A man spends approximately one third of his life sleeping. And two thirds of wake depend on quality of sleep. In conditions of modern life good and long sleep is a rare gift. Healthy blissful sleep is a problem for many people. Those women, who work, manage a household and upbring children, and also read and watch TV shows, have no time to sleep their fill. Besides, we suffer from insomnia because of overstrain and excessive tension of nervous system, and that brief sleep we have, is not calm and does not contribute to recovery before a new day.

By the morning a result of sleepless night is present: tired look, supressed mood, pale skin, baggy skin below eyes. All this is fraught with premature fading, loss of beauty. That’s why you need to provide yourself with full-value night’s rest at any price. There’re simple rules, which will help you to gain a sound healthy sleep.

Time for rest

Remember, that best time for sound sleep – is until midnight. Try to go to bed no later, than at 10-11 pm. Experts in sleep disorders affirm, that two thirds of people usually sleep 1,5 hour less, than 5 years ago – this is an effect of haste: you need to do a lot of things for a day. But not getting enough sleep affects general state of health. Our organism knows neither working days, nor holidays, but it remembers excellently, that it should have a rest for 8 hours, of course, considering one’s individuality.

“I always sleep for 10 hours and awake happy”, - Nicole Kidman shares her secrets of good health. The first and most difficult step towards healthy sleep – is to learn observing schedule and go to bed it time. As a rule, there’re exceptions in this case too. You can go to bed at midnight, the main is not to break daily rhythm.

Days off are no exception, otherwise all attempts will be vain. Human brain cannot be trained – your body will stay in repose as much time, as it needs, and you cannot make yourself sleep wihtout a wish. So, if after tiresome working week on Friday we go to bed in usual time and sleep until Saturday midday time, then we won’t be able to fal asleep earlier the same day, and as a result we will sleep till late on Sunday. When on Sunday we go to bed lately, on Monday we will have to awake early, and we will be suffering from not getting enough sleep the whole day. To have a good sleep, you should not lie in bed longer in the morning, you just should go to bed earlier with a sense of pleasant tiredness. “Owls” feel difficulties with this, as night is a sacred time for them.

What you should not eat before you go to bed

Hunger and evening overeating can become a reason of sleep disorder: in the first case you will sense difficulties to fall asleep because of tummy-rumbling, in second – because of heavines in it. A glass of warm milk with a spoon of honey will affect your sleep positively. Don’t drink coffee, strong tea, alcohol before going to bed – they depress nervous system, and their influence expires only in several hours, and then it’s really difficult to fall asleep. You should refrain from sugar, which excites nervous system.

Bad habits disturb falling asleep extremely. If you stimulate yourself with cigarettes and endless cups of coffee for the whole day, by the evening your nervous system will be so much affected by them, that it won’t be able to proceed to a state of repose. In this case valerian drops won’t help you.

Take a shower before going to bed

Hydrotherapeutic procedures before going to bed are very useful: after a stressed day take a bath or a shower. Special cosmetics – shower gel, scented water, body milk will relieve stress and tiredness. Don’t take a hot bath before going to bed – it excites nervous system, so it will drive sleep away for a long.

Where and how you should sleep

Sleep in a ventilated room, with an open window. Optimal temperature for bedroom is 21C. It’s better to remove ticking clocks near your bed – the sound won’t allow you to fall asleep or will disturb you whole night. You should save your bedroom from noise and protect from light with dark curtains.

It’s better to refuse from soft feather bed, which does not support your body weight correctly, what will lead to a sag of your back and pressure on shoulders and legs. Optimal variant – is a mattress, lying on which pressure of your whole body is distributed evenly. It’s not good to sleep on a spring bed – blood circulation is broken. Bolster is good as a pillow, it will support a natural bend of your backbone.

Position in bed also affects sleep. Human body represents a geomagnetic field and should be oriented towards Earth magnetic axis – head to North or East, and during illness it’s good to lie towards South. Sleep in position on back with arms, extended sidewards. It’s not recommended to choose left “heart” side or lying on belly – breathing and heart activity are bothered, all internals and energetic channels are pinched.

However, experts calculated such ideal pose: lying on belly, stretching right arm forward, and turning head to left. In this case scientists guarantee momentary sleep. And in general, of course, choice of a comfortable pose is a “private matter” of a person falling asleep.

Night’s attire

Sleep in light cloth – night-dress, pajamas, under which your body will be absolutely free. Night’s attire should be made of natural materials. It’s useful to sleep naked – these are ideal conditions for a full-value rest for the whole body. Remember about necessity to sleep in warmth. For example, hot-tempered natures will like silk or flax, and cotton will warm those, who are always cold.

If you toss and turn for a long, cannot fall asleep, throw away blanket, open a window and allow yourself become frozen: when you cover and warm yourself after it, sleep will come quickly.

