Sleep

A third of adults claim to suffer with a sleep problem to some degree and without enough of it our concentration can suffer, we can get headaches, joint pains and even dry skin and hair loss.
Studies have shown that getting the right amount of sleep even helps people lose weight as without enough sleep our bodies over produce hunger chemicals and underproduce satisfaction chemicals.
So knowing how to get a good nights sleep is vital.
But even without insomnia, the frustrating inability to switch off in bed, we can still find ourselves going to bed too late and getting up too early if we're not careful.

Long gone are the times when a TV announcer would tell you that it's time to switch of your TV and go to bed. We have a 24 hour life, filled with everything from Facebook to Tom and Jerry whenever we like.

Because of this we can easily develop some very bad habits of not relaxing prior to going to bed, stopping up till midnight and because we've spent all evening watching the TV and ignoring our partner suddenly we both want to talk whilst the bed warms up.

So you don't fall asleep until 1am and the alarm wakes you up at 6:30 and you wonder why you're not refreshed and alert following a great nights sleep.

Now, some people only need around 6 hours sleep per night, but some people need 8. On the whole though most people need around 7 and a half hours of sleep per night.

How much do you need?
The easiest way of working out whether you're getting enough sleep is to monitor how you wake up. If the alarm is constantly having to wake you up then you aren't getting enough. If you wake up a few minutes before the alarm then there's a fair chance you're getting exactly what you need.
We shouldn't need the alarm to wake us, it's there to tell us what time to get up and we should already be awake at that time.

But knowing all of this is, in some cases, pointless as the reason some people don't get enough sleep is because of insomnia. Lying awake for hours on end, yet deathly tired and to learn better sleep habits can be quite an effort without some of the skills required to make it happen.

Hypnotherapy is wonderful at helping you to learn new habits and override the old ones, you can learn new relaxation techniques and better thought control and in no time at all can be waving goodbye to insomnia and instead be waking up refreshed and alert.

If you haven't already read the above info about diaphragmatic breathing to help slow your heart rate down and the thought stopping technique, then read it now as those 2 techniques are crucial for learning how to overcome insomnia.

Next you might find you need to change certain behaviours.
Do you have too much alcohol before you go to bed?
Not good, you might think that it helps you to relax but just a little bit too much and you're waking up after 90 minutes and struggling to get back off again. The same goes for coffee, chocolate or fizzy drinks.

Apart from one other thing, ahum, the bed is for sleep and nothing else.
Ensure that your bedroom hasn't been turned into an entertainment room. Watching an hour of TV in bed is bad enough but even reading in bed can contribute to sleep problems as doing anything else in bed confuses your brain.

Get some better routines. Go to bed at the same time every night and do the same things before you go. You'll build up an unconscious expectation of relaxing that way.