8 Tips to Fall Asleep Right Away at Night

I’ve written a popular post on how to wake up early in the morning. And I’ve received great feedback from those who’ve read it.

In this article, I am going to write on how to fall asleep right away when you go to bed.

When I got the idea for this post, my first thought was that those who will find me through the google search engine are going to be people who are lying in bed having a tough time sleeping. And they’re looking for a quick fix.

If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you probably already know that I don’t believe in quick fixes. I am not saying that everything in life is a marathon, but what I am saying is that you need at least 3 weeks or 21 days to begin to see some good results.

However, I am going to provide a few remedies that might help you get to sleep right now as well as some long term strategies to go by that can help you stabilize your sleeping pattern.

1. The Caffeine Curse

I am a believer in the power of caffeine.

I have caffeine first thing in the morning every morning. And I am not ready to give up my morning cup of joe just yet.

But I’ve learned that I shouldn’t have caffeine after 2:00 P.M. That’s just how my body works. Caffeine stays in your system for 6 – 8 hours from the moment you consume it and it can interfere with your sleep if you drink it late in the day.

If I drink just a tiny bit of coffee any time after 2 or 3 P.M, I automatically know that it’s going to be a rough night for me.

If you’re up right now because you still have caffeine in your system, then now you know you should not drink coffee past 2 or 3 P.M.

But there’s a remedy that could work for you: it’s called simple carbs.

2. Simple Carbs

If you slip every now and then have a late coffee and you desperately want to get to sleep, then you might need to have a filling snack of simple carbs. So something like white bread with cheese, tuna, or whatever you like. It needs to be a starchy meal.

Unfortunately, all the calories you eat will probably be stored as fat. Yup. That’s the bad news. But the worst news is that if you’re still up, and you need to be up early in the morning, then getting only a few hours of sleep will decrease your metabolic rate, slow down your fat burning processes, and make you feel drowsy all day. Staying up late will pretty much fry up your hormones.

So eating a starchy meal late at night might save you from feeling worse in general the next day. Eat a filling meal and then head back to bed. That’ll do the magic. It will release your sleeping hormone and you will be asleep in no time.

Don’t make this habit though. You will gain weight fast if you do.

Use it as a last resort if you can’t seem to let go and sleep.

3. Drink Water

If you had coffee late in the day, then make sure to drink a lot of water until it’s bed time. Water will help dilute your blood of caffeine and wash it out of your body faster.

And for that you need to use your will power to drink more water than usual. (You should be drinking a lot of water in general anyway.) But on this particular day, you have to drink more. And you have to go to the bathroom a little more. It will help you.

4. Exercise Early in the Day but Not Late

Another reason for why you’re in bed and unable to fall asleep is because of late exercise.

Exerting yourself late in the day and working out hard when you unusually don’t late in the evening or night will fill your body with active hormones including HGH that will keep you awake. I would stay away from working out late unless that’s what you routinely do. If that’s your first time working out late in a while, then expect your workout to interfere with your sleep.

But if you start slow and you don’t exert yourself too much in the gym, then working out late can work for you. But I prefer the mornings.

On the other hand, working out early in the morning will stabilize your hormones and make it much easier for you to go to bed at night. So work with the natural rhythm of the day. Work out early in the day, do your creative work early in the day, and enjoy the afternoons and evenings and ease off as it gets late in the day.

If you train yourself to follow this plan, going to bed early will become an easy doing.

5. Be Strict with Your Waking Time

If you want to sleep early and not struggle with it, you have to wake up at the same time every day.

Pick a certain time, say 7:00 A.M, and rain or shine you must get at up at that time. If you consistently do so, your body will learn that it must sleep earlier. You’re telling your body that your waking time is not open to negotiation and as such it will have no choice but to sleep early.

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting up at the same time. Find a way to do so for the next week, and your sleeping pattern will get back to where you want it to be.