Tips To Help You Get A Good Nights Rest

I would like to state that I am not a licensed physician, and so if you think that you may need any of the non Over-the-Counter medications, I ask you to please speak with your doctor first.

OTC

Benadryl/Unisom Sleep

Benadryl is a sedative that involves antihistamines to help you fall asleep, such as the process you would go under when having surgery.

Side effects may include daytime drowsiness, dry mouth, dizziness, and memory problems

Melatonin

This is the hormone in the body that controls your natural sleep-wake cycle. Research has shown that the pill form may help with jet lag and the time it takes for one person to fall asleep. The effect of the pill is typically mild.

Common side effects are daytime drowsiness, dizziness, and headaches. Less common side effects are abdominal discomfort, mild anxiety, irritability, confusion, and short lasting feelings of depression.

Valerian

This is a plant supplement that may help reduce the time it takes for one person to fall asleep and has also been known to help promote actual sleeping.

Side effects may include headaches, abdominal discomfort, excitability, and heart disturbances.

Prescription Medicine

Ambien (zolpidem)

This helps you get to sleep and has some tendencies to cause the user to wake up periodically through the night. But there is another for known as Ambien CR, which helps you fall asleep in 15 to 30 minutes and the user will stay asleep. Also there is a new oral spray that has Ambien qualities called Zolpimist. Remember to talk to your doctor and only take if you are unable to get a full nights rest, or 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

Lunesta (eszopiclone)

This prescription helps you fall asleep quickly and form a regular sleep pattern. One mild side effect is grogginess.

Belsomra (suvorexant)

This was the first approved orexin receptor antagonist. Orexins are the chemicals in your brain that help regulate you sleep-wake cycle and they also play a small part in keeping you awake. This drug alters the orexin actions in the brain to help you fall asleep and stay that way for a full 7 to 8 hours.

Many tests and studies have been administered in the area of sleep. Here are some of the ways you can train, and relax your body to help you sleep better at night.

Excess Noise

Snoring, car horns, people talking, and dogs barking can keep you awake for hours after lights out. Getting rid of these noises can of course give you the sleep you may desperately need. Try using a sleep machine, or some sort of relaxing noise to help calm you into a deep slumber. Putting on SleepPhones or installing speakers around your room is a good idea. Then once you have one of those use iTunes, Songza, or Pandora to make a nighttime playlist of either calming melodies or some of your favorite relaxing songs.

Get Your Body Ready

Catherine Darley, ND, is the director of the Naturopathic Sleep Medicine department in Seatle, Washington. She performed studies on how prepping the body before bedtime, can help get you to sleep faster. She devised the following procedure for prepping you body.

Start, by tightly curling, and flexing your toe muscles for seven seconds, and then let them relax. Next work you way up you body, all the way up to your neck, doing the same thing to each muscle group. When you reach the neck and have finished, just let yourself get comfortable and drift off.

Keep Journals

There are two types of journals you can keep, and if you find one doesn't work try the other.

The first is just a regular journal or diary. Two hours before you regular bedtime, write about all the big events in your day that would keep you up by thinking about them. Getting all of this out of your mind and on to paper helps you mind relax because you have already warn out the subject for yourself.

Next when you are have written all your big daily activities and drama, and are ready for bed you can begin to train your mind to know it's bedtime. As you are laying in bed, begin your imagery exercise. What you are going to do is basically go to your happy place, any peaceful and tranquil scene, such as a day at the beach. Do this every night and your brain will learn that by being where you are and imagining that peaceful place, that it is time to settle down and go to sleep.

The second type of journal is a sleep log. Each day take note of how much caffeine you drink, all the exercise you do during the day, what foods you eat, when you go to bed, when you wake up, and the total amount of sleep you received. Keep doing this and then you can either decide yourself what needs to be fixed, or take it to a sleep specialist and they can give you helpful tips on what to increase and what to cut back on.

Stay Cool

You may or may not know, that temperature has a lot to do with restless sleeping. Keeping your body cool at night helps it relax more. Before you go to bed every night, make sure that your bedroom temperature is 65° F or lower, this is the average temperature that most people feel the right body temperature at. If you don't feel comfortable turning down the thermostat, try something else. Cooling mattress pads, moisture-wicking sheets, and even a simple fix such as breathable cotton pajamas can help.

All of these methods have either been tested, or studied. They have also been known to help promote muscle relaxation. If you aren't a medicine type of person, I advise giving these a try.

These remedies are not guarunteed, but they are something to think about. Some may work and some may not but you may never know if you don't try. I suggest trying the do it yourself remedy first, instead of heading straight for the medications. Hopefully you will be able to sleep like this someday.......