I’ve always been able to fall asleep of a night-time fairly easily, but a few weeks ago I started waking up in the early hours of the morning. I’d toss and turn and doze off occasionally, but never go back into a proper sleep and would be jerked into a hazy reality when my alarm went off at 4:45am.
After a week or so of wandering around in a trance I decided I needed to take action…
I had a fairly good idea what was leading to my broken sleep – there are two people, one older and one younger, whom Adam and I both love dearly that are fighting cancer at the moment; I’ve had some unexpected challenges thrown up at me at work over the last few months; and there is still a lot of work to be done preparing for our wedding in November.
I decided to needed to set myself a good night-time routine, to allow my body and mind to wind down.
Here’s what I’ve been doing:
- Drinking a small glass of water before getting into bed
- Instead of scrolling through my phone, trying to catch the last social media updates of the day, I’ve been reading a few pages of a book I’ve been carting around with me since before we left England (and really need to finish!)
- And I’ve started using a meditation app – I know it’s still on my phone and you should try and avoid using your mobile before bed, but hear me out.
I stumbled across Relax Melodies, purely by chance. It had great reviews, so I thought I’d give the free version a go. Essentially it provides a series of sounds, which you can mix together to create a soundtrack of sorts. There’s electronic white noise, music, as well as sounds from nature.
Adam, with his background in sound engineering, quite enjoyed putting together a mix of elements to create a track that we both liked the sound of – it consists of white noise, urban rain, thunder, cavern, storm, rainstorm, rain on roof, wind in trees and fire crackles.
We’ve been using blue tooth to connect my phone to a little speaker in our bedroom and taking advantage of the app’s timer and running our ‘meditation music’ all night.
It’s been so dry in Wagga Wagga over summer, so it’s been lovely to fall asleep to the sound of rain (even if it is fake rain!) and the few times I’ve awoken through the night, I’ve quickly gone back into a deep sleep lulled into slumber by the background noise.
Adam and I are conscious of not getting too addicted to the app – we don’t want to get into a situation where we can only sleep with the help of an aid, but for now it’s helping ensure we’re both rested and ready for the day ahead.
Have you ever used an ‘aid’ to get to sleep at night? What did you do?
Sweet dreams… and have a wonderful weekend. x
Wattle and Ash 
This is very interesting! Ever since reading “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, I’ve changed some of my sleeping habits and now sleep much better at night. The best choice I made was to be really strict about turing off all digital devices 1 hour before going to bed and reading a book instead. While I like the idea of meditation music, but I think I would have to program it to switch off after about an hour. I like my bedroom to quiet.
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The app allows you to run the ‘music’ for as long (or short) as you want it. I can fall asleep in quite noisy environments but struggle to nod off with conventional music playing in the background, as I tend to find myself concentrating on the lyrics. Good quality sleep is so important- what else are you doing in your night time routine? It’s really fascinating to learn what works for others! X
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I have the same lyric issue and can’t listen to songs if I need to concentrate on something important or am trying to fall asleep. I also try to not eat a heavy meal in the evening unless I know I won’t be going to bed for a while. In winter a hot shower (or a hot water bottle for my feet) and in summer a cool shower works wonders. If all else fails, I place my hand on my stomach right under my ribs. For some reason this is very calming, and the warmth and the slight weight from my hand puts me asleep almost immediately.
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I’m with you on the warm/cool showers but I’ve never tried the hand tip- I’ll have to give it a go! Sweet dreams 🙂
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Melinda, I also found that I tended to concentrate on the lyrics. It was hopeless for trying to get to sleep! I had to switch to relaxing classical music – with no words. Then I got to know some of the pieces of music, so I would sing along in my head. Another idea which didn’t work for me.
I have just been putting up with poor sleep for the last 15-20 years. Not that I am a fan of them, but I began using sleeping tablets on occasions. They didn’t help, either.
My latest attempt is using an app called Pzizz. I’ve been using it for less than a week, so I don’t really know what it’s like yet. Except that it’s not cheap. Thankfully I have a discount coupon for it, but it will expire very soon, so a decision will have to be made quickly.
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Hi Andrew. I hope you find something that assists with sleeping- there is nothing worse than trying to function ‘normally’ when you’re super tired. I’m hopeful this is just a passing phase and I’ll return to my normal sleeping habits soon. Take care and here’s to a restful night.
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I found the sound machine to be helpful sometimes when the room is not perfectly quiet.
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I’m surprised how much I like the background noise. It’s really quite soothing. Have a wonderful weekend!
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