26 Home Remedies For Insomnia: A Guide To Great Sleep

Overview

Dealing with insomnia is truly awful – the tossing and turning, the restless nights, and worst of all, you still have to get up and go to work in the morning! Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do at home to allow you to finally get some rest.

Here are 26 home remedies for insomnia that you can use tonight.

1. Get Out Of Bed If You Can’t Sleep

The first thing to realize is that if you can’t sleep, one of the worst things you can do is to continue to stay in your bed. Essentially, by staying in bed while you are not sleeping (or falling asleep), you are signaling to your brain that the bed is an area where you should be awake.

This is the exact opposite of what you want to do – in reality, you want to train your brain to fall asleep as quickly as possible when you enter your bed. If you find yourself tossing and turning and can’t fall asleep after 30 minutes, get out of bed and go into another room.

Try stretching, reading a book, or any of the other things on the list, and then return to bed once you start to feel sleepy. You should find falling asleep much more easy this time around.

2. Eat A Little Bit

Believe it or not, if you are having trouble falling asleep, you could just be a little hungry and irritable. Eating certain foods, such as those that are high in carbs, can actually help your brain produce chemicals that tell it to sleep.

Try having a midnight snack and soon you could be drifting off to sleep peacefully.

3. Get Off Your Phone And Computers

When you are tossing and turning it can be tempting to reach for your phone or laptop to endlessly scroll through social media. However, this is actually one of the worst things you can do.

The light from these screens essentially tells your brain that it needs to stay awake, which in turn, keeps you tossing and turning and unable to sleep.

We recommend never bringing a phone or computer into your bed – it can be tempting to do so, but it is a good idea to avoid this if possible.

You want to train your brain to only associate your bed with sleep, and staring at a bright screen prevents this from happening.

4. Stretch

Stretching can help you relax by fighting off stress, and relaxing can help you fall asleep! Get out of bed and do some simple everyday stretches. Your body and mind will thank you, plus you will find it easier to fall asleep.

5. Meditate

Meditation can relax your body and mind, allowing you to fight off your inability to fall asleep and get the rest you need. Get out of bed, sit in a comfortable position, and simply focus on your breath.

Whenever you find your mind drifting off, simply refocus it on your breath.

Try and keep up this for as long as possible – when you start out, you may only be able to meditate for a few minutes at a time, but as you get better through practice you will be able to meditate for longer and longer.

6. Drink Tea (But Make Sure It Is The Right Kind)

There are a variety of teas that can help send you off to sleep peacefully. There are a variety of teas that can help you sleep soundly – valerian root tea, chamomile tea, lavender tea, passion flower, and more.

The important thing is to turn to teas that do not have caffeine or any other stimulating properties because these can make your insomnia even worse.

7. Lay Off Caffeine

It can be tempting to turn to that extra cup off coffee in the afternoon to help get you through the work day, but did you know that drinking too much coffee can lead to sleep issues?

Try drinking decaf coffee, or green tea (which is naturally low in caffeine content) in the afternoon to prevent having sleep issues later at night.

8. Think Less

In our stressful time, it can be easy to overthink things. After all, we all have a million things to do every day! However, this overthinking can lead to stress and racing thoughts, which can help prevent us from falling asleep.

When you go to bed every night, do your best to clear your head.

Simply clearing your head can work wonders – it can be difficult at first, but try focusing on nothing. Whenever thoughts inevitably pop up, return your thoughts to nothing. Many people use this technique to fall asleep quickly and easily.

9. Talk To A Professional

If you are feeling a little overwhelmed with the problems in your life, we highly recommend talking to a professional. There are a variety of services you can turn to, both online and offline.

We recommend looking up local and qualified counselors in your area. It may be that your insomnia problems are a result of other more significant issues in your life.

10. Lose Weight

Excessive weight can lead to a variety of health issues and it can also negatively affect your sleep quality. Talk to your doctor about healthy lifestyle changes you can make to lose weight and you may find that your insomnia issues are improved.

11. Exercise During The Day

Exercising during the day can drastically improve your ability to fall asleep at night. The physical exertion can help you both physically and mentally with a variety of health benefits, including allowing you to fall asleep more easily.

Talk to your doctor about how to implement an exercise routine that is right for your own needs, weight, and lifestyle.

12. Go To Bed At The Same Time

It may sound like a small thing, but going to bed at the same time every night (even on weekends!) can really help your body establish a healthy routine.

