Sound and healthy sleep: how to get a good night's sleep. What to do if you are tormented by insomnia or how to improve the sleep of an adult What to do to have a good dream

26.07.2023 | Cars

People who are constantly tormented by nightmares often wonder how to make them have good dreams. Experts believe that for this it is necessary to follow the rules of a healthy night's rest and try to get rid of depressing thoughts from your head. If you have unresolved problems, the first thing you should do is get rid of them. Let’s look at how to tune in to the right wave and how to have good dreams using the example of several simple recommendations that won’t be difficult to follow.

Scientists have long proven that the human body functions better if night rest begins no later than 22.00. The circadian rhythms that animals follow also apply to humans. Every day at a certain time there is a decrease in activity, a feeling of drowsiness appears, and body temperature decreases. It is necessary to catch these signs and immediately go to bed in order to quickly and soundly fall asleep. Most often this happens between 21.00 and 22.00.

If the moment is missed, the body again receives a charge of vigor, and the person has difficulty falling asleep. This ultimately leads to disturbing and restless dreams. Go to bed earlier and set a regular bedtime for yourself. It is not necessary to follow it strictly, because on different days you may get tired a little earlier or a little later. But don't delay your night's rest. It is best if it starts between 21.00 and 21.30.

It is useful not only to fall asleep at the same time, but also to wake up. In this case, it will be much easier to leave at night. Once you establish the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, the body will know what to expect, and the subconscious mind will no longer be disturbed by the symptoms of insomnia.

A good quality rest will allow you to have good dreams. Studies have shown that people who go to bed late are more likely to see disturbing stories.

Follow the rules of nutrition

A heavy dinner will prevent you from having good dreams. Heavy foods take a long time to digest, so the body will try to help digest it. At this moment, do not count on pleasant dreams.

During dinner, you should follow some rules that will make falling asleep easy and night visions interesting.

Remember that your last meal should occur no later than 3 to 4 hours before bedtime. If you go to bed early, then plan dinner for 18.00.
Avoid heavy fatty foods. No sausage sandwiches or fried meat for dinner. Prefer a light vegetable salad with olive oil dressing, kefir or steamed meat and fish. Be careful with fruits - they cause fermentation.
Avoid coffee in the afternoon. Watch your green tea intake as it contains significant amounts of caffeine.
Do not drink alcoholic beverages and stop smoking. Bad habits often cause nightmares.

To experience good sleep, eat foods containing melatonin, the so-called sleep hormone. They will improve your night's rest and relieve disturbing visions. The following foods are rich in melatonin:

cherry;
oatmeal;
almonds;
black seeds;
flax-seed;
radish;
bananas;
tomatoes.

Eliminate stressful situations

Scientists have concluded that stress and depression provoke nightmares. Therefore, you need to get rid of what worries you, and bad dreams will stop haunting you. You should avoid stressful situations during the day and try not to think about problems in the evening.

It has been proven that proper physical fatigue helps a person think less about his fears. Exercise, but avoid excessive activity right before bed, otherwise you risk overstimulating your body.

To relax and get rid of negative thoughts from your head, you should take a relaxing bath or warm shower. You can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to your bath. The smell of lavender will have a calming effect on the nervous system. It is useful to listen to quiet relaxing music.

In some cases, it can be difficult to avoid stressful situations, for example, if you have a job where emergency situations constantly occur and you have to act at a frantic pace. If the option of changing your position to a calmer one is not suitable, try to get rid of thoughts about work from your head a few hours before going to bed. To do this, you should come up with a distracting activity. If you like to read, take an interesting book. You can try drawing or find another hobby that is not related to your work activity.

Make bedtime more relaxing

The key to pleasant dreams is a quiet time before a night's rest. It is necessary to gradually reduce activity so that in bed you instantly relax and fall asleep. Avoid the following activities an hour or two before bedtime:

do not watch TV, do not turn on the computer;
do not play sports;
don't drink a lot of water.

