether it is somewhere that you have been to before, or even whether it actually exists, as long as you can actually visualize the place you are imagining.
Now, you need to visualize the place you are imagining in detail, thinking through each of your sense. So, imagine how the breeze feels on your face, imagine the sounds you would hear in your chosen place, what you would smell and, of course, what you would see. You can return to this place frequently and develop in your mind all the different things that you would experience.

Progressive Relaxation

Lie in your bed with your eyes closed. Start with your toes and tell yourself that they are relaxing and that this relaxation is going to spread slowly over your body. Move next to your feet. Again, you should tell yourself that they are becoming gradually more relaxed and feel their weight sink slowly into the bed. Repeat this process working your way up your body. It is important to take this very slowly and not to rush it. Imagine each part of your body become progressively relaxed and sinking into the bed. When you feel that you have worked your way all over your body then you should consider the whole of your body and if you feel that any part of you is still tense then repeat the process for that part of your body.

Download this Guide to Find Out More About How to Use Relaxation Techniques to Help You Sleep

Creating the Right Environment for Sleep

One thing that many people overlook when they are trying to overcome insomnia is making sure that they have the right environment for sleep. In these busy times it is all too easy for a range of items to start encroaching into the bedroom. In particular, work materials can all too easily find their way into your sleeping area, and if you find that your bedroom is becoming an extension of your office then it will make it all the more difficult to switch off and will impede your sleep. The first step then in how to get to sleep fast is to take a good look at your sleeping environment.

Take a look around your bedroom and see what you can see. If you your room is cluttered with work materials, various keep fit equipment, items related to hobbies, then you need to find somewhere else for these things. Your first rule for getting a good night's sleep is that your bedroom should be for sleep and sex only.

You should also think about how you can exclude as much light and noise as possible. This seems obvious, but the stimulus provided by noise prevents sleep and darkness is one of those signals that helps our brains decide that it is time for sleep. Simply putting up a thicker curtain is one way of reducing both of these and is clearly a relatively inexpensive solution.

Finally, it helps if your bedroom does not get too hot. Not all of us have air conditioning of course, but in the summer it may help to switch to thinner bed coverings and to make sure there is some degree of ventilation if necessary.

Download this guide to find out how YOU can overcome insomnia

Sleeping Disorder Symptoms

Sleep disorders are surprisingly common and have a range of effects upon the subject depending upon severity and the type of symptoms exhibited. Here are just a few of the most common sleeping disorder symptoms:

• Insomnia - simply difficulties in getting to sleep. This may be transient or chronic.
• Bruxism - grinding of the teeth while sleeping.
• Night Terror - the sufferer will wake gasping, screaming or moaning. The subject will often be completely unaware of what has happened.
• Restless Legs Syndrome - this is an irresistible urge to move legs.
• Sleepwalking - involves walking about and other activities usually associated with wakefulness.
• Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders - these are normally transient and associated with particular changes such as jet lag or shift working.

As you can see, there are a variety of sleeping disorder symptoms which have a wide range of effects upon the subject and indeed upon their partners.

Read more about sleeping disorder symptoms.

Sleep Problems in Adults

Although insomnia is the most common of the sleep problems in adults, there are a number of other problems that regularly afflict people during the night. Another particularly common sleep disorder is night terrors. This typically involves the sufferer waking from sleep gasping, moaning or screaming. Often the person is unable to be completely woken as they are so focussed on trying to wake up. The sufferer will generally settle back to sleep without being fully aware of the episode. When they do wake in the morning they are usually completely unaware of what has taken place.

Another of the sleep problems in adults is bruxism. This is a condition where the sufferer has a tendency to clench their jaw and grind their teeth while sleeping. As well as the the obvious damage to the teeth that occurs, the subject often experiences pain in the jaw and headaches. However, many people will be largely unaware of their condition. In some cases, however, the bruxism can actually be loud enough to wake the sleeping partner.

Read more about sleep problems in adults

How to Get to Sleep Fast

If you suffer from insomnia then learning how to get to sleep fast is an essential skill to learn to help you overcome your particular condition. There are a number of techniques that have shown to be effective to bring about sleep quickly, and particularly effective are a range of relaxation techniques. The key thing though is actually not to lie in your bed thinking to yourself that you must get to sleep. The more you focus on the fact that you cannot get to sleep, the more frustrated you will become and the more difficult it will be to actually get to sleep.

The most useful technique that I use for how to get to sleep fast is "visualization". This simply means that you image yourself in a completely stress free scene - typically on a tropical island, or some people prefer the idea of floating on a cloud. Then it is a matter of imagining all of your senses experiencing this situation, so think of the breeze on your skin, the sounds you hear (birds, waves breaking on the shore, for example) and aromas you might smell. Take in the scene gradually, concentrating on particular senses at a time if you find this easier. This takes a bit of practice, but once you have mastered it you will find that you will be getting off to sleep faster than you ever have done before.

Read more about how to get to sleep fast