Sleep Aids that Don’t Come in a Bottle

Have you ever been too tired to sleep?  Seems like an impossibility, until you’re right smack in the middle of the possible.  Maybe even worse is the feeling of not being able to turn your brain off long enough to drift off. I get bit by that one at least several times a month - when there are so many different things buzzing around my mind that I can nearly hear the buzz.  As a last resort, I have taken Benadryl before to halt the buzz bring on the zzzzs, but I hate having to fight through the mental fog it brings on the next day.  All the coffee in the world can’t totally make that fog lift.

From what I’ve heard, that’s a common problem for legitimate sleep aids as well.  I’ve done a little reading on the subject - so the next time I can’t get to sleep for whatever reason, I’m armed with information and an alternative to my allergy medication.  Here are a few of the best sleep inducing tips I’ve found:

1. Count backward from 500.  People who use this technique swear they never make it to the 200s.
2. My favorite:  Focus all your attention and thoughts on relaxing each muscle of your body - starting with each of your toes, then working all the way up.  I’ve never, ever made it past my knees.
3. Imazine that you’re in one of your all time favorite places, someplace relaxing and calm.  Concentrate of feeling how you always felt while there.  Mine would probably be lying on the warm white sand on Pensacola Beach, listening to the waves pounding the shore and the birds calling to the fish…using shells I’d found to draw pictures in the sand. Okay, it’s like a trillion degrees below zero where we live now and I just depressed myself.  Moving on!
4. Breathe deeply, concentrating on each breath.  Inhale and exhale deeply and slowly, try to mimic the sound and feel of “sleep breathing.”  Before long you won’t be mimicking!
5. Put a little lavendar under your pillow.  Or you could use Downy’s Lavendar and Vanilla fabric softener for your sheets and sleepwear - I use it religiously and it does have a relaxing effect on the senses.

When all else fails, go to the couch and turn on the greatest sleep inducer of all - the weather channel.  Not that they’re boring….not at all.  They’re just so peaceful.  Come to think of it, the golf channel also tells a great bedtime story.

~Joi

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