Suggestions to help you sleep

• Do not nap during the day. If you are having trouble sleeping at night, try not to nap during the day because you will disturb your body clock and make it even more difficult to sleep at night. If you are feeling tired, and feel as if you absolutely must nap, be sure to sleep for less than 30 minutes, early in the day.
• Limit caffeine and alcohol. Hunger as well as a full stomach can prevent you from falling asleep. Be careful with uplifting substances like tobacco, coffee, coke, etc.. If you drink a lot of alcohol you will fall asleep much quicker, but your sleep will be shallow and you will wake up earlier.
  
• Don't smoke. Nicotine is a stimulant and can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. Many over-the-counter and prescription drugs disrupt sleep.
• Expose yourself to bright light / sunlight soon after awakening. This will help to regulate your body's natural biological clock. Try to keep your bedroom dark while you are sleeping so that the light will not interfere with your rest.
• Your activities during the day strongly influence your sleep at night. Make sure you find a good balance between exercise and relaxation. Heavy exercise just before going to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep. So it is better to exercise twenty to thirty minutes in the morning or in the afternoon.
  
• Check your iron level. Women who have a deficiency in iron have more problems falling asleep. So if you have a deficiency in iron, a supplement might help your health and your ability to sleep.
  

• Make sure your bed is large enough and comfortable. If you are disturbed by a restless bedmate, switch to a queen- or kingsize bed. Test different types of mattresses. Try therapeutic shaped foam pillows that cradle your neck or extra pillows that help you sleep on your side. Buy comfortable cotton sheets.
• Make your bedroom primarily a place for sleeping and making love. It is not a good idea to use your bed for paying bills, doing work, etc. Help your body recognize that this is a place for rest or intimacy.
• Keep your bedroom peaceful and comfortable. Make sure your room is well ventilated and the temperature is consistent, and try to keep it quiet. You could use a fan or a "white noise" machine to help to block outside noises.
• Hide your clock. A big, illuminated digital clock may cause you to focus on the time and make you feel stressed and anxious. Put your clock somewhere, where you can't it when you're in bed.
  

• Keep a regular schedule. If possible, go to bed at the same time every day and wake up at the same time, even at the weekends. This helps you to develop a steady sleep-wake up rhythm and improves the quality of your sleep. Don’t oversleep to make up for a poor night’s sleep – doing that for even a couple of days can reset your body clock and make it hard for you to get to sleep at night.
• Sleep as many hours as you need to be fit and rested the next day.
• Incorporate bedtime rituals. Listening to soft music, sipping a cup of herbal tea, etc., cues your body that it's time to slow down and begin to prepare for sleep.
• Relax for a while before going to bed. Spending quiet time can make falling asleep easier. This may include meditation, relaxation and / or breathing exercises, or taking a warm bath. Try listening to recorded relaxation or guided imagery programs.
• Don’t eat a large, heavy meal before going to bed. This can cause indigestion and interfere with your normal sleep cycle. Drinking too much fluid before you go to bed can cause you to get up to urinate. Try to eat your dinner at least two hours before bedtime.
• Bedtime snacks can help. An amino acid called tryptophan, found in milk, turkey, and peanuts, helps the brain produce serotonin, a chemical that helps you to relax. Try to drink warm milk or eat a slice of toast with peanut butter or a bowl of cereal before bedtime. Moreover, the warmth may temporarily increase your body temperature and the subsequent drop may hasten sleep.
• Don't take your worries to bed, make sure you keep them out of the bedroom by talking about them or writing them down - a journal or 'to do' list -, so you don't ruminate about it in the middle of the night.
  
• Go to sleep when you are feeling tired.
  
• Avoid "over-the-counter" sleep aids, and make sure that your prescribed medications do not cause insomnia. Occasional and short term use of a mild sedative can be useful to adjust a minor disturbance in the sleep /awakeness rhythm for instance when travelling or sleeping in a different bed, etc.... In some cases, there are safety concerns. Antihistamine sleep aids, in particular, have a long duration of action and can cause daytime drowsiness. Always talk to your doctor or healthcare practitioner about your concerns!
  

• Visualize. Focus all your attention on your toes or visualize walking down an endless stairwell. Thinking about repetitive or mindless things will help your brain to shut down and to fall asleep.
• If you feel you can't get to sleep do not start to toss and turn and aggravate, instead get up and do something different until you do get tired.
  
• Don't do anything stimulating. Don't read anything that is related to your job or watch a stimulating TV program (commercials and news shows tend to be alerting). Don't expose yourself to bright light. The light gives cues to your brain that it is time to wake up.
• Get up and eat some turkey. Turkey contains tryptophan, a major building block for making serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which sends messages between nerve cells and causes feelings of sleepiness. Note that L-tryptophan doesn't act on the brain, unless you eat it on an empty stomach with no protein present, so keep some turkey in the refrigerator for 3am.
• Consider changing your bedtime. If you are experiencing sleeplessness or insomnia consistently, think about going to bed later so that the time you spend in bed is spent sleeping. If you are only getting five hours of sleep at night, figure out what time you need to get up and subtract five hours (for example, if you want to get up at 6:00 am, go to bed at 1:00 am). This may seem counterproductive and, at first, you may be depriving yourself of some sleep, but it can help train your body to sleep consistently while in bed. When you are spending all of your time in bed sleeping, you can gradually sleep more, by adding 15 minutes at a time.
  

• Time you went to bed and woke up;
• Total sleep hours;
• Quality of sleep;
• Times that you were awake during the night and what you did (e.g. stayed in bed with eyes closed or got up, had a glass of milk and meditated);
• Amount of caffeine or alcohol you consumed and times of consumption;
• Types of food and drink and times of consumption;
• Feelings - happiness, sadness, stress, anxiety;
• Drugs or medications taken, amounts taken and times of consumption.