Everyone needs sleep, and likely much more of it than you are currently getting. Sleep not only helps us feel physically better, but it affects our brain chemistry and function. Poor sleep leads to worse coping skills, more irritability, stronger negative emotions, and potentially the development of anxiety and depression.
But very few of us get the sleep that we need. Some of this is mental health, and addressing sleep may require seeing a therapist for anxiety, stress, and related mental health issues. For others, however, it is an issue of making small changes that can help dramatically improve sleep and ensure you’re properly rested each and every day.
What to Do to Improve Sleep Fast
One thing to note is that our bodies respond to habits. If we’re used to staying awake, it may be difficult to fall asleep right away. We have to break a habit and take the time to get into a new sleep habit in order to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
With that in mind, consider the following:
- Getting Off Your Cell Phone/Electronics Early – Many of us feel we need our electronics to fall asleep. There is no evidence this is the case. Even in situations where we feel tired and more relaxed on the phone, evidence shows that cell phone use before bed alerts the mind and increases stress, no matter what tasks may be completed. It is very important to get off the phone if you want to sleep better.
- Get Off Your Electronics/Cell Phones Generally – Of course, it’s not just before sleep that you need to get off your smartphones. That is because phones decrease daytime productivity dramatically, increasing what we call “revenge bedtime procrastination” – the unwillingness to go to bed because you want to get your time back during the day. When you’re more personally productive during the day, you sleep earlier. When you’re not (because you spend hours on your phone), you want to stay up because you feel like your day was wasted.
- Use Bedroom Only for Sleep/Intimacy – Make sure that your bedroom is not a place that causes any stress. It should only be a place for sleep or intimacy with your partner. Do not work in your room, have tough phone calls in your room, or perform any other “awake” inducing activities. Associate your bedroom with sleep and you will become sleepier.
- Utilize a Journal – The human mind works in fascinating ways. One reason that some people find they can’t sleep is because their brain is too active. It’s thinking about things and trying to remember/process them. If you have a journal of some kind that you keep next to your bed, you can write out those active thoughts in the journal, and your brain essentially goes “okay, now I know I won’t forget” and it helps you sleep.
- Go to Bed – It may sound simple, almost humorous. But many people simply do not go to bed. You have to go to bed regularly, at the time that you want to start falling asleep, in order to build a habit that allows you to sleep at your goal time. You cannot go to bed late thinking you will fall asleep earlier later. You have to start the process of knowing when bedtime is so that you can train your mind to start resting at that same time.
Lastly, start addressing your mental health now. Therapists may not specifically teach you how to sleep, but our role is to help you navigate your anxieties and stresses, tear down road blocks that prevent you from going to bed or being productive during the day, and help make sure that you’re able to be more rested and restful.
If you would like to talk to a therapist about your sleep related issues, reach out to our team today.