Counting up to 100?

An old advice of quick falling asleep – is mental arithmetic. This turns out to be an absolutely useless pastime. Scientists disproved an arithmetic method of sound sleep, it was found out that a counting man cannot relax, but concentrates on this pastime automatically. Psychologists advise not to resort to mathematics before going to bed, it’s better to remember something pleasant. Listening to a record of the wash or lulling slow melody will dispose you to sleep beneficially.

If you suffer from insomnia

Use soporifics only in extreme cases, as their frequent usage leads to adaptation and quick addiction. Medicinal plants are much more efficient. While casual sleep disorders you should take vegetable preparations or combined teas, containing lavender flowers, valerian root, hop cones, motherwort and balm.

Baths with addition of essential oils of chamomile, mint, orange are well-known for their soporific effect. You also can take calming baths with extracts of calendula flowers, bur-marigold, mint, marjoram. Take baths before going to bed during 10 minutes 3 times a week.

If you’re assured that you won’t be able to fall asleep quickly this night, drink a calming tea. Mix two parts of peppermint leaves, two – of bean trefoil leaves, one part of valerian root and one part of hop cones. Brew 2 table spoons of mixture with 2 glasses of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes, filter. Drink ? of glass in the morning, afternoon and before going to bed.

There’re alternative methods of struggle with this unhealthy phenomenon. For example, Japanese. Lying in bed, repeat motions of toes back-forward 50 times. More complicated method, which Japanese people use, is exercises with a stick. You need to place a thin stick against your back and roll it up-down 30 times with a palm slowly. Move your head right-left, back-forward, increasing irritation of points on nape.

Color therapeutists recommend those, who suffer from insomnia, reading under a blue lamp-shade before going to bed. As it’s known, blue color have an ability to calm down nervous system and relieve tension.

How to remove tracks of a terrible night

For tired and inflammed eyes, swollen eyelids after a sleepless night, it’s recommended to apply a compress of cold, strong and filtered tea, which is put on eyes for 10 minutes. You need to change cotton balls, sodden with tea, three times for this period, after the procedure make a compress of cold water, and apply a nourishing cream on eyelids.

You can prepare such compress also: pour over tea-bags with boiling water, put in a freezer for a while, and then on eyes for 10 minutes.

Compress of chamomile extract will help to cope with this problem: pour a table spoon of inflorescences with a glass of boiling water, leave for 15-20 minutes. Moisten a tissue in a filtered extract and put on eyelids. Do this procedure several times, puffiness will dissapear in 30-40 minutes.

It’s useful to wash tired eyes and ablush eyelids with a chamomile extract in the morning and evening: brew 1-2 tea spoons of dried chamomile with a glass of boiling water, leave for 10-15 minutes and filter. In this case it’s useful to make compresses of chamomile extract: moisten cotton wool or gauze in it and apply on closed eyes for 3-5 minutes.

If your eyelids are disposed to edemata, eyewashes of peppermint decoction are good for you: pour a table spoon of peppermint with a glass of hot water, boil on small fire for 5-10 minutes, cool down and filter through gauze. When temperature of this decoction reaches home one, soak cotton balls in it and apply on eyes for 10 minutes – while edemata. If you have inflammed eyes, put cotton balls in a warm liquid and apply on eyes for 2 minutes. Repeat the procedure 3-4 times one after another.

If you cannot sleep while snoring

How snoring of a sleeping person disturbs us! Of course, you can push him, bawl at him or whistle in his ear, but the effect would be brief – soon snoring will recommence. In this case it’s good to put a snoring one on an uncomfortable bolster, which does not squeezes neck vessels and this way helps to avoid loud night’s symphonies.

Advices

Avoid reading books or watching TV programs, causing excitement, tension, before going to bed. You can read something light, funny or watch and merry film before falling asleep. If you want to sleep, go to bed, don’t struggle with sleep, no matter how interesting a program or book is. While overcoming drowsiness, you dispel, “scares away” sleep, and it’s very difficult to fall asleep later.

If you have a good visual memory and ability to perceive images, try to use methods, causing tiredness of internal vision, to fall asleep more quickly. The simplest one – concentration of a look on usual calming plants, which flowers are colored in cold shades: dark-blue, blue, green. By the way, as for plants: it’s not recommended to arrange a greenhouse in your bedroom. Plants absorb oxygen in darkness and rob your organism. Restrict yourself with one-two small plants.

In a situation, when you cannot fall asleep for 20 minutes, regardless of all attempts, don’t toss and turn and torment yourself with various methods of falling asleep. It’s will be better to go up, leave a room to be ventilated and start doing some boring business – reading of a hopeless boring book, for example. Don’t come back to bed in the nearest 30 minutes – you have a chance to lull your bored organism to sleep only after this period.