Ideally you should fall asleep as soon as you get in bed, in reality that doesn’t ever happen, does it? This ideal is still very much reachable for you – I’ve compiled a few most important things you need to keep in mind to never have any problems with falling asleep ever again. 

Here are my tips for falling asleep faster and easier.

It has to be dark in the room. 

Blackout curtains/shutters, a mask – anything will work if in result your bedroom is as dark as possible. 

Our bodies evolved to sleep the best at night; melatonin – the hormone which controls our sleep – gets produced when the brain realizes it’s nighttime. 

Nowadays it definitely can be confusing with all the artificial lighting everywhere, so you need to help the natural process by creating pitch black surroundings in any available way.

About the sound. 

It’s individual, you need to figure out what works best for you and what your environment offers at this point. 

If you need a quiet place to sleep in and yours is not it, earplugs are clearly the best option. 

Some people can’t sleep when it’s too quiet and if you’re one of those people, any white noise app will do – there are hundreds of them and they offer a variety of different noises, anything from forest sounds to the ocean. 

There are white noise machines as well in case you want something separate from your smartphone.

Comfort. 

Orthopedic mattress and pillow, warm enough blanket, soft sheets and pajamas – all of those are life saviors, for lack of a better word, when it comes to sleep. 

We spend almost a third of our lives sleeping therefore it’s not a bad idea to invest into better accessories. 

The way you sleep affects a multitude of things in your day to day life, from your mood and cognitive function to the health of your spine. 

I bet you can remember a night or two when you’ve had the most uncomfortable sleep ever and how you felt in the morning – I know I do. 

Quality of the sleep in a lot of ways depends on the quality of the bed you sleep on; the more comfortable you are, the higher the chance of waking up fresh and well-rested.

Tricking your senses into a state suitable for sleeping is not enough, it’s just necessary basics. There are other factors you need to bear in mind as well.

How fast and how easy you’re going to fall asleep depends on what kind of a day you’ve had.

Caffeine. 

Yes, we all know that we’re not supposed to have any coffee in the evening. 

Often other caffeinated drinks (and foods) slip through the cracks and the next morning you find yourself wondering why the hell you’ve slept so poorly through the night and feel exhausted. 

Sure, no coffee. 

But also no black tea, no green tea, no matcha, no maté, hot chocolate, chocolate ice cream – anything chocolate basically -, energy drinks, coca-cola, pepsi, etc. All of those contain caffeine in different amounts. 

You can read about why you probably should quit caffeine altogether here.

Staying stress-free. 

When you’re stressed, one of the first things that will be affected by it is the quality of your sleep. 

Being stressed in a nutshell means that your brain for whatever reason – valid or otherwise – thinks you’re in some kind of danger, more often than not subconsciously. 

There’s going to be a lack of deep sleep phases for sure in this situation, and the non-REM phase is the most crucial part.

Sometimes you might have trouble falling asleep because of a sudden anxiety about something. 

Maybe a deadline is coming up and you’re not done with the project, maybe some of your personal relationships are bothering you at the moment, maybe tomorrow is going to be a difficult or even exciting day for any reason. 

Whatever is causing your anxiety, it’s incredibly hard to fall asleep easily with. 

The most annoying part is that when you realize that you’re worried and can’t sleep, you most likely will become even more anxious. 

You have to clean out your head, distract yourself in any way possible. Tell yourself that everything is going to be okay, that nothing bad is happening and breathe as deep as you can while you’re doing it. 

Brain is a complicated thing and it won’t let you calm down every time you have this problem.

Occasionally, when you feel that this thing that won’t let you rest is serious enough, you won’t fall asleep until you’re absolutely exhausted (if you experience this way too often, please, consider visiting a therapist).

No tech time.

Before going to bed try to spend at least half an hour away from your computer and phone. Blue light that your screen emits, makes your brain think that it’s still daytime, so, when you’ll actually try to sleep, it’s going to be way harder for you to adapt than if you would get away from that blue light some time before bed.

Taking a bath or a hot shower. 

This will help the muscle relaxation, and when you’re trying to fall asleep, being relaxed is incredibly important. 

Adding some essential oils to the process is a great idea too, I recommend mint or lavender, 2-3 drops will do the trick. 

And since we’re talking about mint, peppermint tea is a perfect choice for your evening drink.

Working out during the day. 

Physical activity has a ton of health benefits and at least one of them is connected to sleeping; working out affects the levels of melatonin, hormone that is responsible for our sleep. 

By working out I don’t necessarily mean anything complicated or difficult – you don’t have to do crossfit, heavy lifting or high intensity interval training (HIIT) just because everybody does it. Just do whatever it is you enjoy, stretching, swimming, jumping, it can be even walking; the important part is doing it regularly.

Bore yourself into sleeping.

Whenever you have trouble falling asleep the best thing to do is something you find incredibly boring – listening to a monotone lecture on the topic you have zero interest in will knock you right out.

Counting sheep is a pretty well-known “technique” of falling asleep quicker, but does it ever help? Counting in and of itself is one hell of a boring thing actually, so it can possibly help you in this situation. One thing I will suggest is counting backwards, from 100 to 0. It doesn’t always work but still is worth trying. 

Falling into a routine will guarantee falling asleep.

Having a proper evening routine is an amazing thing for your sleep quality and it will definitely make you fall asleep quicker if you stick to it. 

Doing the same things day after day before bed will pretty much train your brain to go to sleep after it – reflexes are an incredibly powerful thing.

Associate a particular smell with sleeping. 

Add some essential oil to your humidifier or, if you don’t have one, put a few drops of it on a napkin and place it next to your pillow. 

Every time you go to bed, make sure that the smell is present and eventually your brain will connect the two together. 

Same goes for sounds.

Don’t underestimate your biological clock. 

If you go to bed at the same hour every single day, your body will adapt to it and will naturally produce sleep hormone at that time. 

It works the same way with waking up – if you get up at six every morning without skipping a day, in a few months or even weeks you won’t even need an alarm anymore. 

So, having a set sleeping schedule is crucial if you want to fall asleep easily and quickly every night.

It’s pretty weird how even though sleeping is a necessary natural process, sometimes our brains just don’t want to cooperate, right? I hope these tips will help you fall asleep as quickly as humanly possible, goodnight 😊