Source: iWellnaturals

5 Natural Remedies to Sleep Better at Night

Keeping on top of your mental and physical health can be hard and honestly, it can feel impossible with so many things going on - and that’s okay. We’re here to help you with how to sleep better at night with some easy remedies.

Roughly 62% of adults worldwide feel that they don’t sleep well when they go to bed. Even just losing a few hours of sleep per night can have the same impact on your motor and cognitive functions as missing out on a full two days.  

So you can see what sleep is really key to health. 

The average adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night and in these precious hours sleep will help everything from improving concentration, maintaining weight, strengthening your heart, allowing your body to rest and repair, improving overall mental health and the list goes on and on. 

To help you ease into your sleep every night, we’ve chosen five of our favourite sleep-inducing, natural remedies, straight from UNPLUG, as well as some habits you can take to bed. Get ready to get yawning…

Source: Rawnature

1.   Calming Essential Oils 

This is a go-to for anyone who struggles getting to sleep or even just needs a little calm-me-down during a stressful, anxious day.  

Essential oils can really be a lifesaver and are really convenient for their packable size, so they can be taken anywhere.

There are hundreds of oils you can choose from, but a good place to start is with the classic scents: lavender, chamomile, ylang ylang, bergamot and frankincense. All of these oils help clear the mind and the way for a sound night of sleep. 

At UNPLUG, you can find Florame’s Organic Fine Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Frankincense Essential Oil or if you can’t choose, just stick to an overall Relax Essential Oil, with a fruity citrus scent to clear the mind.

Florame is one of the pioneers in the aromatherapy industry for their pure oil distillation. They value raw ingredients which are all 100% certified organic.

  

With all these oils, you can choose to either massage them directly into the skin, place a few drops in a bath or even invest in a diffuser that will infuse your whole room in their delicious scents.  

Another option is to make a simple DIY Sweet Orange and Lavender Calming mist to spray on your pillow and around your room before you sleep; mix together 10 drops of Lavender Oil, 10 drops of    

Before you buy anything, always check the source and contents of your oils to make sure they’re as natural as can be. Look out for official certifications like Eco Cert, Agriculture Biologic and organic stamps. If in doubt, research it online. 

 

Source: Rad Alchemist

2. Light up a candle 

Getting your room all ready and zenned out for a cosy night’s sleep is imperative. It can really do wonders to wind you down physically and mentally to spend the hour before bed, getting your room in a cosy mood. Lighting up a few (non-toxic) candles should be the first on the list.  

Not only do candles smell amazing, but they’re lulling light will help ease you into relax mode and slow down your mind. 

Most scented candles are made of paraffin wax, a petroleum waste product that is chemically bleached, which creates highly toxic benzene and toluene, which are both known carcinogens, when burned. It is so important to know what you are buying when you purchase a candle and to stick to clean-burning, non-toxic candles such as one’s that are soy-based. 

As a vegetable wax, soy candles are renewable and biodegradable, meaning better for the environment and they also produce a lot less soot than normal scented candles. 

This means a lot less black smoke wafting from your candle wick and no black stains on your walls! With soy candles’ lower melting point, your candle will burn longer. 

Not to mention, soy candles use essential oils over the usual fragrance found in your scented candles, making for a cleaner, less invasive scent that your body is exposed to.  

Rad Alchemist, found at UNPLUG, offers a soy candle in five choices of scent, from Olive, Citrus, Damask Rose, Floral Peach and Sandalwood. 

Tip: remember to always cut off a small bit of your wick everytime you light it; this will help reduce soot production.

 

Source: iWellNaturals

3. Give your eyes a little pampering

Part of unwinding and drifting into your dream world is simply just letting your eyes rest and mind wander.

Research has shown that the use of a sleeping mask results in an increased amount of REM sleep and less time spent between falling asleep and entering REM mode, which can help you fall and stay asleep in disruptive environments. 

With these facts, you can only imagine the upsides of investing in a silk sleeping mask.  

The gentle pressure of soft silk on your eyes has an incredible calming effect that can help you fall into sleep more easily. IWELLNATURAL’s Pure Silk Masks, found at UNPLUG, come in three different patterns and are filled with real lavender for even more light pressure on your eyes, plus some lovely aromatherapy. It’s made from pure Dupioni Silk and can be fastened with an adjustable ribbon around the head.

 

Source: 1 People

4. Keep moving 

Physical activity has been shown to improve sleep, although researchers can’t pinpoint the exact reason why, it’s known that moderate aerobic exercise - such as brisk walking, dancing, cycling, hiking, yoga and swimming - boosts the amount of deep, nourishing sleep you get. 

The pros of incorporating a little bit of exercise into your daily life will reap so many benefits, you won’t believe it.

From your mental state to your physical appearance over time, it is so important to keep your body active. Check out UNPLUG’s sustainable activewear here as you embark on your fitness and healthy sleep journey. 

In relation to sleep, it’s important to not exercise too close to bedtime.

Make sure to time it right so that you have at least two hours in between when you finish exercising and when you plan to go to bed. 

It’s best to schedule your exercise in the morning before work or in the evening just before dinner.

 

Source: Bay Doucet

5. Get off your devices 

This can’t be stressed enough.

We live in such a technologically-saturated world, it can be hard to just set aside our phones and laptops and not have a finger on what’s going on at all times.

We need to disconnect and we need time to ourselves. Studies show that these devices can interfere with sleep by suppressing the production of melatonin, a natural hormone that’s released in the evening to help you feel tired and get ready for sleep.

Electronic back-lit devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers emit blue light, which has been shown to reduce or delay the natural production of melatonin in the evening and decrease feelings of sleepiness.  

We’ve all been guilty of the endless scrolling of social media into the night, before we realise it’s 2am… so let’s be conscious and scrape it out of our bed routine. 

It can be hard, but it really is necessary if you want to instill a healthy sleep behaviour into your life. If you want to be in bed by 11pm, schedule in app restrictions or simply set a reminder to turn off your phone at 10pm. 

I know, it’s ironic to be using your phone to schedule time off your phone - but it gets the job done. Instead of the scrolling, tuck into a little light reading before bed which will let your imagination trickle into your dreams.

 

Conclusion 

These mixtures of sleep-aiding products and mindful behaviours you can assimilate into your everyday life will help you fade into a restful night’s sleep and eventually maintain a healthy sleep schedule and outlook into your life. 

But most of all, remember you must always check on yourself; never let yourself reach the point of burn out, know your tells and prevent lack of sleep or high stress by being honest with how you feel and what your mood is everyday. Be kind to yourself.