Tips for getting to sleep

Get to Sleep Faster

Add one or all of these relaxing behaviors to your wind-down routine to help you fall asleep with ease.

• Keep a worry journal. Before heading to bed, “write down all your worries,” says sleep specialist Dana Supe, M.D. “Keep the journal in the kitchen or living room. Leave worries out of the bedroom—literally.”
• Set your alarm clock to tell you when to go to bed. “I suggest to my patients that they set their alarm for 45 minutes to one hour before they should be asleep,” says Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. This allows you to have a set bedtime routine.
• Turn off your phone. When it’s turned off, the backlight won’t bother you, and neither will your friends.
• Avoid late-night caffeine. If you’re going to drink caffeine, it’s best to taper off during the course of the day. “Drink the highest caffeinated beverages in the early parts of the day and then move to less caffeinated or decaf beverages by about 1 p.m.,” Breus says.
• Only use your bed for sleep and sex. “You don’t want to get the brain used to using the bed for other things because then the brain will think that it’s acceptable to do other things during sleep time,” says Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer, D.O., of Cleveland Clinic. “And they will be setting themselves up for a long-standing insomnia problem.”
• Wear socks. The extra layer can help improve circulation throughout your legs, which can help you fall asleep faster.
• Take a warm bath. Your temperature naturally drops at night, so when you soak in a warm tub, your temperature rises. It’s the rapid cool-down afterward that relaxes you.