6 Natural Ways To Get Better Sleep

As we’ve all experienced, failing to get a good night’s sleep can result in grogginess, sleepiness, irritability, and trouble focusing the next day, among other concerns. However, the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep can extend even beyond resolving these issues. A wealth of research suggests that regularly getting enough restful, quality sleep can help you get sick less often, reduce stress, improve mood, think more clearly, and even reduce your risk of health problems like high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, depression, and obesity. If you’re looking to sleep better without the use of medications, see below for some natural tips.

Common causes of poor sleep

Sleep is a crucial element of health and well-being. It’s a complex activity where a variety of important processes happen in stages. These include repairing tissue, releasing hormones, organizing information in the brain, and restoring energy, among many others. However, getting a good night’s sleep can sometimes seem as complex as the process of sleep itself. There are many factors that may make it difficult for a person to fall or stay asleep, such as:

• Stress and/or racing thoughts
• An inconsistent sleep schedule
• Environmental disruptions (bright lights, noise, hot temperatures)
• Hormonal changes
• Being too hungry or too full
• Depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions
• Having consumed caffeine or alcohol too close to bedtime
• Having taken a daytime nap that was too long
• Insomnia, sleep apnea, or other clinical sleep disorders

These are just some elements of life and health that can make getting a good sleep challenging. It may also be a combination of factors in some cases, or you may not know exactly why you’re not sleeping well. Regardless, there are strategies you can try in an effort to improve your sleep quality or duration.

Tips and tricks for sleeping better naturally

Figuring out which strategies might help decrease your sleep disruptions can take some time and experimentation, but feeling rested and reaping the potential health benefits of quality sleep can be worth it. The non-pharmacological tips below may be worth considering.

1. Avoid screens an hour or two before bed

Phones, tablets, and computer screens have become a daily part of life for many people, but using them too often or too close to bedtime could interfere with your sleep. One reason is that these devices emit blue light, which some studies suggest could affect the body’s natural production of melatonin, a sleep hormone. Although evidence in this area remains inconclusive, avoiding screens before bed could still be a good idea. Doing work, reading the news, scrolling on social media, playing video games, and engaging in other activities on these devices too close to your target sleep time could increase stress or otherwise make it difficult for your mind to wind down and prepare for sleep.

2. Curate the right environment 

The environment in which you rest can have a significant impact on how quickly you fall asleep or how often you wake up. Making sure you sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room can be useful. If you live in a noisy place, using ear plugs or a sound machine could help you avoid being awakened before you’re ready. Having a mattress and pillows that you find comfortable as well as a sleeping position that works for your body may contribute to high-quality rest, too.

3. Exercise during the day

Though the mechanisms aren’t fully understood, getting active during the day—though not too close to bedtime—seems to increase the amount of slow-wave sleep you’re able to experience. In addition to its many other potential health benefits, this is one reason it may be worth incorporating regular cardiovascular exercise into your routine. 

4. Avoid caffeine late in the day

Caffeine can help you feel more alert and awake, which is precisely why drinking it anywhere near bedtime can prevent your body from relaxing into sleep. In fact, some experts suggest that you may want to avoid coffee, tea, energy drinks, and other caffeinated beverages as much as eight hours before bed. If you don’t notice a difference, it could be worth cutting out caffeine altogether to see if that’s what may be affecting your sleep quality.

5.Dont rely on a nightcap to sleep

Those who drink alcohol might find themselves feeling drowsy after a glass of wine or a few beers with friends, which can lead some people to believe that alcohol can actually help improve sleep. While a drink or two may make you fall asleep faster than normal, it’s likely not worth it in the end. That’s because research indicates that alcohol may actually decrease the benefits of the sleep that you do get. As a 2021 study suggests, it’s associated with lower sleep quality, higher odds of snoring, and shorter sleep duration.

7. Eat nutritious foods

The foods you eat can have a significant impact on many different aspects of your health, and that includes sleep. If you’re having trouble getting good rest, adjusting your diet could be one of the most effective, natural remedies—just make sure to talk to your doctor or nutritionist before making significant changes to what you eat. For instance, research suggests that diets that are high in processed foods and sugar are associated with “worse sleep features.” Avoiding these when possible and adding foods to your diet that are rich in certain nutrients—such as melatonin, calcium, potassium, folate, antioxidants, and B vitamins—could contribute to better rest.

How therapy can help

Even if you’re practicing good sleep hygiene and taking care of your physical health, you could still experience sleep issues related to your mental health. Conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even the experience of chronic stress could make it more difficult for you to get quality sleep by setting your mind racing, resulting in nightmares, or causing other challenges. 

If you are experiencing trauma, support is available. Please see our Get Help Now page for more resources.

If you’re looking for support in managing your mental and emotional health in an effort to get better sleep, speaking with a therapist could be useful. They can help you address any symptoms of a mental health condition that you may be experiencing. They can also support you in discovering healthy coping mechanisms for stress and difficult emotions so that you can minimize their impact on your sleep and overall well-being. 

Not everyone feels comfortable meeting with a therapist face to face, and some people may also find it difficult to regularly travel to and from in-person appointments. In these situations, online therapy can represent a more convenient alternative. You can use a platform like BetterHelp to get matched with a licensed therapist with whom you can meet via phone, video call, and/or in-app messaging from the comfort of home. One sleep expert describes internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-i) as “the most effective non-pharmacological treatment for chronic insomnia,” so it may be worth exploring if you believe this format would suit you.