Sleeping Poorly? Change Your Routine.

At bedtime, you’ll try anything to fall asleep. If nighttime routines aren’t helping you fall asleep, things you do during the day may be preventing you from sleeping.  Watching what you do during your waking hours will help you to get shut-eye at night, so here’s a few things that you can do while you are awake that will help you get restful sleep at night.

Exercise can help you sleep, but not if you do it right before bed. A workout can tire you out so you fall asleep faster and will give you deeper, more restful sleep. A workout will get adrenaline pumping, though, so try to exercise earlier in the day so your body has time to relax before bed.

Your daily diet could be keeping you awake. Going to bed hungry or stuffed may make it difficult to fall asleep due to discomfort, so make sure that you eat a small meal a few hours before bed. Try to limit liquids too close to bedtime, as the need to relieve yourself will wake you up. What you eat during the day can cause problems, too. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol can cause sleeping trouble. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can last for hours, so if you must use them, do it early in the day and try to avoid them from the late afternoon on. Alcohol is a depressant, so it can make you feel sleepy, but the Mayo Clinic says it can disrupt sleep during the night.  Alternately, some foods can help you sleep if you eat them in the evening. Turkey, which contains tryptophan, plus other well-known sleep-inducers like chamomile tea and warm milk can help relax you. Other sleep-helpers include bananas, potatoes, oatmeal, and whole wheat bread, according to LifeHacker.

Napping feels so good, but it can mess with your sleep at night. If you really need that afternoon nap, try to keep it under 30 minutes. Remember how groggy you felt after your last long nap? That can be avoided by keeping your afternoon rest short. Limiting it to the mid-afternoon and earlier is important, too; any later will make it hard to fall asleep at your usual time.

Stressing out will keep you awake at night. The things you worry about during the day are the same things you will worry about while lying in bed, so it will ruin your sleep. To lessen the effect of your daily stressors, try to get organized and solve them. Make to-do lists so that you won’t worry about forgetting anything, make a plan about when you will get them done, and delegate work to others. Take breaks, talk to friends, do something fun, and get your mind off the stressful situations. For everything you can’t accomplish during the day, keep a notepad beside your bed to write down things that are bothering you. Getting them out is therapeutic, and writing things you still need to do will remove worried about forgetting to do them.

Coupled with bedtime routines and tips, these daytime ideas should have you falling asleep as soon as you hit the hay.