Do you have trouble falling asleep every night and cannot seem to wake up? Are you experiencing persistent morning grogginess?

Here are some tips you can take to make your bedroom a more sleep-friendly place.

Have you tried…

1.    Hiding your clock

2.    Wearing socks

3.    A gentle 15-minute yoga routine

4.    Aromatherapy

If you find the atmosphere in your room damaging to your sleep, there are tools you can use to block out the noise, literally.

You could invest in blackout curtains, white noises machines (or listening to music with an auto-stop timer), and ear plugs, all of which you can purchase online. Of course, these are short-term solutions, which may not solve your issues in the long run.

For a long-term solution, try obtaining a better sleep routine and have a strong ‘Sleep Hygiene’.

What exactly is Sleep Hygiene?

Sleep Hygiene, or Clean Sleep, is not something new. It refers to the habits and behaviors that help improve the quality of our sleep for us to feel better-rested.

So how do you sleep clean?

Everyone has different bodies, and different techniques work differently for all of us. Much like how our habits and behaviors affect the way we do things; our attempts will also produce different results. Here are some simple clean sleeping methods for you:

1.    Meditation

Mediation allows us to wind down from a long day – by stopping and being still. Our minds tend to get caught in the day’s events, and by meditating, we let go of the day and rest our mind and body together.

2.    Massage

Give yourself gentle rubs on your pressure points – the Wind Pool, Bubbling Spring, and Spirit Gate.

The Wind Pool is located at the two points behind your neck, where your muscles attach to your skull. Create a cup shape with your hands and use your thumb to apply deep pressure to your skull, moving in a circular or up-down motion for 4 to 5 seconds.

The Bubbling Spring in at the middle of your foot, at the depression, when you curl your toes inwards. Take a foot in your hand and curl your toes, feeling for the depression. Apply firm pressure while rotating or moving up and down.

The Spirit Gate is located beside the crease of your outer wrist, directly below your pinkie finger. Feel for a hollow area and gently apply pressure while rotating or moving up-down for a few minutes. Move slightly to the left of the area and apply light pressure for a few seconds and do the same to the right side of the pressure point.

3.    Put your phone away!

Using your smartphone before bedtime keeps your mind constantly engaged, whether through work or entertainment. Our phones emit blue light, the culprit of suppressing melatonin, a hormone that is responsible for our sleep cycle. It affects how our body runs on melatonin, which causes us to be drowsy, irritable, and low on energy in the day but active at night. All these goes against the idea of slipping into a peaceful slumber, so putting your phone further away encourages sleeping clean.