As strange as this might sound, blowing bubbles serves as a breathing exercise which calms your body and mind. To top it off, since the idea of blowing bubbles when you're an adult is ridiculously playful, you're likely to forget any stressful thoughts that may be keeping you up at night.
2. Douse your room in a lavender fragrance
We all love the smell of lavender, and to top it off it has some serious health benefits. According to a study in The Journal of Biological and Medical Rhythm Research, people who stimulate their senses with bursts of lavender scent - at 10-minute intervals, 30 minutes before bed, will find themselves in an increased state of relaxation. Participants in the study reported deeper sleep and heightened morning energy.
A study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing confirmed that calming music can help carry you away to dreamland. Tunes with a slow rhythm, with no more than 80 BPM were found to reduce the sympathetic nervous system activity. This means that you will feel less stressed, anxious, or depressed and you will be able to focus on falling asleep instead.
4. Occupy your mind for few minutes
If you can't fall asleep within 15 minutes then you will be awake for a while. This will create a cycle where you associate your bed with being awake for a while. This will create a cycle where you associate your bed with being awake and it will be more difficult for you to doze off in it the next night. Your best bet would be to get out of bed and distract your mind with an activity for 10 minutes. This will reset your mind and allow you to attempt to fall asleep again.
Bear in mind that whatever activity you choose to reset your mind, be sure that it doesn't involve a screen. The blue light can have dreadful effects on sleep prevention and have long been chronicled on its negative effects. The blue light is what we call 'short-wavelength-enriched' - this means that it suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes you fall asleep. With this in mind, it would make sense to turn off all blue light for an entire hour before you hit the hay.
6. Lower your room temperature
Have you ever wanted to doze off in an overheated boardroom? That's because heat makes us drowsy. When your body starts to power down for the night it drops a few degrees which subsequently helps your body enter and stay in REM. So, to help your body fall asleep faster reduce your room temperature by a few degrees. The ideal temperature should be between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
While this may come as the opposite advice of 'cool yourself down', there is a reason for it. You know the feeling when you step out of the shower and you feel a shiver? This occurs because the warm shower ultimately lowers your body temperature a few degrees, which as we've mentioned, will help you fall asleep faster. The same applies to drinking a glass of hot water, or decaffeinated tea which warms your core and forces your body to cool down.
8. Wear socks to bed
Having warm feet will help you fall asleep. One of this reason why this might be so is that the degree of dilation of blood vessels in the skin of the hands and feet is the best physiological predictor for the rapid onset of sleep. In one study, it was found that the participants who fell asleep the quickest were those who kept their feet covered.
Your favorite mid-meeting activity can help you fall asleep faster. According to findings published in Behavior Research and Therapy, people who picture relaxing scenes, like a tropical beach, will drift to sleep a whole 20 minutes faster than those who try 'general distractions' like counting sheep. So your best bet would be to dream about a beautiful place which will lead you right to a night-dream.
10. Try the 4-7-8 method
When all else fails apple the 4-7-8 method. Here's how you do it: Place the tip of your tongue against the tissue behind your top front teeth. Exhale through your mouth completely and make a whoosh noise then close your mouth and inhale through your nose for four seconds. Hold your breath for seven seconds. Exhale through your mouth again and whoosh. Repeat the whole thing three or four times.
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