How Can I Get To Sleep? – Tips for falling asleep faster
Do you lie in bed trying to sleep?
At some point in our lives, we’ll find ourselves lying in bed knowing that we should be asleep already but being seemingly unable to drift off and wondering, “How can I get to sleep?”
While this may come as an occasional annoyance, if it becomes a regular occurrence, it might be worthwhile considering ways to improve your chances of drifting off to sleep faster.
How can I get to sleep?
- Listen to slow music – Listening to music which has a slow tempo (between 60 to 80 beats per minute) can help relax you and improve your sleep quality.
- Splash your face with cold water – It might seem counterintuitive to splash cold water on your face in order to help you sleep – surely that will wake you up won’t it? Surprisingly, evolution has left us with a response to cold water immersion known as ‘Mammalian Dive Reflex’ which helps us last longer when submerged in cold water by lowering our blood pressure and heart rate – exactly the same thing that happens when we sleep.
- Charge your phone somewhere else – Mobile phones and other devices with screens are responsible for decreasing the quality and amount of sleep we get. Whether the constant urge to check up on social media at 2am, the blinking notification light, the vibration of an incoming message or the ever-present blue light from the screen, electronic devices can be ruinous to quality sleep – so banish them from your bedroom.
- Don’t try to sleep, try to stay awake – You can’t force yourself to fall asleep by working harder at it, but that doesn’t stop us from trying when sleep eludes us. Trying to stay awake, however, often results in drifting off no matter how hard you fight it. Try lying in bed with your eyes open, you might be surprised at how hard this becomes and fall asleep faster because of it.
- Keep your bedroom cool – In nature, a drop in light levels coincides with a drop in temperature, something which diurnal creatures (like us) take as a signal to sleep. Given our unique ability to create light and warmth whenever and wherever we please, our inner mammal which knows nothing of lightbulbs or central heating can get confused about night and day. Recreate a bit of night time in your bedroom by keeping it darker and cooler to mimic the nighttime conditions we’ve evolved to observe.
- Keep your hands and feet warm – After reading the last point, keeping your extremities warm might seem contradictory, however, warming up your hands and feet, perhaps with hot water bottles or socks widens the blood vessels allowing heat to be conducted away from your core which in turn cools you down overall.
Invest in a bed that’s right for you
All these strategies can improve your chances of falling asleep faster, but one factor which also has the power to influence your ability to sleep is comfort. When you consider that you spend up to a third of your life in bed, it becomes clear how important it is to have a bed that’s right for you. If you can’t get comfortable, drifting off to sleep can be particularly difficult and you’re also more prone to waking up in the night for the same reason.
At Longbeds, we supply quality bespoke beds to suit people and bedrooms of all sizes. Not only can we make beds suitable for those of you who find conventional bed sizes too short or narrow, we pride ourselves on the quality of their construction and the comfort they provide.
Check out our range and choose a custom bed which is perfect for you from a range of styles and materials.
