Tips and Tricks to Sleep Better

Anyone who has troubled sleeping patterns will tell you that one night of restlessness is one night too many. Getting enough sleep at night is essential to your overall wellness. Being rested helps you function throughout the day, abets your mental health, allows you to feel energized and keeps you from those sleep-deprived crabby moods. If better sleep is what you need, but you don't have any interest in prescription sleep medication, try some natural tricks at home to avoid feeling like a zombie the next day.

Bed Comfort

• You might be missing out on a restful night's sleep because your body is uncomfortable in bed. A firm mattress, a soft mattress, the wrong squishiness of your pillow or even a scratchy comforter are possible factors that could be preventing you from slumber. Before you diagnose yourself with insomnia, analyze how comfortable your bed really is, and see if there are things you can improve to aid sleep. Something as simple as flipping your mattress, adding a mattress pad or purchasing a new pillow might be all it takes to restore your restfulness.

Schedule

• When you were a kid, your parents had you on a sleeping schedule. You went to bed at a certain hour and woke up at a certain hour. Professionals from the MayoClinic.com say a sleeping schedule is imperative to better sleep because it creates a sleep-wake cycle, making it easier for your body to fall asleep at night. To make a sleep schedule, figure out what time you have to wake up in the morning to get ready for your day, and work backward to come up with an appropriate time to go to bed. Stick with this schedule as closely as you can.

Put the Caffeine Away

• Okay you coffee and tea drinkers, it's time to put the caffeine away before bedtime. Many people rely on an evening or late afternoon cup of coffee to help make it through the evening hours of cooking dinner, bathing children or working late, but traces of caffeine still in your system when you lie down for bed can give you a restless slumber. Switch to decaf if you have to, or set a caffeine-cutoff time early in the afternoon, so that by the time you go to sleep the caffeine has left your system.

Relax

• If you spend hours working on the computer at night and think that you can jump right into bed and fall asleep, think again. It is important to give yourself relaxation time at night, to get your body in the mood to sleep. Forcing your body to switch gears rapidly, such as going from working to sleeping, does not give your mind a chance to rest or wind down. Incorporate a relaxing routine into your evening. Take a hot shower, meditate, read a book or do deep breathing exercises before you put yourself to bed.

Electronics

• If you are the kind of poor sleeper who wakes to look at the clock every five minutes -- and then counts how many hours are left until the alarm goes off -- cover the clock with a dark shirt or towel so it is out of mind, out of sight. Try not to think about what time it is or how many hours of sleep you are getting. The more you think about it, the more your mind will have trouble relaxing.

Lavender

• Lavender has a relaxing and calming effect that can be used to aid sleep. You can spray some lavender oil onto your pillow, drink lavender tea or light a lavender-scented candle. The aroma should put you in a relaxed state, so your body and mind wind down.