10 Effective Techniques on How to Sleep When Not Tired ( #5 can be a big challenge)

Your room is your sanctuary. You need to feel calm and relaxed in your room at all times. First things first – your room needs to be clean and tidy. The more clutter you have in your room, the harder it is to drift to dreamland. Secondly, you should also create the right ambience conducive to sleeping:

Listening to soothing music for about 45 minutes before sleeping can help you to be calm and relaxed allowing you to sleep faster, minimise waking up at night, sleep longer and have a restful sleep. Listening to music directly affects your parasympathetic nervous system. It allows you to relax and readies your body for sleep.

Music calms your body by lowering your breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. It also prompts your muscles to relax. All these changes in your body brought about by listening to soothing, music prepares you for a deep slumber.

Create a playlist with soothing songs with slow rhythm (60 to 80 beats per minute), better yet, check out the Spotify Top 20 Most Streamed Tracks for Sleep.

Avoid wearing headphones or earbuds. They can be uncomfortable. Besides, wearing earbuds when you roll over in bed while sleeping can make your ear canal hurt. The best option is to use pillow speakers. This pillow with speakers inside is comfortable to use and comes in a variety of sizes. 

Taking a warm shower at night adjusts your body temperature. Your temperature drops as you enter a cool room after a warm bath. This effect will make you groggy and want to sleep immediately. A drop in your body temperature slows down vital metabolic functions such as breathing, heart rate and digestion giving your body the signal that it is time to sleep. It will also help your body produce melatonin.

A warm shower is also an ideal way to unwind and relax your muscles and joints after a stressful and busy day because it dilates your blood vessels. Try some soft shoulder and neck rolls while showering loosen your muscles even more.

Take a moderately warm (below 100*F) and short showers (about 10 minutes). Taking colder and longer showers will raise your body temperature and increase your energy.

The best time for a warm shower is about 90 minutes before retiring to bed. It will give your body enough time to cool down. If you take a warm shower and immediately prepare to go to sleep, your body will not cool down the natural way, and sleep will be evasive.

The nicest thing about taking a warm shower at night is it will save you some time in the morning. 

Mothers always know best, and your mom was right when she made you drink warm milk to help you sleep faster. Drinking a warm glass of milk helps calm you down and get ready to sleep.

A warm glass of milk is one of the more popular go-to-sleep-ritual because it contains the melatonin hormone and acid tryptophan, an amino acid. Both can induce relaxation and sleep.

Acid tryptophan is a neurotransmitter serotonin precursor which converts into melatonin. It is only secreted at night thus gaining the moniker “'hormone of darkness.” For a faster effect, take your warm glass of milk with a handful unsalted nuts and fruits, cottage cheese and rice cakes, yoghurt with banana. These carbs help the melatonin, and acid tryptophan hormones easily get to the brain and to help induce sleep.

Keeping a sleeping schedule can help regulate your body clock and help you on how to sleep when not tired. It will also help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep the entire night. 

Which nostril are you breathing through? Throughout the day, your body shifts from breathing through your left and right nostril. The nostril side you are breathing through is the side that is more open allowing you to breathe easily.

When you are breathing through your left nostril, you feel more relaxed and calmer. You are not as anxious, too. You will also feel tired, fatigued and sleepy.

When you are breathing through your right nostril, you are wide awake, more alert and bursting with energy. You may also feel restless and anxious.

If you need a technique on how to sleep when not tired, induce sleep and relaxation by breathing through your left nostril.

Do the reverse if you are sleepy but need to stay awake.

Aromatherapy or using essential oils and plant extracts with a certain fragrance can help you become relaxed and calm. When used before bedtime, you will be able to fall asleep fast and remain asleep until it is time for you to wake up.

Essential oils that can promote sleep because of their calming and relaxing effect include lavender, jasmine, clary sage, ylang-ylang, bergamot and lemon have relaxing and calming effects that can promote sleep.

These aromatherapy methods can be done at home to induce sleep.

Aromatherapy methods all impact the body by making it feel calm and relaxed. When you are calm and relaxed, sleep comes easy.

Cold Thermogenesis therapy is the process of dipping your face in cold water. It works to enhance your quantity and quality of deep sleep. As mentioned above, a cooler body temperature induces you to sleep. Thus it is not surprising that Cold Thermogenesis is an effective method of how to sleep when not tired.

Dipping your face in cold water helps soothe your body and creates the Mammalian Dive Reflex which makes your blood pressure and heart rate to drop. When this happens, you tend to get sleepy and fall asleep fast.

The proper way to do the Cold Thermogenesis therapy is to dip your face in the cold water for about 30 seconds. Prepare cold water by freezing a bowl half filled with water. When you are ready to do the Cold Thermogenesis therapy, top it off with tap water. Fizz it around until the water temperature is about 40*F. 

You can also choose to fill your bathroom sink with cold water and add some cold packs until water reaches about 40*F.

Meditating can help you fall asleep when sleep seems to be elusive. More often worrying about anything under the sun ruins a good night’s sleep. To easily drift into a deep sleep as soon as you hit your bed, try some mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation focuses on breathing. This form of meditation brings your mind to the present moment and letting go of any concerns that are bothering your mind. Mindfulness meditation breaks the overload of thoughts in your mind and allows you to relax.

Try mindfulness meditation for about 20 minutes during the day or before sleeping. The idea is to make you feel relaxed. When you are relaxed, sleep will come easily. Try it to see if it works for you.

Listen to this YouTube video, “Calming Mindfulness Meditation before Sleeping” and drift into dreamland even before the entire video is over.

Acupressure therapy makes use of exact finger placement and level of pressure on specific points in the body. Acupressure can be used to enhance blood circulation and encourages a deep relaxation state. Acupressure therapy is often done by a massage therapist but you can also learn to do it for yourself.

In acupressure, fingers, thumbs and palms are used to exert pressure on specific points in the body. If you often toss on a bed waiting for the elusive sleep to come by, so some acupressure on yourself and you will fall asleep as soon as you are done. Acupressure is also great for getting a better and longer sleep.

To administer acupressure yourself:

You can also have a massage on your pressure points administered by someone else.