8 Tips That Will Help You to Sleep Better Naturally

By Lambert Klein

Do you find yourself having trouble falling asleep? Is your lack of sleep interfering with your daily life? Do you think that you will never be able to get a good night’s sleep again? If so, then this article is for you. Read on to uncover some simple tricks that can help you fall asleep and stay asleep naturally, without the use of drugs.

#1

Designate your bed for sleep and sex only. If you use your bed for watching TV, balancing your checkbook or having deep emotional discussions with your mate, your mind may start to subconsciously connect your bed with these activities. This can kick your brain into overdrive and you will find it very hard to sleep when your mind is going 90 miles an hour.

#2

Ease your stress before going to bed. Develop a bedtime ritual and do it every evening before going to bed. This ritual may include meditation, slow stretching exercises, yoga or even prayer. Do whatever eases your stress and whatever helps you to relax.

#3

Do not drink caffeine four to six before you go to bed. Caffeine can stay in your body a lot longer than you realize and can have you tossing and turning all night long.

#4

Make your bedroom “sleep friendly” This means that you should keep your bedroom dark and as quiet as possible. For some people, a repetitive noise is a great sleep inducer. A fan or a window air conditioner can produce such a noise and also help to drown out other sounds. Do what you need to do to get your room between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the ideal temperature range for sleep.

#5

Avoid having a cigarette before you go to bed. Nicotine is a stimulant and can keep you awake or cause you to have a fitful sleep. This is just another good reason to quit smoking altogether!

#6

Don’t go to bed hungry, but don’t go to bed with an over stuffed belly either. Try drinking a glass of milk before bed. It contains tryptophan which is a natural sleep promoting substance.

#7

Avoid taking long naps during the day. Naps can be tempting, especially when you are tired, but they can make matters worse. If you feel that you must nap, try to make it short, no longer than 20 minutes.

#8

Keep your pets out of your bed. If your dog or cat sleeps with you, they may move during the night and wake you up.

So there you have some great tips on how to fall asleep and stay asleep naturally. Try these tips and see if they work for you.

Straight 2 Sleep http://www.1thinkhealthy.com/straight2sleep.html

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Marriage Linked With Better Sleep

By Tara Parker-Pope

Marriage may improve your sleep, and better sleep may improve your marriage, two new studies suggest.

Women who are married or who have stable partners appear to sleep better than women who have never married or lost a partner, according to research from an eight-year study presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies annual meeting. They also found that marital happiness lowers the risk of sleep problems, while marital strife heightens the risk.

Although married women overall slept more soundly than unmarried women, the researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, did identify a “newlywed” effect. Women who were single at the start of the study but gained a partner had more restless sleep than women who were already married. The researchers speculated that newly married women were less adjusted to sleeping with their partner than those who had been married longer.

The study included 360 middle-aged African-American, Caucasian and Chinese-American women who had taken part in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Researchers used in-home sleep studies, activity monitors to track sleep-wake patterns and relationship histories to look at the effect stable marriages, unstable marriages and marital transitions, such as a divorce, had on sleep.

Another small study of 29 couples found that on a daily basis, the quality of a couple’s relationship and the quality of their sleep are closely linked.

In that study, from the University of Arizona, 29 heterosexual couples who shared a bed and did not have children completed sleep and relationship diaries for a week. The results showed that when men get better sleep, they are more likely to feel positive about their relationship the next day. And for women, problems in the relationship were strongly associated with poor sleep for both themselves and their partner.

“When we look at the data on a day-by-day basis, there seems to be a vicious cycle in which sleep affects next day relationship functioning, and relationship functioning affects the subsequent night’s sleep,” said principal investigator Brant Hasler, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, in a press release. “In this cycle, conflict with one’s partner during the day leads to worse sleep that night, which leads to more conflict the following day.”

The data from both studies suggest that sleep and relationship happiness are closely linked. The lesson for couples, especially those who are struggling with problems, is that paying attention to sleep habits may help solve other issues in the relationship. Dr. Hasler said couples should work to resolve problems before bedtime and avoid discussing difficult topics when one or both have not slept well.

Article Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/marriage-linked-with-better-sleep/?hp

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