Sleep deprivation and insomnia are nothing new in today’s world. Most people suffer from these issues for various reasons, including underlying diseases, anxiety, and, most of all, stress.
That’s right; increased stress is the leading cause of sleepless nights and difficulty resting. The body releases hormones that inhibit sleep and activate your fight or flight response when you’re stressed or panicked.
But proper sleep is necessary for everyday function and your overall health. While stress needs to be addressed much more profoundly, you can use some fantastic stress relief techniques to get adequate sleep.
Best Stress Relief Techniques to Sleep Well
1. Meditation
Meditation is one of the most common stress-relief ways. It has been proven to help with problems like insomnia. And if you do it right, meditation can help you refocus your energy and feel less tired.
Initially, you might find it difficult to focus while attempting to meditate. However, with time, you should be able to concentrate your mind on your body and its different parts. Moreover, you can also try to observe your thoughts, feelings, and emotions without judgment.
You can also use meditation guidance apps like Headspace to practice guided meditation. Guided meditation might be more effortless for beginners too, and you can slowly transition to mindfulness or other body meditation techniques.
2. Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing
Another great stress-buster is diaphragmatic breathing, also sometimes called belly breathing. Here’s how you can practice it:
- Lie down and put one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest.
- Take deep breaths through your nose, filling your belly with air. Remember that your chest shouldn’t move much while you’re breathing in.
- Hold your breath for a few seconds. Then, release the breath from your mouth by pursing your lips. Make sure you have tightened your stomach muscles.
Keep repeating the above steps until you feel slightly relaxed. Doing this every day before bed can help you sleep better.
3. Progressive Relaxation
You might often notice that certain areas or muscles in your body get tensed up when you’re stressed. Relaxing each of these muscles can help you de-stress. An excellent way to do that is to try progressive relaxation.
Lie down and close your eyes. Then, start contracting and relaxing slowly, one muscle group at a time. Focusing on areas like the neck and back is a good move.
If done well and regularly, progressive relaxation can be an extremely effective tool in helping you sleep better. This is because it can even relieve minor aches and pain in your body.
4. Use Music to Fall Asleep
Music is a proven way to relieve stress and even refocus. Listening to calm music before or while sleeping can help you quickly unwind and sleep properly. However, you must take special care to ensure the volume isn’t too high, or you will get distracted instead of falling asleep.
You can play music even hours before you go to bed. For example, put on some instrumentals as soon as you return home from work and eat and relax while listening to it. That way, by the time you go to bed, you’ll already be pretty de-stressed.
Conclusion
Using the above stress-relief techniques, achieving long and healthy sleep should not be a problem. However, remember that the above methods are temporary therapeutic ways to unwind and relax. If the root cause of your stress is a personal problem, an issue at work, or anything else in your life, it’s a good idea to seek help from a counselor or therapist.
If you have any more questions about de-stressing before bed, shoot them in the comment section, and we’ll get back to you ASAP!
