Adequate rest is vital for relieving the stress accumulated in the body and mind. If you are unable to sleep on time, you will not be able to wake up early and your mind will eventually feel tired and exhausted. Also you will gradually deteriorate your health condition if you are unable to sleep for at least 7 to 8 hours at a stretch. Moreover, the quality of sleep also matters. So what is the factor that mainly affects the quality of our sleep?
Studies have suggested that negative thoughts are the main reason that not only distorts a person’s sleeping pattern but also affects the quality of sleep. Sleeping is the best solution to relieve the stress but if you indulge in thinking negatively before sleeping, then you will probably invite more and more stress.
Thinking about your embarrassing moments, about the work load faced today and the struggle you need to do tomorrow, etc can trigger negative feelings in your mind and if you think this way quite often, you are very much prone to suffer from insomnia and depression.
If you really want to save yourself from loss of sleep, then read the 8 easy ways to avoid negative vibes before sleeping:
1. Sleep Earlier Than Usual
Many studies have revealed that people who sleep late or who sleep inadequately are more prone to think negatively. So if you are not sleeping sound for 7 to 8 hours or sleeping late, then you need to hit the bed earlier than usual. By shifting your sleeping schedule by half an hour or so, you will tend to get adequate rest. Make sure that you try your best to stay consistent in your routine. Make your body habitual to sleeping at a particular time and make sure you sleep after 2 hours of having food and caffeine or the caffeine will postpone the activation of sleep hormones.
2. Positive Self-Talk
As you head to bed, you might be surrounded with negative self-talk such as focusing more on the demerits of a change, thinking worse side of a situation, blaming yourself or just debating with yourself for any random situation. Such talks can make you more and more negative and you will not be able to sleep properly. Rather you must indulge in positive self-talk. Shift your focus from thinking about the problems to finding solutions, pray to God expressing your gratitude for all that He has bestowed upon you and motivate yourself to work in an organized manner from the next morning.
3. Think About Happy Moments
Imagining or visualising things is the best way to relax your mind. Soothe your senses by imagining the picture of a bright future or think about the best moments of your life. Thinking about such things will make you happier and you will feel calm and pleasant. Your muscles will feel relaxed and you will feel positive, encouraged and you will also feel great about the experiences you had. Many therapists suggest some videos and apps, which guides you to imagine such scenes that keeps negative thoughts at bay.
4. Try Breathing Exercises
Scientifically proven breathing exercises can heal your stress issues to a great deal. It helps you relax by diverting your attention to your physical body and you are least bothering about your mind. It also regulates the rate of your heart beat and thereby makes you feel calmer and more neutral at mind. If you want to know the best way to learn breathing exercises properly, just go through any video of pranayama, a kind of yoga which controls our body, mind and soul through breath.
Recommended read: Why Should We Meditate Daily?
5. Listen To Soothing Music
Another effective way of busting your stress levels is listening to music. Listening to soothing music at night can drive your attention from excessive thinking. You are saved from negative thoughts that keep popping up in your mind. The music therapy is one of the most used tools by experts who deal with people having sleep disorders. Calming music such as songs with soft tunes and slow moving lyrics, instrumentals, classical music, rhymes, etc can easily make you doze off. You can also try and listen lullabies if you respond to it well.
6. Read Positive/ Motivational Books
You should develop the habit of reading books before sleeping. The books should however, be of positive genre. Avoid reading horror stories, fictions, crime diaries, etc as they will fill your mind with negative vibes and you will lose sleep by imagining the negative scenes. Rather you must read books that impart positive and motivational messages so that you are mind gets a dosage of positivity to plan for the next day and your mind will feel calmer too.
7. Keep Your Phone Away
Phone has become of the biggest source of inculcating negative feelings in a person. Taking your phone to bed can postpone your sleep hormones due to its blue light effect. You will also be affected by the radiations of the phone which can also cause cancer in long term. Also you suffer from phantom cell phone syndrome, in which you sense that your phone is ringing or vibrating when it actually doesn’t. Also, you will get addicted to checking your social networking site accounts and will involve in chatting for endless hours, which actually distorts your sleep pattern completely.
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8. Avoid Watching TV Before Sleeping
In television, the mostly viewed shows include debates, news, crime shows, daily soaps, etc which is completely negativity centric. People actually don’t watch positive shows on TV. We have become so used to watching crime and killing news along with political debates that our mind first perceives negative about anything. Watching such shows before sleeping induces your mindset to a negative note and you have no control on your mind from thinking negatively.
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