As someone who's been involved in wellness medicine for 20 years,
I wanted to share with you the seven most effective techniques that I have found that have been useful for people in regards to sleeping better and getting a more restful sleep.
I like the word ritual because ritual implies something that is habitual and that you do daily.
The first ritual is that one should try not to exercise for at least four hours before you go to sleep.
The reason is that exercising heavily before sleep causes a lot of stimulation and heat and nearly always has some negative effect towards your sleep pattern.
Occasionally some people find the heavy exercise before bed useful because it makes them tired and allows them to sleep,
But in general I have found that it seems to do the opposite.
The second aspect is having approximately half a glass of tart cherry juice or half tart cherry juice with half sweet cherry juice together.
There has been some research on this describing the benefits of this in regards to sleep.
Nevertheless,
It seems to actually provide quite an effective tool for most people.
Personally,
I like to use it when my sleep is getting disrupted and is not good for a few days in a row because I don't want to drink cherry juice on too much of a regular basis.
The third ritual,
Which is very important,
Is to not eat three hours before one goes to bed.
So if you have dinner at 7.
30,
It is better not to sleep until 10.
30.
If you have dinner at 6.
30,
Then you can sleep at 9.
30.
Some people this may even need to be pushed more towards four hours,
Depending on how quickly it takes your stomach sac to empty the food.
It also means that one's dinner should be relatively small compared to other meals.
The fourth ritual is turning the lights off an hour or an hour and a half before you go to bed,
Or at least to dim all lights in the house.
This means that your house is in relative darkness and you're not using the TV,
Computer or telephone,
And those blue lights which affect us in the way that the body thinks that there is possibly some sunlight.
This according to modern research helps with the melatonin.
The fifth ritual,
Which is sometimes arguably the single most important ritual for good sleep,
Is sleeping at approximately about 10 p.
M.
,
Give or take half an hour on each side,
And then sleeping at that same time every single day and waking up eight hours every single day at the same time.
This type of regular sleep pattern is said to be the single most effective method into creating a good and restful sleep.
The sixth ritual is sleeping cool.
It is said that if you're sleeping too warm,
It is difficult to fall asleep.
It is also difficult for you to enter into a deep sleep.
The issue with this sometimes may be that you feel cold in the morning.
So what I recommend to do is to go to bed with a sheet over you and then put another slightly thicker blanket,
Depending what you need,
At the base of your feet.
And if you do wake up too cold in the morning,
You can bring that up over your body.
The final method,
The seventh ritual,
Which is commonly recommended by many sleep experts,
Is meditating before one goes to bed.
This does not need to be any specific form of meditation.
It just needs to be a meditation that is relaxing and non-stimulating and works for you to calm you down and slow your mind down.
I really hope these seven rituals have some benefit to you and can become a daily part of your life.
