I Tried These 7 Tips From a Sleep Expert to Help Me Sleep Through the Night

Published on 12/27/2021 at 10:15 AM

I struggle to stay asleep almost every night. If I'm really excited or nervous for something happening the next day, sleeping is nearly impossible. For most of my life I thought that jolting awake at 3 a.m. was a me issue, but it turns out that it's fairly common.

I was excited to have a consultation with certified adult and pediatric sleep consultant Kelly Murray. During our conversation, I detailed my sleeping difficulty that started when I was a child. As I described my childhood, including a few traumatic events, she explained that the body can store trauma, and a result can be trouble sleeping.

As we were going over my current pre-bedtime habits, I mentioned that watching YouTube videos and scrolling through TikTok were staples in my routine. She said that the constant blue-light exposure inhibits my brain's ability to recognize when it's time to sleep, so that is also a cause of my insomnia.

After the consultation, Murray curated a sleep plan with recommendations on how I can fall asleep and stay asleep. Ahead are seven of the tips that I've tried and how each of them has worked for me.

Eat a Snack Before Bed

A snack before bed?! You don't have to tell me twice. Murray said that having a small snack before bed can help regulate blood sugar, which will help me fall asleep sooner.

She suggested a snack of around 100 to 200 calories that consists of a protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates.

I'm not sure if this is what Murray had in mind, but, occasionally, I've been having chips and guacamole before bed and that has been doing the trick. The avocado is a healthy fat and the chips are a complex carb, so I think hitting two out of the three points has been working for me. Plus I have a reason to eat chips and guacamole before bed!

Take a Power-Down Hour

In the hour before you'd like to sleep, Murray suggests incorporating a relaxing, sleep-inducing, and cell-phone-free bedtime routine.

I usually do this a few hours before climbing into bed but I've moved my power-down hour closer to bedtime. It consists of a dance party, a warm shower, and a skin-care routine. This definitely gets me sleepy and allows me to fall asleep faster while avoiding a random jolt awake at 3 a.m.

Murray's other suggestions for this wind-down hour include stretching and reading a book.

Wear Blue-Light-Blocking Glasses

On my laptop and phone (I alternate looking at both before bed) I have an "evening" setting. So instead of buying a pair of sunset-tinted glasses, which Murray recommended, I amped up the orange hue on my devices instead of just turning down the brightness feature.

The orange tint is meant to block all blue light, thus not inhibiting melatonin production, so that our brains don't tell our bodies to stay awake all night.

I'm not sure what it was about the yellow-orange tint but for some reason I couldn't stand to look at it. Not in an eye-sensitivity way but in that I really didn't like the look of it.

So if you're not as picky about aesthetics as I am, then feel free to grab the glasses.

Incorporate Sleep Mantras

A mantra (a word stemming from Hinduism and Buddhism) is a word or phrase that is used to aid in concentration during meditation. There are mantras for a wide range of topics, including sleep.

Here are a few that Murray recommended that I've been repeating with my eyes closed while lying down as I try to fall asleep. They've actually been helping me fall asleep faster:

I am capable of rest.
My mind and body are ready for sleep.
I am becoming more relaxed with every breath.
I am calm and still.

Only Get Into Bed When You Start to Feel Sleepy

Ever lie in your bed the second you put on your PJs to then just lie there and aimlessly scroll through TikTok?

Murray said that if you're the type to feel fully awake hours before you want to sleep, avoid climbing into bed.

This one was pretty hard for me. A lot of times when I get home, I feel pretty tired, then after my bedtime routine I'm ready to climb into bed. Once I'm in bed, my mind stays on for hours, so it's like my body tricks me into climbing on my memory-foam mattress. But once I'm there, I'm wide awake.

I was able to make this one work for me by combining it with the power-down hour (slide two) so that I would do a bunch of pre-bed activities until it made me sleepy enough to do my final bedtime routine, get in bed, and go to sleep.

Refrain From Negative Self-Talk

Normally, if I jolt awake at 3 in the morning, I'll complain about how I always wake up in the middle of the night or how it'll be nearly impossible for me to fall back asleep. Murray told me in our consultation that the negative self-talk can form a negative relationship with sleep, further prolonging the amount of time spent awake in the middle of the night.

Taking a note from slide four (sleep mantras), I started being kinder to myself when I woke up, and it worked. Even last night when I woke up at 3:52 a.m., I was peeved. Then I told myself, "I am capable of rest." All I can remember is saying the phrase three times, then I woke up with my regularly scheduled morning alarm a few hours later.

Turn Off Your Phone!

This is probably the most obvious of the methods but also the hardest, especially as someone who's immersed in TikTok. Turning off electronic devices is a key way to limit attention-grabbing stimuli that can prevent the brain from knowing that it's time to sleep.

While I haven't tried fully turning it off, I have put it face down and far enough away so I can still hear my alarm but wouldn't want to go through the inconvenience of reaching for it. If you want to keep your phone close by, Murray suggested using an app that can automatically turn your phone off, then back on, at a time you set.