Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Get To Sleep Naturally

If you are having a hard time getting to sleep at night here are a few hints:

  1. Go to bed (sleep) earlier.  Most people are hardwired to go to sleep between 9:00 and 10:00 if you miss that sleep window and stay up until midnight you will have confused your body's clock.  Not only that, but if you miss the sleep window then your body secrets stress hormones to help you stay awake longer. 
  2. Exercise in the morning rather than at night right before bed time.  When you exercise your body raises its adrenaline level . . . this makes it even harder to sleep.
  3. Relax with a warm bath half an hour before bed time. 
  4. Add relaxing foods to your diet and eliminate stimulants like caffeine, sugar, and MSG.  Calming foods are high in magnesium, which calms the nervous system.  Some magnesium rich foods are black beans, spinach, pumpkin seeds, and salmon.  You might consider a 200 to 300 mg magnesium suplement twice a day as well.
  5. If you are still having a hard time getting to sleep then you might visit you local health food store and pick up gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).  GABA is a calming brain chemical.  When I get too stressed out, yup it happens sometimes, I take 100 mg of 5-hydroxytryptohan (5-HTP).  5-HTP is a natural compound that relaxes by balancing the serotonin level in your brain.

Note:  If you don't have a local health food store that you can support (please buy local if you can) then visit http://www.swansonherbs.com/.  They carry both 5-HTP and a variety of GABA formulations.  Please remember I don't work for Swanson Herbs and they don't pay me to hype their products.  However, when I can't buy locally, they are my internet source of choice.  Great prices and service.

No comments: