I Overcame My Insomnia With This Simple Sleep Trick

Have you ever laid awake in bed feeling so tired, but your thoughts just won’t let you fall asleep? No matter what you do, whether it’s counting sheep or playing soothing sounds, falling asleep seems like a chore rather than something that just happens naturally.

For me, in high school, falling asleep was nearly impossible. Every night I knew what to expect: lying awake for hours and rarely sleeping more than four hours. It was a torturous, vicious cycle, but I wasn’t alone. Insomnia is estimated to be affects almost half of the population. Although I never had an official insomnia diagnosis, the battle tormented me every night.

Fortunately, over time I regained control of my sleep schedule and now I fall asleep within 15 minutes most nights. A lot has changed in my life since then, but one change in particular had a surprisingly positive effect on my ability to fall asleep: I started writing to-do lists every night before bed.

For more tips to help alleviate your sleep problems, see: six natural sleep aids to help overcome insomnia and seven foods that help you sleep better.

Making a to-do list and clearing my head works wonders

When I started making evening to-do lists, I had no idea that it would help me sleep — I just wanted a way to better track my priorities and productivity from day to day. So every night before bed, I wrote down three things I wanted to accomplish the next day. I also wrote down one good thing that happened during the day, no matter how small. The whole process takes me about five minutes at most.

I later learned that there may be a connection between clear our minds and fall asleepAccording to a study by researchers from Baylor and Emory If you’re in college, making a to-do list can help you fall asleep faster.

The Baylor and Emory study looked at people who kept a bedtime journal of completed tasks and activities and compared them to a second group who made a to-do list of things they had to do the next day or two before bed. The study found that writing to-do lists helped people fall asleep significantly faster than writing about completed activities.

The researchers speculate that writing to-do lists can help alleviate the stress and anxiety about upcoming events that keep people up at night. In short, writing things down can help move worries from your brain to the page.

Expert advice on ways to sleep better

If you are curious about other ways to get a good night’s sleepi spoke with Dr. Saroja Sripathisleeping medicine chair for Kaiser Permanente Northern Californiafor other ideas. She said that good sleep is a matter of three factors: the quality of sleep you get, how long you sleep, and the timing of your sleep. The best way to maximize all three is to focus on what sleep experts “sleep hygienethe behaviors that help you sleep better.

The decisions we make during the day, such as what and when we drink, how much we eat, and when we go to bed, affect how well we sleep at night.

If you have trouble falling asleep at night, Sripathi research-based recommendations to improve your sleep quality:

• Stay away from electronic screens at least half an hour before bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed (alcohol may help you fall asleep, but it can reduce the quality of your sleep).
• Create a consistent routine that signals to your body that it’s time to sleep.
• Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning.
• Save your bed for sleeping and sex. Read, snack and watch somewhere else in the house.
• If you need to unwind at the end of the evening, listen to podcasts or guided meditation instead of scrolling through social media or other sites.

If you’ve tried these techniques and are still having trouble sleeping, it may be time to seek professional help. Your doctor can work with you to diagnose and treat potential problems.

The pillow you sleep with makes a big difference in the quality of your sleep. The right pillow should keep your neck and spine in a straight line. The GhostPillow is a great choice for back or stomach sleepers, especially if you tend to get hot. It has special cooling technology and feels physically cold.

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Factors that affect the quality of your sleep

Getting enough sleep can be a challenge. For most of us, there is usually more to do than we can fit into a day, and it is tempting to save time Experts recommend adults get more than 7 hours of sleep every night. But how important is sleep really?

Sripathi told me that sleep affects more than just how rested you feel the next day. “Our overall physical and emotional well-being is affected by sleep,” she said, so it’s important to prioritize sleep.

Hear about the benefits of a good night’s sleep made me realize how much of an impact sleep has on our lives. Here are a few things Sripathi said sleep affects:

• Our mood:A good night’s sleep improves your mood. People who suffer from depression and anxiety often complain about sleep problems.
• Our verdict:Better quality sleep recharges our minds and can help us think more clearly so we can make better decisions. We have better judgment and can work faster.
• Our memory:Calling all students: Staying up all night studying is ultimately counterproductive, because our brains must sleep to consolidate what we have learned during the day.
• Our immune system: Better sleep can help us stay healthy because our bodies scan for disease while we sleep. Sleep can even help with heart health, an important factor in avoiding heart disease.
• Our bodies: For children, sleep helps the body develop. That’s why children need more sleep than adults — for newborns, even 18 hours a day.

By creating a good sleep environment and building healthy sleep habits, you have a good chance of helping your body program itself to sleep better at night. For me, making a to-do list for the next day was a helpful part of that programming, and I’ve been able to fall asleep much easier ever since.