As a kid, it used to take me hoursss to fall asleep. My mom would come into my room and literally tell me that I couldn’t fall asleep with my eyes open. She tried just about everything to get me to fall asleep- singing to me, reading to me, buying me a CD player that played boring piano music. Literally nothing seemed to work. Flashforward to my young adult years, sometimes it takes me 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours to fall asleep. Good news, there are things that help me fall asleep faster!

Before bed:

-Cut out technology at least one hour before bed

There is so much research on how the blue light from our devices prevents our body from producing melatonin, the hormone that makes us fall asleep. I have definitely noticed on nights I chose to watch youtube in bed or just scroll on my phone endlessly, I have a lot more trouble falling asleep.

**If you tend to frequently check your phone at night, try putting your phone on airplane mode and out of reach until the morning. When you’re in your warm bed, you probably won’t feel getting out of bed is worth it to check some notifications or scroll.

-Stop drinking fluids at least an hour before bed

Because the worst dilemma is trying to decide whether getting up to pee is worth leaving your cozy covers, am I right?

-Make sure you’ve eaten enough prior to going to bed

Trying to fall asleep with an empty stomach is extremely unpleasant and you`ll likely wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

-Read

Not on your phone! Read something you enjoy or something boring to make you sleepy (not a murder mystery or scary book).

Now for the hardest part, actually falling asleep. Sometimes I feel like my mind is the most busy when I get into bed thinking about all the things I have to do the next day or how many hours and minutes I have until my alarm goes off in the morning. This sucks and is so stressful.

Things that actually help me fall asleep:

-Listening to the album “Weightless” by Macaroni Union

As a musician (I play oboe), listening to basic piano music or what not is impossible for me because I`ve spent years listening and playing music in an analytical way. I can`t hear music without noticing patterns, beats, and rhythms. Bottom line, finding music that helps me fall asleep is not easy. This album is meterless and it mainly consists of random calming noises that are effective at putting me to sleep.

-Headspace Sleep

This one is truly a life saver for me. Headspace Sleep is a part of the Headspace app which features sleep stories, wind downs (breathing exercises), and sleep noises (mostly white noise). The sleep stories take place in a calming setting and the narrator takes you through the location sharing interesting, but not too interesting details about the setting with white noise relating to the location in the background. The sleep stories start off with a breathing exercise, a long story, and then the white noise continues after the story ends. I am not entirely sure how long they last because I`m not typically awake at the end of them, but I believe they’re about an hour long. My favorite sleep stories are the Midnight Launderette, Desert Campfire, and Island Market.

**If you are in college, a one year Headspace subscription costs $10 a year if you verify that you are a student (the regular cost per year is about $90). With the Headspace subscription, you have full access to all the meditation packs and Headspace sleep. Even though I have gotten off track with the meditations (they have really helped me in the past), paying for the subscription to mainly use Headspace Sleep is completely worth it for me. I wish this had been around when I was a kid.

-Getting out of bed when I haven’t been able to fall asleep for 30+ minutes

When I can’t seem to fall asleep, I get out of bed and pet my cat or eat a piece of fruit for about 10-15 minutes. This especially helps if I`ve been thrashing around angrily because I can’t fall asleep.

Other tips:

–Blackout blinds/curtains!

I got blackout curtains a couple years ago for Christmas and they completely changed the way I slept. When these guys are closed, it looks like it’s midnight in the room, even if it’s in the middle of the day. These are especially helpful during full moon or if you live in a brightly lit area. Seriously a game changer.

-Getting rid of the clock in my room

Checking your clock in the middle of the night when you can’t fall asleep is only going to make you more anxious about how many hours you have left to sleep. Digital clocks are bad because they add unnecessary light in your room and regular clocks have that incessant ticking which is pretty distracting in general.

I hope these tips help you!!! (Photo featuring my mom’s baby kitten)