Unconventional Sleeping Tips For Insomniacs

By Jeremy Chin
Posted on 28 Feb, 2022

You've had your relaxing warm bath, darkened your room, banished every lumen of light from your room, bought that pricey schmancy mattress, counted every sheep in New Zealand, but no luck, night after night, sleep refuses to claim you.

Regular, run-of-the-mill advice works for regular people. But what if you're not regular. If you've followed every expert recommendation on the planet, but still struggle with falling and staying asleep, why not give some of these a shot.The results may surprise you.

Some Noise May Not Be A Bad Thing
Imagine a sleep haven so quiet where you can hear a pin drop, where every sound becomes more evident--the rustle of bedsheets, the ticking of the clock, the flapping of bat wings outside your window. This can be very disruptive.

White noise, on the other hand, steady and monotonous in the background, can be a great sleep instrument. It helps drown out the creaks in the floor boards and the groaning water pipes.

At bedtime, play an audio clip with ambient sounds, a bustling forest, lapping waves, falling rain or a babbling brook. It will help lift your mind off the barking dogs, the police sirens and the loud neighbors. The whir of a fan or an air purifier works too. Some people set their radios to a frequency without a station. That is a good idea, as long as your imagination doesn't conjure an image of a girl walking out of your TV.

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Have A Shutdown Routine
Engage in a nightly routine that sends a signal to your brain that you are calling it a night. One great way is to pick up the clutter, maybe do the dishes, reset your home for the next day.

Decide what you will be having for breakfast, move frozen food from the freezer to the lower fridge if necessary.

It also helps to write down what your next day's schedule is going to be. This simple routine leaves you feeling more organized, less anxious, like you've got all your ducks in a row.

Chill Your Room
Make your room colder than necessary, and snuggle under a heavy comforter. The extra weight on you offers security, makes you feel less exposed. Also, most experts agree that core body temperature has a lot to do with how well you sleep. As you fall asleep, your temperature dips by 1 to 2 degrees of it's normal. This is so the body can conserve energy for other restorative functions. By chilling your room, you are paving the way for your body to slip into a sleep state.

[Related: Scientifically Backed Tips For Better Sleep]

Fine Tune Your Day With A Nap (If You Need One)
In an ideal world, you'd wake up refreshed, blast through the day at reckless abandon, and every night, at your regular time, slip into a restful sleep when your energy has been fully depleted. The problem here is, some days take more out of you than others.

To help with this, a short 10 to 20 minute power nap in the afternoon helps keep you adjusted, ensures you have enough juice to take you through the day without disrupting your natural circadian rhythm. To make sure your nap does not interfere with your night time slumber, it's best to steal your siesta in the early afternoon, slightly after lunch, when your eyelids are naturally heavy.

[Related: 11 Habits That Are Ruining Your Sleep]

Don't Count Sheep
Research has shown that counting sheep, rather than lulling your mind into unconsciousness, may actually have the opposite effect.

So it might be best to give your mind something else to chew on. Why not think about something that will allow you to drift off into blissfulness? Like what your world will be like once you've attained your dreams, if everything you've been working towards actually came through.

[Related: The Expert-Approved Guide To Sleeping On A Plane]

Pass On The Warm Bath
Don't buy into rose-petaled advice. Follow the science. To relax your body and mind, many experts recommend taking a nice long soak in a warm bath, which may not be the best advice seeing that our bodies require a lower temperature for sleep to occur.If you do take a warm bath before bedtime, maybe try and do it a couple hours before, so your body has enough time to cool.

Get Some Vitamin S In The A.M.
Bright sunlight helps your body's biological clock set itself. It lets you know when to wake up, and triggers a stopwatch that tells you to fall asleep 16 hours later. So unless you hate garlic, and your first name is Count, it's a good idea to mark the start of your day by stepping out in the yellow sun every morning.

Unworry Yourself
Never go to bed with your mind smudged with problems. Because the minute the lights go out, and you've finally got some peace and quiet, they will present themselves ten at a time, like there was a meet-and-greet session in your head.

To combat this, schedule 'worry time' well before you go to sleep, get a notebook and jot down all your worries, to-dos, people to kill. It's better that all that stuff lives on a sheet of paper, than on your mind all night.

Lastly, keep a this notebook next to your bed. So in the event something creeps into your brain out of nowhere and won't leave you alone, move it onto paper, and tell yourself you'll get to it the next day. It beats sacrificing the night trying to resolve or remember it.

[Related: How To Stop Your Mind From Racing In The Middle Of The Night]

Go Hard With Your Exercise
Don't half ass your exercise routines. Push yourself to your physical limit so your muscles feel slightly sore at day's end. Physical fatigue is the best sleeping pill. A good night's sleep is restorative, so you should wake up the next day feeling ready to do it all over again.

However, try not to exercise too late in the evening, as this could raise your core temperature beyond what is ideal for sleep to occur.

[Related: Top 15 CrossFit Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do at Home]

If You Have A Partner, Have Separate Blankets
To avoid a situation where one shivers while the other sweats, try having separate blankets. On top of meeting each person's temperature needs, it ensures you don't get into a tug of war in the middle of the night. In the grander scheme of things, it also helps keep the peace.

Last Word

Which of these tips do you think you will be trying out? And do you have some strategies of your own that work for you? Do share them with us. Lastly, if you know of a friend who has problems sleeping, do them a favor and share this article with them.