Enter your own ritual before a night's rest by planning out the time. You can start with a leisurely half-hour walk in the park. Then take a warm, relaxing bath with essential oils. Turn on calm music. Read a book (choose a paper version, do not use e-books). Meditation helps you get in the mood for proper rest. After this, feel free to go to bed, throwing extraneous thoughts out of your head. Interesting vivid dreams are guaranteed.

It is important that the room in which you sleep is not too stuffy. Ventilate the bedroom for 20 to 30 minutes daily. If there is no severe frost outside, you can open the window a little and leave it overnight. Control humidity levels. For normal functioning of the body it should be within 40 – 60%. If the air is too dry, you should buy a humidifier.

Darken the room in advance, and turn off all light sources at night, creating complete darkness and silence. Choose an orthopedic mattress for the bed and high-quality bed linen.

Use pleasant scents

Scientists have proven the benefits of certain scents. So, an experiment was conducted in which several dozen women participated. They slept in a room where they placed vases of roses. It turned out that the smell of flowers helped the participants in the experiment to have more pleasant and colorful dreams. Scientists have concluded that the scent of roses should be used by those who suffer from nightmares. It can be used in the form of essential oil, scented candles, and cosmetic milk.

The effect of the scent of lavender has been proven. The aroma also helps to relax, disturbing dreams go away and are replaced by pleasant, light dreams. Before resting at night, it is helpful to take a bath with a few drops of lavender essential oil. Also use the following plant scents to improve sleep:

ylang-ylang;
sandalwood;
Melissa;
mint.

Having pleasant, vivid dreams is quite achievable. You just need to follow the rules for going to bed at night. If there are no serious symptoms of sleep disturbance, nightmares will stop tormenting you after a week or two of following the recommendations. If you want to not only see good dreams, but also plan to learn how to manage them, we advise you to familiarize yourself with the practice of lucid dreams.

1 Create a good sleeping environment.
In the bedroom, the level of noise and light should be minimal. In addition, the room should be cool. The environment around you while you sleep should provide quality rest. You can also use additional sleep devices, such as blackout curtains, eye shields, earplugs, white noise, humidifiers, fans, etc.
2 Sleep on a quality mattress and pillows.
You need a good mattress that will provide the right support for your body throughout the night and is spacious enough for you to lie and roll over comfortably. If you often wake up with back or neck pain, you need a new mattress and pillows that will alleviate this problem.
3 Stick to a sleep schedule.
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. This way, your “internal clock” will be adjusted to regular sleep.
4 Create calming rituals before bed.
Calming activities will help set you up for a good night's sleep. About an hour before bed, take a bath, read a book, listen to calm music, or do relaxation exercises. Avoid stressful or stimulating activities.
5 Regulate your sleep-wake cycles naturally.
Melatonin is a hormone that controls your daily rhythms, and its production is dependent on sunlight. To keep you alert during the day and sleepy at night, your home or workplace needs to be well-lit during the day. This stimulates the production of melatonin and in the evening you will want to sleep
6 Go to bed when you're really tired.
If you can't fall asleep within 20 minutes, get out of bed and do something calm, like reading or listening to music, until you feel tired. Avoid glowing screens (computers, TVs, phones) as their light stimulates brain activity.
7 Sleep during the day.
If you need to nap, take a short nap during the day. You should not take a nap in the evening, as this may cause problems falling asleep at night.
8 Be physically active.
Exercise can help you fall asleep faster and sleep better. However, exercising before bed makes it difficult to fall asleep as it stimulates the body and makes you more alert. You should not exercise at least three hours before bedtime. It's best to train during the day, as this will help you sleep better at night.
9 Eat in moderation.
Don't eat a lot at night. Eat dinner a few hours before bed and avoid foods that can make your stomach feel heavy.
10 Avoid drinking alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine before bed.
Many people think that alcohol helps them fall asleep. Alcohol will indeed help you fall asleep faster, but it will significantly reduce the quality of your sleep and increase the likelihood of waking up at night.

Sound sleep is the key to good health and good mood. Autumn depression, insomnia - we are all familiar with this firsthand. It has been proven that one in three people has sleep problems, and women are 2 times more likely than men. But you shouldn’t give up and prepare for debilitating insomnia with the onset of autumn. There are many simple ways to protect yourself from illness.

