SURPRISING WAYS TO SWITCH OFF
Some top experts reveal other ual tips and tricks for a good ’s sleep...
T A KIWI
s are loaded with serotonin, a otransmitter that regulates your -wake cycle, naturally helping you nto a deeper sleep,” says Fergus hers, head of food at plant-based e box subscription service Grubby bby.co.uk). “Bananas are another ruit, as they contain magnesium, ssium and tryptophan, h aid muscle relaxation moting sleep. Bananas lso very high in fibre, ng you feel full and fied before you drift off.”
DO A PUZZLE
“If you’re not sleepy at bedtime, do something else. Only go to bed when you really feel tired enough,” says Kerry Booth, occupational therapy head at Cygnet Health Care (cygnetgroup. com).
“Do a puzzle, read a book, listen to soft music or browse through a magazine. Find something relaxing, but not stimulating, to take your mind off worries about sleep while you grow more tired.
“If you don’t fall asleep within 20 minutes once you do go to bed, repeat this process.”
COUNT SHEEP BUT
IN A NEW WAY
“Counting sheep may be a cliche, but it’s the perfect exercise to help you fall asleep and empty your mind of racing thoughts,” says Thomas Hoegh Reisenhus, sleep specialist for Tempur (tempur.co.uk).
“This exercise requires all your attention, which prevents your mind from wandering. At the same time, it’s so boring that you will soon fall asleep.”
1 With your eyes closed, imagine a big blackboard in front of you.
2 Now write the number 100 in the centre of the board with a piece of chalk and draw a small circle around it.
3 Write the word “deeper” in big letters next to the circle you have just drawn.
4 Now carefully erase the number 100 with a sponge, taking care not to touch the circle with the sponge.
5 Next, write the number 99 inside the circle and once again write “deeper” in the exact same spot as before.
6 From here you repeat the process, so the next number in the circle will be 98, then 97 etc, all the way to zero (you will fall asleep long before getting there).
BUY A PEACE LILY
“Peace lilies are amazing air cleaners, as studied by NASA, and can increase room humidity by up to five per cent, helping breathing and sleep,” says Suzie Wolley of Serenata Flowers (serenataflowers.com).
LISTEN TO WHITE NOISE
“Our environment contains a mix of white, pink and brown noises, and these three types of coloured noise are most commonly used to help block ambient noise and help with sleep,” says Dr Naomi Newman-beinart, health psychologist and spokesperson for
Glow Dreaming (glowdreaming.co.uk).
“Coloured noises are designed to create a uniform sound that doesn’t stimulate your brain. In turn, it also helps protect your ears from any disruptive background noise, such as a car driving past your window, which can prevent you from falling into a slumber.”
White noise: This includes low, medium and high frequency sounds, like the steady hum of being on a plane, and can be useful to help prevent sudden noises from interrupting your sleep.
Pink noise: Best for light sleepers or people who wake up with low energy. It creates a balance of high and low frequencies, which mimic sounds found in nature. With deeper sounds than those that make up white noise, it can be more soothing on the ear.
PAINT YOUR BEDROOM BLUE
“Consider a colour scheme that avoids your bedroom becoming an overwhelming collision of different shades,” says Joanna Ross, general manager of design at Sheridan (sheridan.com.au).
“Blue can have a positive effect on mood as it connects us to a blue sky or ocean found in nature, which helps us to feel relaxed.
“Whether you add a dark blue feature wall or incorporate a blue textured quilt cover, the colour blue is known to help calm the mind and produce a feeling of tranquillity – perfect before going to sleep at night.”
GET TAPPING
“Tapping can help you sleep by reducing anxiety before bedtime and calming your nervous system so you feel less stressed and produce less cortisol,” says tapping expert Poppy Delbridge (poppydelbridge.com).
Tap your way to sleep
1 Take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
2 Rest two hands, one on top of the other, over your heart.
3 Massage your sore spots (tender points on the chest located a few inches down from your collarbones).
4 Say “I am feeling stressed because I can’t sleep. But it is possible for me to sleep well now and be calm.”
5 Then use two fingers on each hand and tap on energy points located around the face – eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin – as you repeat the phrase.
6 Know that each time you tap and say those words, you are relaxing your body and mind into sound sleep.
7 You can repeat this technique as many times as you need.
■■Exercise from rapidtapping.com