Cant Sleep?

Yes you can sleep tight tonight!

You may wonder where the term sleep tight came from. There seems to be some disagreement on the origin of the term but the one that makes the most sense is this.

 

The old archaic definition of tight is soundly or in a sound matter. So sleep tight simply means sleep well.

Are you having trouble getting to sleep on a regular basis?

Don't you wish you could sleep like you were a child again. You had no worries and sleep came naturally.

I know how frustrating it can be since I had the same problem when I use to work a 9-5 job.

 

I’ve been taking sleeping medications on a regular basis for at least ten years. I never took prescription sleeping pills since the side effects seemed to be worse then the sleeping problem.

 

I always took over the counter medication. This caused me to be groggy for the first half of the day until the morning caffeine kicked in.

 

Does that sound like you?

 

You are probably wondering by now what is my simple method for sleeping.

 

I had tried several things before including buying one of those expensive foam beds which did not help a whole lot.

I was more comfortable but it did not resolve the sleeping issues that I was having.

 

Well I no longer take medication for my sleeping problems, but still have trouble getting to sleep from time to time.

 

While reading a book about overall health by Andrew Weil, M.D. called Natural Health, Natural Medicine I came across a few sections in his book that dealt with sleeping solutions.

 

He mentioned that you should eliminate or at least cut down on your caffeine consumption since it keeps you alert for several hours after taking it.

 

I had already decided before ever reading the book that I needed to stop drinking so much soda. This was the obvious first step that had helped.

 

The goal was to stop drinking soda all together so I started by not having any with dinner.

 

After cutting down on the caffeine I decided to stop all together. This took 3-4 days to kick the habit and did create some withdrawal symptoms like being jittery, exhausted and wanting caffeine pretty badly.

 

It is recommended that if you stop cold turkey that you do it over a three day weekend when you have no other plans.

 

That was part of the solution but I still depended on sleeping pills.

 

It can be difficult at night to turn off your mind. I don’t know about you but I tend to play things in my mind over and over for no good reason.

 

Most of the time it is about day to day worries that I can do nothing about, but the thoughts still keep going through my mind.

 

That brings me to the other part of the solution. In his book Dr. Weil explains a deep breathing exercise designed to help you relax.

 

I use this technique at night while in bed which not only helps me to relax but also takes my mind off day to day worries. It is simple but effective.

 

Try it and see if it will work for you tonight.

 

First put your hand on your stomach so you can feel your deep breathing which should be coming from the abdomen and not your chest.

 

Also it helps if you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth and let your breath go around your tongue while exhaling.

Yes I know it sounded a little strange to me at first until I tried it.

 

Now exhale slowly through your mouth until you are completely out of breath.

 

Inhale through your nose while counting to four

 

Hold your breath while you count to seven

 

Exhale slowly through your mouth while you count to eight.

 

 

That’s it. I told you it was simple and in my case fairly effective. It is recommended that you repeat this process between four and ten times until you are relaxed.

 

I will usually continue to concentrate on my regular breathing pattern so other thoughts do not keep popping into my head.

 

I find that if I start to think about day to day issues then I will not be able to get to sleep.

 

Do the deep breathing exercises until you are relaxed then start to breath as you would normally and try to concentrate on your breathing and nothing else.

 

I find myself drifting off fairly quickly by using this simple technique.

 

By reducing the amount of caffeine taken and using the deep breathing exercise I have been able to completely eliminate the sleeping medications.

 

Even though I sleep much better then before I still have trouble falling asleep once in awhile.

 

I recently finished reading another book. This one was just about natural sleep solutions.

 

Dr. Weil’s book is geared more towards overall health and only includes a few sections on sleep disorders.

 

The natural sleep book is dedicated to help people find a natural solution to their sleeping problem.

 

It does not cover other topics like some other books that I have read which are geared towards overall health.

 

More information is in the article and book sections of this website if you are interested in learning more.