Stages of sleep

Sleep restores us physically and psychologically. Insomnia, or “lack of sleep,” can significantly impair concentration. But don’t be scared and start taking sleeping pills, they won’t provide a truly good rest.
You have probably noticed more than once that sleep can be different. Sometimes we fall asleep like the dead and wake up without noticing the night. And sometimes we see vivid and emotional dreams. This all happens because there are different stages and we go through several cycles during the night. Deep sleep - comes to the rescue when your strength is running out and you urgently need to restore it. Our body secretes hormones and replenishes cells with them. The older a person gets, the less time he spends in the deep sleep stage. Therefore, a baby’s sleep sometimes lasts up to 18 hours a day, while older people often have shallow sleep.

Why is insomnia dangerous?

On the one hand, it is a manifestation of systemic disorders that gradually occur in the body. Problems at the level of various systems and organs can drive away sleep. Therefore, even if you do not complain about your health, and there are no reasons for stress, but it has already begun to torment you, be sure to check with a doctor.
On the other hand, if insomnia is caused by the fact that you are constantly nervous, constant lack of sleep can trigger the emergence of a host of diseases.

Lack of sleep leads to premature aging and weight gain

How to get a good night's sleep

Before bed, take a warm bath with lavender oil. It acts as a sleeping pill, but, importantly, does not disrupt the natural process.
- Linden honey calms the nervous system and improves sleep. Warm milk flavored with nutmeg or chamomile tea has the same effect.
- If possible, try to fall asleep in an already ventilated room.
- Try to reduce your coffee intake and avoid eating late in the evening. Overeating increases your metabolism, and you need to achieve complete relaxation.
- If you can't sleep, don't roll from side to side. Better get up and do some quiet household chores. And sleep will not keep you waiting.
- Remember that sleep duration decreases over the years.

Proven recipes for insomnia

DILL IN WINE. Pour 50 g of dill seeds into 0.5 liters of wine (Cahors or port). Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Leave for 1 hour, wrap, strain and squeeze. Take 50-60 g before bedtime.
Hawthorn FLOWERS. 2 tbsp. l. Leave the flowers in 0.5 liters of boiling water for 2-3 hours. Filter and add honey for taste. Take 2/3 cup 3 times a day, preferably before meals.
COLLECTION. Take 50 g of valerian root, 50 g of hop cones. 1 tbsp. l. collection, pour a glass of boiling water and leave for 2 hours. Strain and add honey. Take a third of a glass at night.
. A quick recipe. Add 2 tbsp to a glass of warm boiled water. l. honey Take before bed.
SMALL TIPS FOR A GOOD SLEEP
For insomnia caused by a rush of blood to the head, it is useful to apply mustard plaster or grated horseradish to the calves.
Before bed, take a warm bath with pine extract or sea salt.
Listening to light music or birdsong will also help.
Right before bed, massage your feet with any vegetable oil.
It is very important to go to bed at the same time; no one has yet canceled the daily routine.
Try not to accustom yourself to lying without sleep. It is worth giving up the habit of reading while lying down or watching TV while lying down.

Herbs for insomnia

■ For stress-related insomnia, budra ivy will help. 1 tbsp. herbs pour 1 tbsp. boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, strain. Drink throughout the day as tea. The course continues here and there until sleep returns to normal.
■ For insomnia associated with depression, 1 tsp. motherwort herb pour 1 tbsp. boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, strain. Drinking a bite of dark chocolate at night will add the “happiness hormone.”
■ Pour three or four fresh fragrant violet flowers into 1 tbsp. boiling milk, leave for 30 minutes. Drink an hour before bedtime, and eat the flowers themselves. Additionally, you can rub the juice of violet leaves into the scalp, and also inhale the aroma of the flowers for three to four minutes.
■ For aromatherapy, you can place a small bouquet of chrysanthemums two to three meters from the pillow.
■ Preparations of white nappa also help well against insomnia. It is important not to confuse it with soapwort: the latter, unlike white sandwort, is poisonous, has pink flowers and a fairly strong aroma, while white sandwort has white flowers and practically no smell. 1 tbsp. herbs doze pour 1 tbsp. boiling water, leave for two hours, strain. Drink 0.5 tbsp. before bedtime. Contraindications: colitis with constipation, gastritis with low acidity.

