This post first appeared on Piping Rock. All content is theirs.

Sleep. It seems in this digital age, more of us are stressed out and burning the midnight oil. Yet, this isn’t healthy and it sure isn’t that fun. Whether you have a long day finishing work or you simply have your mind on overdrive with tomorrow’s to-do list, you can at times find yourself turning to the sheep for a helping hand. As we all know, occasional restlessness is not a good time. For the most part, it is frustrating and the result is an XL Coffee with a shot of espresso the next day. If you’re looking to get some sleep tonight, here are some ways that can alleviate, though not fix, your bout of sleeplessness:

Exercise

One way that you can improve your chances at falling asleep is through exercise! This is a win-win since it is also a great way to keep in shape and healthy. Not to mention, those endorphins never hurt anyone either. But how exactly does exercise help you get some shut eye? Well, first off it reduces stress so your tunnel vision on your to-do list may seem a little bit more breathable. Additionally, in a study of 658 young adults, it was found that moderate exercise on a normal basis added 10 minutes of sleep to the participants night; whereas, light to null exercise participants lost an average of 3 minutes of sleep per night. What does this mean? Crank up the jams and go for a run or hit the gym for a moderate workout after your busy day to help yourself out.

Warm Milk with Honey

Flashback time…We’re bringing back that childhood drink your parents loved to give you before bedtime. Yep, warm milk and honey. While it may have seemed like a delightful treat, it does so much more for your body. The warm milk, in essence, plays a mind trick on your body making it feel warm and therefore more relaxed. The honey, on the other hand, has a much more palpable effect on you. It drives up insulin levels, which in turn drives tryptophan across your blood-brain barrier. Once in the brain, tryptophan is turned into serotonin which causes relaxation and when it’s night time, the body turns this serotonin in to the commonly known chemical: melatonin. Complicated? Sure. Helpful? Yes.

Avoid Caffeine Before Bedtime

This one is pretty obvious…Don’t drink caffeinated drinks before bedtime! Up to three hours before sleeping, you will cause a series of not-so-awesome effects in your body. Caffeine makes you in the “Go, go, go” mindset, driving up your heart rate. So, in the event you really have some crunch time work to do before hitting the hay, try a natural alternative for energy like Organic Ginger Tea. It’s natural spice will surely add a kick to your system and it being caffeine-free makes it a great option.

Unplug From The Technological World

Turn. Your. Phone. Off. Should we repeat that? Social media, news, you-name-it, contrary to your thoughts is not helpful. The blue light that emits from your cellular device, laptop, or what have you, tricks your brain into thinking it’s still daytime. While Apple and Microsoft have worked to combat this problem through their “night setting”, filtering out the blue light, it’s still the phone-to-human addiction that you should cut. Go old school and turn your phone off and store your laptop outside of your room. If you use either as an alarm clock, invest in something like an… actual alarm clock—apparently, they still work. This should help alleviate some restlessness or sense of urgency at night.

Melatonin

Last, but not least, you can always give melatonin pills a twirl. Produced in the pineal gland, aka that pea-sized space in your brain, melatonin is a hormone made naturally by the body. It is produced at night, and can be called a biological timekeeper since it helps our sleep cycles.** Taking a melatonin pill, just like the above, isn’t guaranteed to solve your occasional sleeplessness but it can support relaxation to ease you into the world of “zzz’s” more peacefully.** Our Melatonin 10 mg tablets are high quality and won’t break your bank. Those are our top 5 tricks to getting you to get to sleep faster tonight. We hope they were helpful!

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