Showing posts with label natural sleep aids for children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural sleep aids for children. Show all posts

Monday, November 11, 2013

Ways To Get Your Baby To Sleep And Stay Asleep

The most important part of your sleep is your environment. If your environment is too messy or if it is too bright or too noisy, then it's time to make some changes.

Elements of creative visualization can be found in nearly every religion in the world in one form or another. Buddhists must visualize in order to practice their religion. Many Eastern religions believe in the power of creative visualizations. In the 19th century the concept came to the forefront of the New Thought movement. This movement was spearheaded by such thinkers as Wallace Wattles. Wattles wrote the classic The Science of Getting Rich and it is still studied today by many people. The movie "The Secret" was spawned from the concepts in this very book. In it, Wattles writes that one must have a "clear mental image" of the things that they want. When coupled with faith, gratitude, and the expectant attitude, the vision is literally created around them.

Progressive relaxation has been around for a long period of time how to sleep and generally addresses moving your attention throughout your body from head to toe while relaxing individual muscles as you go along. This is an exercise that anyone can do at any given moment in time.

Exercise! Exercising will expel all the toxins from your body, get the blood flowing, and lead to inducing sleep. If one has the habit of taking naps during the day, then that has to stop. This can take away from the night sleep in a big way.

Stage 2 Sleep - During Stage 2 of sleep, we experience patterns of brain waves called sleep spindles. These are sudden bursts of brain activity which scientists believe are attempts by the brain to shut certain portions of itself down. Technically however your mind is still very active during sleep helping you organize your thoughts and how to fall asleep processing events that occurred during the day. During Stage 1 and 2 of sleep, you can still be easily awoken.

I personally believe that it is the relaxing feeling you get from the warm milk in your stomach. You should also not have anything with caffeine before bed. Avoid sodas, alcohol, and even smoking. Aromatherapy is also a great way to fall asleep naturally.

There are drugs and medications that can knock you off instantly, however, there is no guarantee that these medicines will provide you with relaxed sleep. It may happen that taking these medicines does not make you feel refreshed when you wake up. Also, these medicines may have serious side effects. I will not be specifying the names of any medicines out here since these medicines and their dosages have to be strictly prescribed by your doctor.

At this point, you enter Stage 1 of sleep and exhibit slightly lower frequency brain waves known as Alpha brain waves and some Theta brain waves. Your body relaxes, respiration and heart rate drops slightly, and our mind tends to drift into an altered state of relaxation where it simply feels good to be there! Your head starts to nod off as you lose muscle control...

Prime Numbers- If you are a "numbers" person, you may appreciate a technique I learned from my good friend, D.B. Harper. Her technique involves a slow, patient counting of the prime numbers.. until you fall asleep. There really doesn't need to be a number limit on this.. and it may not work for everyone.. but some are soothed by the process of looking at the numbers and following this series. If prime numbers are not your thing, it can still be helpful to count as high as possible by twos.. or fives..etc. For math junkies it may be fun to count backwards by s or even how to fall asleep fast make up your own math journey". The point is to focus your brain on a series that is fairly easy for you to follow, but captures your focus, indefinitely.

Your immune system is also strengthened during this time. Your body will switch into its REM cycle when ready which might last 10 minutes during the first REM cycle during the night and by the time you get to your last cycle of sleep for the night your REM cycles will be much longer and your NREM will be shorter than when you first fell asleep.

Babies need a comfortable and quiet environment to sleep. A lullaby or a mobile above the cot may calm babies if they are anxious. In fact, some parents have found that placing baby next to a tumble drier soothes them into sleep! Some parents take their babies out for a car ride in order to solve the babies and sleeping problem. Their baby falls asleep in the car and is then carried gingerly to bed. There are some babies that are unable to fall asleep in their cot. Their parents have to wait for them to nod off wherever they happen to be and than carry them to bed.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

How To Get Better Sleep

I use to lay in bed staring at the clock for 2-3 hours before falling asleep. Not all the time, but most nights. Usually when I had to get up early for work the next day. But then I started noticing whenever I would have the day off I could go to bed around the same time as normal and fall asleep pretty quickly. I couldn't figure out for the longest time why this was happening. Then one day it clicked. The reason I would lay in bed all night is because I was trying too hard. I was so worried about having to get up early, that the thought thrived in my mind.

Creating a sleep habit is actually very simple. You just have to set aside a time of your day (obviously the part before you retire!) whereby you follow a pattern, an habitual one. The basic principle is similar to how we help our babies settle for sleep, how we create a 'night and day' when they're newborns.
There are drugs and medications that can knock you off instantly, however, there is no guarantee that these medicines will provide you with relaxed sleep. It may happen that taking these medicines does not make you feel refreshed when you wake up. Also, these medicines may have serious side effects. I will not be specifying the names of any medicines out here since these medicines and their dosages have to be strictly prescribed how to fall asleep by your doctor.
His pitch I am the best and keep getting better, now He indeed was/is the best between him and himself, and in a practice amount there was some serious profits he could have been making... but that was the thing he needed my money to show me that he could make a profit, because his proven system was theory because he doesn’t have enough money to put gas in his car so he couldn’t trade live... I still have laughing attacks.
The next step you need to do is consciously relax your mind. Stop planning, thinking and making mental notes over and over again. This can get in the way of your mind relaxing. Other than that, carry through certain relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditating, dimming the lights, soft music playing or even picturing a serene and calm setting like a flowing river or a meadow. These techniques will automatically coax the mind to give up the tension and bring how to fall asleep fast about sleep.
Many people have improved from poor health conditions simply by the concept of creative visualization. They have also used the same practice to go from broke to comfortable financially. So how do you specifically practice creative visualization?
There's a reason lullabies were invented, and if they are effective on babies, then it will no doubt work for you too. Don't be shy, sing in bed. I have tried this myself and found that it does wonders. Do try to limit your playlist to mellow stuff, however, as noisier numbers might keep even the neighbors wide awake.
If you don't fall asleep as soon as you hit the bed from the first two steps, there are further things to help induce sleep. The most entertaining of them is mind tricks. Counting sheep is the most famous, but its concept carries over into other ones. Boring activities such as counting cause your mind to get weary about the waking life and hope for a more fantastical state, like that of dreaming. Other boring activities include breathing deeply for when you feel stressed, and looking at an imaginary waterfall.
So how to sleep what are the sleepless to do? Allow me to share with you the solutions I have found. I have beaten my battle against insomnia. Perhaps with a little help, you can too.
The first step in creative visualization is to relax. The best way to do this is to get in a comfortable position. Lying flat on your back is a great position to be in if you can keep yourself from falling asleep. Then start to take deep breaths and relax each part of your body. Start at your toes and work your way up to the top of your head. Each time you breathe out, a different part of your body should be relaxing. When you're done with this step you should feel completely relaxed in every part of your body. Again, try not to fall asleep. This is easier said than done sometimes, but with a little practice, it can be done.
This is my most general, but arguably most significant tip. Though schedules, work, childcare, and the busier lives of siblings present obstacles, find ways to establish routines for your baby. Just as adults are creatures of habit, so too do babies get accustomed to doing things at certain times. You definitely want bedtime (or nap-time) to become such a routine. And while timing may be the most important consideration, do not ignore the importance of familiar settings, manners, and methods to fostering peaceful sleep.