We count to fall asleep

Many people use the method of counting elephants, sheep, etc. to fall asleep. But this does not always work. Why? If a person, wanting to fall asleep, begins to count elephants and does this with mental irritation, then, on the one hand, the brain receives monotonous information through the verbal channel (one elephant, two elephants, three elephants, etc.), which strengthens the processes in it braking. On the other hand, irritation stimulates excitement in the brain. How can you expect to fall asleep quickly? It is necessary that the same information enters the brain through both channels. Namely, count the further you go, the slower and slower you go, using increasingly calm internal intonations. Then you will fall asleep really quickly.

A simple way to restore sleep

You need to tear out a double sheet from the sketchbook and stick a circle of black paper in its center. Glue a smaller white one into the middle of this circle. Before going to bed, when you go to bed, take this “simulator” in your hands and, looking at the circles, imagine that you are mentally expanding the central white circle, as if it had gone beyond its contour. You need to do this exercise for three to four seconds, then close your eyelids. The pasted circles will “shine” in front of your eyes, only the small one will become black, and the large one, on the contrary, will become white - as in a negative. You need to do this several times until you feel your eyes sticking together. You will sleep great!

Greetings, friends and colleagues! Pavel Yamb is in touch. About a week ago I had difficulty falling asleep in the evening, although I was tired during the day. I'm sure this happens to each of you. If insomnia occurs only occasionally, then it’s okay. But many people struggle with falling asleep for years! How to get ready for a sound and healthy sleep in the evening and how to get a good night's sleep? Let's find out!

Personally, when I’m alone at home, whether the situation allows or forces me, I go to sleep only when I pass out, when my body no longer asks me - I wrap up my affairs and go to rest - there’s no time for insomnia - I have to make it to bed in time J

Does it matter how you sleep?

Correct answer: no. Because in sleep we restore strength, the body and psyche rest, muscles grow in sleep (but not for everyone, only for those who train), and, in general, it’s not in vain that nature intended that we sleep a third of our lives, if you not Leonardo da Vinci and not Napoleon Bonaparte. The quality of sleep is as important as the duration, because our productivity depends on it. And quality sleep depends largely on what we do in the evening.

What to do in the evening to sleep better

Take a short walk or do a few yoga asanas, as our friend advises her wife. The more we move during the day, the more tired the body becomes, and the easier it is to fall asleep later. This is especially true for older people who often have difficulty falling asleep. In addition, physical activity in the evening helps to detach from the impressions of the past day and reboot the brain. A healthy lifestyle generally helps to normalize circadian rhythms.
But don't exercise actively right before bed, because adrenaline is not the best way to fall asleep.
Avoid caffeine and other stimulants. If you are an avid coffee drinker, then drink your quota of coffee in the morning, otherwise you risk tossing and turning in bed for a long time in the evening.
Don't eat heavily before bed. Have dinner 2.5-3 hours before bedtime, then - you'll see - it will be much easier to fall asleep.
Two hours before going to bed, put all gadgets aside. The fact is that the screens of mobile devices emit white light, which is perceived by the brain as daylight, as a result of which the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, is inhibited. It’s better to read a book, but choose not the most action-packed reading.
Don't read in bed. The bed should be associated with sleep (or sex), but nothing else. If you like to read before bed, do it in an armchair or on a chair.
Write a plan for the next day. If there is nothing special to plan (this, for example, happens to mothers with small children), then just write down your thoughts in a diary. Don’t think, but write down what’s bothering you. This will help you unload your brain from the information accumulated during the day.
Before going to bed, set the mood: you can meditate if you practice this, or you can do pranayama (these are breathing exercises from yoga), yoga nidra, or try deep muscle relaxation techniques. This will relax both your mind and body.
Create conditions for comfortable sleep: remove all lights from the bedroom, buy a comfortable mattress, create silence. If you do not live alone, then agree with your family to provide comfort to each other. For example, my friend likes to fall asleep listening to music or an audiobook, but his wife cannot fall asleep without silence. They solved the problem simply: he falls asleep with headphones on, listening to what he wants, and without forcing his wife and son to listen.
Don't drink alcohol before bed. You may fall asleep quickly, but the quality of your sleep will not be the best!
Ventilate the bedroom. The best temperature for sound sleep is 18-24 degrees, and in a hot room it is much more difficult to fall asleep, and sleep is more restless, with frequent awakenings. Have you noticed how difficult it is to sleep in the heat?
Warm up your body before going to bed: take a warm shower or even a bath. This will help you relax and get ready to relax.
Drink warm milk with cardamom or chamomile tea before bed.
Use an aroma lamp or candles. The aroma of lavender is perfect for better sleep.

