There are many different ways you can help your body with cold prevention such as getting enough sleep, avoiding contact with sick people, building up your immune system, and washing your hands or using anti-bacterial spray /gel. Getting enough rest can be one of the hardest of these methods to carry out. Here are five helpful tips to try in order to improve the quality and longevity of your sleep.
Tip #1: Limit caffeine intake
Even if you are used to drinking a lot of caffeine, drinking it too close to bedtime can drastically reduce your ability to fall asleep quickly. A good rule of thumb is to not drink caffeinated beverages later than 6:00 pm.
Tip #2: Drown Out Your Thoughts
Oftentimes our brains can be a major factor in our sleep issues. Thinking about tomorrow’s to-dos, our financial woes, or analyzing our children’s poor behavior can all keep us from being able to fall asleep. Listening to a soothing cd or watching a familiar movie can be helpful for some people. It helps them to tune out their thoughts and just veg out to the background noise. If these methods are too engaging for you, try turning on a fan or humidifier to distract your thoughts. As a final option, it may be helpful to simply keep a notebook by your bed and jot down any thoughts, concerns, or scheduling items before trying to get to sleep.
Tip #3: Exercise
Getting enough exercise throughout the day prepares your body to be more tired and relaxed and ready to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. However, it’s a good idea to avoid exercising too close to bedtime as it can get your heart and mind pumping and have the opposite affect.
Tip #4: Limit screen time
Having your mind actively engaged in a mentally stimulating activity right before bed can cause some difficulty in falling asleep. Adjust from computer or television time can be difficult. The best thing to do is pull yourself away from those types of activities as it gets closer to your bedtime. Use some of the suggestions in tip #5 for ideas on better activities to engage in.
Tip #5: Engage in relaxing activities
One of the best ways to get to sleep is to read something BORING. Reading definitely can calm you down, but if it is something too interesting (think Twilight or Harry Potter) it just causes more problems because you may end up staying up too late finishing the story. Some people don’t have that problem, but if you do, grab a few non-fiction books to keep on hand for this purpose. Other relaxing activities such as knitting, just sitting and chatting, playing a calm board game, taking a hot bath, etc. are all great ways to calm yourself down right before bed.
Hopefully some of these tips might be useful for you in getting some better sleep. I know I prefer to use natural cold remedies for prevention and cold treatments instead of always pumping over the counter drugs into my body.