When you finally lay your head on your pillow and you just can’t fall into a peaceful sleep, you start to question what’s stopping you from drifting off. Lack of sleep can be very frustrating and exhausting. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of things you can do to help. But first you have to consider what might be preventing you from getting some much needed sleep.
Diet
If you’re having trouble falling asleep, the first thing to consider is what you have put into your body. So many foods, medicines and drinks contain sneaky ingredients that will keep you up. For example:
- Caffeine is an obvious one to look out for. It stays in your system for up to eight hours, so it can easily disrupt an entire night’s sleep.
- Alcohol may help you to fall asleep initially, but it causes broken sleep.
- Heavy meals can make it difficult to fall asleep as they can cause discomfort
- Avoid eating sugary foods late at night.
Stress & mental illness
Stress is a big cause of insomnia. If you are anxious, depressed or dealing with stressful life events, you may find it hard to sleep. All those worrying thoughts will no doubt keep you up at night.
So try to do things to ease your symptoms and get your mental state back on track. Things like anxiety apps and bedtime yoga can make a world of difference. Physical illness and feeling unwell can also cause insomnia, for example back or joint pain, muscle aches.
Bad habits
If you aren’t sleeping well, it’s time to review your bedtime routine. There’s a good reason why your parents were strict about bedtimes when you were little. Avoid going to bed at inconsistent or very late times.
Plus those extra long daytime naps may not be helping either. Get into a positive bedtime routine where you start to wind down properly and switch off. And that means not endlessly scrolling through social media feeds in bed, as the light on your phone disrupts sleep.
Environment
Is something noisy keeping you up? Check your bedroom environment and make sure there isn’t something that could be causing sleep issues. Sometimes it can be as simple as your bedroom being too hot, cold, noisy or bright. And no one like an uncomfortable bed, so it might be time to treat yourself to a new one, you spend almost half your life in bed after all!
If you are fed up of having a bad night’s sleep, whilst you are trying to figure out the cause, it’s worth trying some handy sleep remedies. Take a look at our range of sleep remedy products now.