Important: get up at the same time in the morning. This is the key to a sound and healthy sleep at night, because not only children need a daily routine. If you organize your day correctly, it will become much easier for you to fall asleep, wake up, have breakfast, work, and even want to go to the toilet at a predictable time!

If you do all of the above, but you still sleep poorly, then the reasons may be different: perhaps you do not have enough magnesium in your body (you can get it from pumpkin seeds, for example), or you are taking some medications with insomnia as side effects - another thing.

I hope this information will help you regain healthy sleep, like in childhood or the first half of the year in the army. Share the article with your friends on social networks, and in the comments tell us what good methods of dealing with insomnia do you know? Pavel Yamb was with you. See you again!\

Good sleep is the key to a successful and productive next day, so you will achieve significantly better results. It is known that there is no better rest than sleep. However, in the current frantic pace of life, many women can only dream of getting a good night's sleep. This situation can and should be changed if you adhere to the following rules on how to sleep soundly.

Don't try to sleep during the day. The maximum you can afford is to take a nap for 15-25 minutes. However, if you know that you will wake up so quickly, it is better not to go to bed at all and not take risks.

Create a clear sleep schedule. Train yourself to go to bed and get up exactly at the same time, without concessions. However, don’t try to sleep in on the weekend. This will give very little effect, and you can ruin your schedule.

Don't eat before bed. It is recommended not to eat later than 4:00 before bedtime. Otherwise, your stomach will digest food, and your body will not rest at all. An exception can be made only for a small number of products that are listed in the next paragraph.

Before bed you can allow yourself take some food, which have a sleeping pill effect due to the special components in their composition:

Banana
Milk
Chamomile tea
Oatmeal
Almond
Turkey
Grain bread

Create a daily enjoyable ritual for yourself. How to make sure you have good dreams? It is thanks to this ritual. This could be reading a pleasant book with calm music (just no Stephen King or the like!). You can also watch beautiful pictures, soothing videos or clips, have an aromatherapy session, take a warm bath or read your favorite magazine. These can also be positive affirmations, visualizations and self-hypnosis. Everyone has their own methods, so you should choose the best one for yourself. And stick to it with discipline.

Before relaxing, some active people need to learn how to de-stress after a busy day. This could be a massage or self-massage, sex with a loved one, yoga, simple physical exercises at least an hour before bedtime, and similar techniques. Art therapy can also help relieve severe stress: draw your stress (can be in the form of an abstraction), and then tear the drawing into pieces or even burn it. You can also box the pillow. However, do not forget to do relaxing procedures afterwards.

When does a person have the deepest sleep? It is believed that the deepest sleep is sleep in the third phase. Those. 4.5 hours after falling asleep.

Find out your ideal bedtime. For some people, 5:00 is enough to get enough sleep; for others, 9 is not enough. The generally accepted optimal time is 7-8 hours. Although research by some scientists shows that since sleep phases last 1.5 hours, the optimal time is proportional to them - 6.5 hours. However, again, try to determine for yourself, guided by your own feelings, what amount is right for you.

What can you do to have good dreams? Don't think about anything. One of the most common causes of insomnia is that the brain suddenly turns on unprecedented activity at night. He begins to look for answers to all questions: from real life problems to historical events or scientific facts. You need to teach yourself that once you lie down and turn off the light, nothing else matters. You can even repeat this to yourself like a mantra. Follow the Scarlett O'Hara principle: you'll think about it tomorrow.

