Shut-Eye Strategies for a Good Night’s Sleep

I participated in an Ambassador program on behalf of Influence Central for Pernix Therapeutics.
I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

You may remember that last month I wrote a post about the United States of Insomnia. Almost 2/3 of all Americans suffer from insomnia symptoms! That is a crazy amount of people. I know I didn’t sleep well last night, did you? My lack of sleep was caused by neck and shoulder pain-I really wish we knew what was going on and could fix the problems I am having there because last night ibuprofen didn’t touch the pain. Anyways, since almost 4 million of us deal with at least occasional insomnia symptoms, I thought  we should talk about some healthy shut-eye strategies to help us go to sleep and stay asleep.

Shut Eye Strategies for a Good Night’s Sleep

Before we even start listing these 4 tips I want you to know some of these are going to be difficult and to do them you will need to make some changes in your routine. I will too. Obviously, what we are doing now isn’t working so if we want a good night’s sleep it will take some changes to make that happen.

Get Active Early

Exercising earlier in the day strengthens you cicadian rhythm. This in turn brings on sleepiness at night.

Get Comfortable

Put on your comfy pajamas, curl up with a good book. All of these activities can signal your body that it is time to wind down and prepare for sleep.

Sign Off

An hour before bedtime shut off or put away all of your electronic devices. The LED lights in our phones and tablets activate our brain, keeping it from going to sleep and staying asleep.

Go Dark

Block out the light so that your brain knows that it is time to rest. Our cicadian rhythm is largely based on our brain’s reactions to light and dark. We need to retrain our brain to know when to rest, just like the rest of our body needs rest.

I know that for most of us signing off will be the hardest. I have a friend that doesn’t get home from work until after 10pm and we usually text right up until I crawl into bed. I guess I will have to talk to him and tell him that I need to make a change…he won’t be happy but if it helps me sleep it will be worth the effort. I also sleep with the television on. I am going to try sleeping with it off for a few nights but last time we had to sleep without TV, while we were on a missions trip, we only slept a little each night and that was due to sheer exhaustion from all of the physical labor we were doing.

I hope these tips help you…and me. We all need a good night’s sleep!