Helpful Insomnia Tips

When you simply can't sleep, when you lie awake, tossing and turning, just longing for the morning to arrive, you are in desperate need of some insomnia tips!

Insomnia strikes us all at some time or another. Usually it is not serious and within a day or so we are back to sleeping normally, getting our nightly eight hours of peaceful slumber.

However, for some it's simply not so easy. Some people suffer from insomnia, sometimes chronic insomnia that they have had for years. For these people, here are seven helpful insomnia tips to help in the struggle of trying to get a good night's sleep.

1. Whatever your troubles, whatever it is that is getting you all stressed up and causing your insomnia, make a firm decision that by early evening you will NOT worry about a single thing. Tell yourself that the day time is for worrying, and the evening and night is for relaxing. Stick rigidly to this rule if at all possible. This will at least give you space to combat your insomnia.

2. Take a warm bath about an hour before bedtime. A shower is not the same thing as we're not simply talking about getting clean here. A warm bath has relaxing properties that a shower will never have, so take a long warm bath of at least 30 minutes and simply let all your troubles flow away.

3. Listen to soothing music. You can do this while lying in your warm bath if you like! Don't listen to heavy metal rock. Even if that is your favorite, heavy thumping music only gets your blood pressure rising, which in turn will cause insomnia. Listen to soothing music. If possible, listen to something with 60 beats per minute. This will help to lower your blood pressure and thoroughly relax you.

4. Drink a small quantity of herbal tea shortly before going to bed. Don't drink a lot as this will only make you need the bathroom later, waking you up and undoing all the good it has done. Camomile, fennel, anise or catnip works well to help induce sleepiness.

5. A small glass of warm milk before bedtime is one of the more common insomnia tips. It works too as milk contains calcium, and this will have the effect of helping to calm nerves that are on edge.

6. You don't have to go to a massage parlor, but if you can get your spouse to give you a gentle back massage, while listening to soothing music, just after you have had your warm bath, and just before you drink your herbal tea or milk, it will work wonders. Don't discuss anything, especially anything to do with money, house repairs, or any of the things that may cause stress. Just relax...

7. Make your bedtime routine a habit. This is probably the most helpful of these insomnia tips. While all the above will help if done once or twice, they will help a lot more if they become part of your normal routine. We are all creatures of habit and when some of our habits involve relaxing in various ways, we will quickly become fully relaxed very quickly. Try these insomnia tips and enjoy the good night's sleep that follows!