By establishing a routine, it will force your body to sleep at around the same time every night – you will start to feel tired at your normal bedtime hour and it will help you drift off to sleep instead of tossing and turning.

13. Make Your Bed

Sometimes all we need to fight off insomnia is a little bit of comfort! Making your bed before you go to bed will put everything in its proper order so you can be as comfortable as possible.

Sometimes we toss and turn because the sheets and comforters aren’t properly distributed, and this can make us unhappy. Make your bed before you go to sleep.

14. Make The Room Cold

Many people find it much easier to fall asleep in a slightly chilly environment. Turn up the AC, or turn a fan on in order to fall asleep more easily. Additionally, using a fan also creates white noise, which many people find soothing and can help block out snoring noises, noise pollution, etc.

15. Put In Ear Plugs

Do you have noisy neighbors keeping you up? Bad roommates? Or maybe even just a dog that sleeps at the foot of your bed but snores all night.

It can be easy to underestimate the power of a simple foam earplug, but it really can help block out unwanted sounds. Try putting in some earplugs and you may find it easier to fall asleep.

16. Wake Up At The Same Time Every Day

You may have suspected that we would say this after recommending you go to bed at the same time every night. All of the aforementioned points are true about waking up at the same time every day as well.

The routine can go along way to establishing a pattern that can help break your insomnia.

17. Take A Hot Shower Or Bath

Taking a hot shower (or bath) helps adjust your body temperature and relaxes you, which also makes you sleepy. It works by making your body hot and then cool after you bathe – this is what sends you to sleep.

Just make sure you give your body some time to cool down after the shower, otherwise you risk negating any positive effects.

18. Keep A Nightly Routine

Change into your pajamas, pull out a good book, sip some decaffeinated tea….sounds relaxing, doesn’t it? A healthy nightly routine can help train your body to go to bed at the same time every night.

Just make sure you turn off the electronics at least an hour before bed. We recommend turning to a book instead.

Conversely, it is not helpful to your sleep hygiene to do things differently every night. Try and stick one schedule throughout the week, and only allow yourself to stay up an hour or so later on the weekends.

19. Talk To Your Doctor About Supplements

There are a variety of supplements that you can take to help send you off to sleep. Talk to your doctor about what the best option is for you.

20. Try Melatonin

Melatonin is one of the most common sleep supplements in the world, but it is not something to be taken without careful consideration.

It is a complex hormone that has complex effects on your body. Just like with any other supplement, it is important to talk to your doctor about the benefits and possible risks.

21. Keep A Sleep Journal

Keeping a sleep diary can help recognize patterns to your insomnia that you may not even be consciously recognizing.

For example, you may find yourself stricken with insomnia every time you watch TV after 11 pm, but you are fine if you turn off the set before 10. A sleep diary can help you identify your blind spots.

Additionally, it can help you keep a solid routine, which can also help improve your sleep quality.

22. Wear A Sleep Mask

A sleep mask may look silly to someone who has never used one before, but believe it or not, they work wonders to block out light and stimuli.

Even if you do not think you are dealing with a lot of light stimuli, there is a chance that slight light changes are waking you up in the middle of the night. You can find a simple, low-cost option at your local CVS or health store.

23. Make Sure Your Room Is Dark

It may seem obvious, but in order to improve your sleeping environment, make sure that it is as dark as possible. We recommend investing in high-quality blinds if need be in order to truly make your sleeping space dark.

Oftentimes people try to sleep with the glow of a TV on, which is not conducive to good sleep.

24. Put On Some Relaxing Music

If you can’t sleep, you may be stressed about it and find it hard to relax. One thing we recommend doing is putting on some headphones and relaxing music.

Bonus points if the headphones are noise canceling, which will block out external sounds and allow you to peacefully fall asleep.

25. Get The Right Pillow

If you find yourself tossing and turning at night, it may be because your pillow is lumpy and uncomfortable.

We recommend investing in a new pillow, wedge pillow, or another specialty pillow. You may find it easier to fall asleep after you toss that old pillow and get a new one.

26. Drink Warm Milk

Perhaps the most classic advice of all – drink some warm milk! It is a classic for a reason. Milk contains chemicals that can help the brain trigger chemicals that signal sleep, thus making you sleepy and allowing you to drift off to sleep.

Conclusion

There you have it! 26 home remedies for insomnia. We hope this list has proven useful for you, and we wish you the best of luck with getting a good night’s sleep this evening.

While it may not be possible to try all of these things at once, do what seems attainable to you and it should prove useful.