How to Fall Asleep Sober when You’re Used to Passing Out Trashed

Appropriate, deep, uninterrupted sleep is something too few people get. It’s impossible for addicts. The alcohol and drugs substance abusers take interrupt a person’s normal sleep cycle and it is difficult to regulate it again…yet it can be done. Here are a few proven tips anyone who is having trouble sleeping can use to improve their sleep patterns, without resorting to potentially addictive sleep aids.

Keep Your Bedroom Dark – Your hormones play a major role in inducing sleep. Our wake/sleep pattern depends a great deal on when it is dark outside. The darker it is, the more our hormones tell us to sleep. If you are working on a laptop or cellphone, reading from a tablet, watching TV or playing video games – the harder it will be for you to get to sleep. Ban all electronics from the bedroom or at least shut everything completely off at least an hour before bedtime. If you want to read, which is a sleep inducing activity, use a small bedside or clip-on lamp (a tiny light that clips to the book), instead of a large bedside or overhead lamp. Do not read from an e-book. Close your blinds or use blackout curtains to keep the bedroom dark. If your alarm clock is bright, dim it or turn it away from you to keep the light to a minimum.

Take a Hot Bath or Shower – Raising skin temperature will make you sleepy; that’s why a nighttime bath time is a good idea for kids. Use the same logic for yourself. A hot bath or shower twenty minutes or so before bed is not only relaxing, but it triggers our sleep hormones.

Drink a Warm Drink – Keep childrearing bedtime rituals in mind as you prepare for sleep. Remember how mom would often give you a bottle of warm milk between your evening bath and sleepy time? It helped put you to sleep! Warm milk or herbal tea will help make your eyelids heavy. But avoid caffeine, as that will keep you up at night.

Keep Your Bedroom Cool – If your room is too warm, you’ll have a hard time getting to sleep. Lower the thermostat for your bedroom to less than 70 degrees for an optimal sleep temperature. Nothing will wake you up faster than night sweats! Turn your pillows if they become too warm. If it’s safe and appropriate to do so, leave a window open for a cool breeze in the hotter seasons.

Learning how to sleep soundly will improve every part of your waking life. Develop solid bedtime rituals now for ongoing benefits.