Recipes for sound sleep: how to overcome insomnia

The average person sleeps for a third of their life. During sleep, it replenishes energy, the internal organs and muscles get a break, and the brain processes daytime information. However, every adult at least once in his life is faced with the problem of insomnia. Stress, family troubles give rise to a stream of thoughts in your head that do not let you fall asleep.

We offer sound sleep recipes based on special techniques that turn off our senses and activate the physiological processes of sleep.

• How we fall asleep: the mechanism and sleep hygiene
• What to do if you can sleep: a recipe for sound sleep
• What to do if you woke up at night
• Three products for good & sound sleep
• What to do if nothing helps you sleep

How we fall asleep: the mechanism and sleep hygiene

Sleep — this is not a shutdown of the brain, but a shutdown of the senses. During sleep, the brain continues to work, but it goes into a different state. It does respond to external stimuli, but processes daily information: erases something unnecessary, and transfers something to remote memory.

Read also: Sleep and biorhythms: making up the perfect daily routine

Sleep is divided into several phases, the full cycle of which is 90 min:

• Falling asleep. The duration of this period is 15 minutes.

• The phase of non-REM sleep. It is divided into 2 parts: superficial and deep sleep.

• REM sleep. This is the phase in which you dream and is the easiest to wake up in. It is short for those who sleep well and long for those who sleep poorly.

A person goes through several cycles per night.

Melatonin — sleep hormone. It begins to be produced in the body with the onset of darkness. Melatonin puts the brain into a state of sleep: the senses are gradually turned off, and the person falls asleep. But for this you need to create certain conditions.

• Take a shower an hour before bedtime. In this way, you form a conditioned reflex: shower — dream. In addition, during bathing, the body gives off heat, which has a good effect on the production of melatonin.

• The optimal temperature in the  —  18-20 degrees. The room should be ventilated, without specific odors.

• Close the curtains, turn off the lights, lie down and close your eyes.The first thing we must turn off — eyesight.

• There must be silence in the room. This way, no information from the organ of hearing is sent to the organ of hearing.

There is a way to increase our sleepiness: put a heating pad near our feet. So we expand the blood vessels and lower the body temperature, which will favorably affect falling asleep.

Read also: How to fall asleep quickly in heat stuffiness

What to do if you can sleep: a recipe for sound sleep

How to help yourself cope with insomnia and what to do with the thoughts that swarm in our head? The editors of estet-portal.com will introduce you to effective techniques that will help you calm down and sleep quickly.

Organize your thoughts or free your head from them

Great way to do it — speak and record thoughts on a voice recorder. It is important to list everything specifically, to discuss with yourself the problems not in the form of feverish thoughts and images, but to speak. So thoughts are brought into order, and the brain thinks that you have solved the issue. Talking about the problem before bed — it's the perfect way to remove images that keep you awake and push the problem back into the morning. After all, it is not for nothing that they say that the morning is wiser than the evening.

Relax with oriental medicine

Speaking in the language of physiology, you should extinguish the action of the sympathetic nervous system and activate the parasympathetic — rest system.

First exercise. Lie on back, while inhaling pull up your knees and clasp them with your arms, lifting your torso. Make sure your feet are resting on your heels. As you exhale, open your arms and lie down again. The exercise is done seven times.

Second exercise — belly breathing. Lie on your back, put your hands on your stomach. Take a deep breath, the stomach should rise. Then slowly exhale. These oriental medicine exercises activate the vagus nerve and in sleep sets in within minutes.

Read boring instructions

If your thoughts are spinning in circles, don let you fall asleep, and you don do not want to do exercises, take any instruction: to refrigerator, washing machine, telephone, blender, etc. Start reading. This boring, structured and formalized text turns off your chaotic thoughts. You fall asleep within 3-5 minutes.

What to do if you woke up at night

The sleep-in phase lasts 15 minutes. Don break it. Lie down without opening your eyes. If you get up, turn on your TV or computer, look at the clock, you will not go into deep sleep.

Sleep — kingdom of the vagus (vagus nerve). This is the so-called brake, which reduces the pulse and pressure, slows down the work of the organs. We will tell you how you can activate the vagus if you woke up at night.

1. Apply special slow breathing. It excites the vagus nerve and allows us to return to sleep. The method consists in inhaling for 4 counts, holding your breath for up to 7 seconds (less possible) and exhaling long for counts of 8. You can do this exercise from 7 to 15. In this way, you turn on the parasympathetic system, calm down and fall asleep.

2. Turn on the soothing sounds of nature: the sound of rain, the crackling of a fire, the singing of birds, the splashing of the sea wave, etc. You can listen to whispered speech. In this case, the sounds slow down the brain, obsessive thoughts recede, melatonin begins to be produced and the person falls asleep.

Three products for a good & sound sleep

There are foods that help you sleep. It does not replace medicine or special exercises, but it takes its rightful place in the sleep hygiene system. These foods should be consumed before bedtime:

• Cherry Juice.It contains a vegetable analogue of melatonin — sleep hormone. Studies have shown that people who drank a glass of cherry juice for a week reduced their time to fall asleep by 30%.

• Kiwi. This berry contains serotonin, which is involved in the change of sleep phases and their regulation. Two kiwis before bed will increase melatonin levels and strengthen the phase of deep slow wave sleep.

• Chamomile tea. Chamomile contains apigenin. It acts on receptors in the brain that are sensitive to sleeping pills. Thus, chamomile tea gently and without addiction makes us fall asleep. 270 ml of tea before bedtime acts almost like a sleeping pill.

What to do if nothing helps you sleep

It is better to normalize sleep without drugs. But in life there are difficult situations when a person cannot handle a shock on his own. As a result, you didn't do such exercises for falling asleep, and you cannot fall asleep. Then you can take the medicine. Conventionally, they can be divided into 2 groups:

• The first group of drugs is sold without prescription — These are antihistamines. You can use them occasionally to make it easier to fall asleep. The most common drug — doxylamine. It improves falling asleep and the quality of sleep. The medicine can be taken during pregnancy.

• Other groups of drugs recommended by the doctor. It analyzes your problems: difficulty falling asleep, constant awakenings, or a mixed type of sleep disorder. Based on this, the specialist prescribes effective medicines.

Healthy sleep — a guarantee of well-being

Sleep — it's not a luxury, it's a physiological need. Lack of sleep leads to  bad mood, loss of energy and even to inadequate behavior. Normalize your sleep — it's up to you. Use our tips or come up with your own rituals. Do them every night and you will get better sleep.

Read also: Secrets of a cheerful morning: how to wake up with energy

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