In the last decade, I had my fair share of bad sleep. Often, I pushed through it helpless and the usual tips – aim for a regular bedtime, stop caffeine intake mid-afternoon, reduce screen time in the evening – did not help much. However, over the years I built up a repertoire of techniques.
This is obviously not medical advice. All I can say that if you’re struggling with bad sleep, I encourage you to experiment.
Things that worked for me for falling asleep:
- Melatonin. In the NL, melatonin supplements come in 0.1-0.3 mg doses. I found that this is sufficient for falling to sleep. (To fight jet lag, I use stronger doses – but fighting jet lag likely means that I’m returning from the US where 10 mg melatonin supplements are available over-the-counter.)
- Listening to podcasts. Most platforms have a timer that stops the playback after a given time period or at the end of the track.
- Massages. A good deep tissue massage helps with relaxing and going to sleep.
Things that worked for me for both falling asleep and going back to sleep:
- Breathing techniques: These can be learned very quickly and I found the 4-7-8 breathing technique to be the very efficient.
- Relaxation techniques: I learned some relaxation techniques that helped me go to sleep. These are much more difficult to learn than the breathing techniques, so I recommend starting with breathing first, then moving to relaxation.
- Weighted blankets: These are heavy cotton blankets with large holes, meaning that you’ll likely need another blanket for warmth. I tried the Bearaby Cotton Napper and it helped a lot me for staying asleep.