Freshen up your room. Stuffiness in the room where you sleep is one of the main causes of insomnia, sensitive sleep and nightmares. Make sure it is well ventilated and the room is no warmer than 25 degrees. Also, do not sleep under a blanket that is too warm.

Organize the darkness. The room should be completely dark so that the body is ready to sleep. Close the window with curtains, turn off the computer, TV and the lamp on the bedside table.

Let's talk about how to wake up in the morning

First of all, in order to wake up normally at the right time, you need to set yourself up to wake up at the right time. Our brain is like a super-powerful computer. You can give the computer a program, an action that it will perform, and it will perform it. What’s most interesting is that you can do the same with your brain.

You need to program your brain so that he wakes up at the time you need. Thus, the brain clearly understands what it needs to do, it has clear instructions and implements them. You should also understand that such programming may not work the first time, but it always works after 2-3 attempts, and with regular use of this technique, you can constantly and easily wake up at the right time, even without an alarm clock.

It is very important that you understand why you need to wake up in the morning and have a clear action plan for the morning. If you have a day off tomorrow and have nothing to do in the morning, but you would like to wake up at, for example, 6 am, you need to think about what you will do when you wake up and why you need to wake up at such a time.

Otherwise, the feeling in the evening that the next day you can sleep a little longer will be victorious. And you won't wake up at the right time in the morning. Therefore, first of all, you must clearly understand for yourself what, why and why, if there is no motivation, come up with it.

This way, when you program your brain to wake up in the morning, you will wake up a few minutes before your alarm clock. If you have nothing to do, or this waking up is unimportant for you, you will still wake up, but will not get out of bed, but will simply fall asleep again.

Motivation

As noted above, you must understand why you need to wake up in the morning. Develop constant motivation for yourself that will encourage you to wake up in the morning. What will it be? Developing willpower? Perhaps you have important things to do in the morning? Make them your motivation. But in the long term, your motivation should be your goals, and what you do should bring you closer to realizing your goals.

When you wake up in the morning, remember why you are doing this, imagine your goal, imagine it as if you have almost realized it.

You can also challenge yourself. Do you need to wake up tomorrow at 5 am?) Prove, if not weakly, wake up tomorrow at 5 am and write about it here!

Morning positivity

I love the morning... Don’t think, I’m not a masochist, it’s just that every morning is filled with positivity and joy... And thanks to this, the whole day passes with positivity and joy. Do something pleasant in the morning. Smile at yourself in the mirror, do some interesting and special exercises, meditate, develop yourself, read, run...

Dedicate an hour of the day to yourself. Under no circumstances should you even think about turning on your computer, TV or radio at this hour... The first hour of the day is purely yours, dedicate it only to yourself! And may this hour bring you joy, positivity and benefit every day! When your mornings become special, you will be happy to wake up to recharge yourself with new positivity. You will love the morning and life will be filled with bright colors. And that's cool :)

Also, drink a glass of cold water in the morning, it will help your body wake up, start your brain functioning well and generally provide a lot of benefits, you can write another article about this :)

How to fall asleep quickly

One of the easiest methods to fall asleep quickly is to lie on your back, relax and roll your eyes up under your eyelids. 2-3 minutes in this state and you will fall asleep. The fact is that a person is in approximately this state at the moment of deep sleep. And when you do this, the brain thinks that you are sleeping, the body perceives it similarly and, accordingly, you quickly fall asleep.

In order to quickly relax, you can tense all the muscles of your body at one moment and then relax. You can experiment now on your hand. Clench your fist tightly. Hold this for 3-4 seconds and relax your hand. Do you feel how well your muscles have relaxed?

You can also imagine that you are immersed in a hot bath, and how all the muscles in your body relax. The more you can relax, the faster you will fall asleep.

I hope this article was useful to you, you will apply the techniques described here today, and you will certainly feel their effectiveness. Leave your comments and share it with your friends and most importantly, put it into practice. Otherwise there will be no result. However, if you put in a little effort, you will soon notice how incredibly your life can change after applying these simple techniques.