Having trouble sleeping? Try the following strategies:
- Count backwards: Slowly, while lying in bed, count backwards from 100. Take your time – if you forget or hesitate about what number you’re on, start over from 100. Don’t allow yourself to get frustrated. Doing a monotonous activity like this can have the effect of making you sleepy.
- Analyze your sleep cycle: Record your sleep data, perhaps by tracking it in a journal or using an app on an electronic device. Once you identify your sleeping pattern, you can potentially identify problems and find ways to mediate them.
- Guided visualization: Relax your body from head to toe, and imagine yourself in a calming location (e.g. a beach). Go through each of the senses that you would imagine in that place: the smell, the sights, the sounds.
- Find ways to reduce anxiety: Subconscious anxiety or stress can impede on sleep. Check out your EFAP resources for ideas (enter “dalhousie” in the search bar) on how to reduce stress, such as mindfulness exercises, yoga or medication.
- Alternate nostril breathing: Using your finger to press on each of your nostrils while slowly breathing out of the adjacent open nostril can relax your nervous system.
- Improve your diet or exercise routine: Exercise can release endorphins that balance stress and releasing that energy throughout the day can make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Eating a healthier diet, and changing up when you eat (e.g. not eating right before sleep) can also mediate uneasiness or insomnia.