7 Natural Remedies for Sleep Aid That Anyone Should Afford

by Vlasta Kuster

Natural remedies for sleep aid like improving eating habits, being physically active or EFT tapping don't cost almost anything, but they may help even in the long run. I'll describe them and a few others that help below. But first let's take a look on why sleep is so important:

Sleep is a lot more than just resting with your eyes closed. It’s our most important period of regeneration. While we sleep, the body has time to relax, repair, and refresh. The stimulated nervous system settles down, energy reserves are refilled, and we are ready to function effectively the next day.

There is no doubt that an adequate amount of sleep is essential for human health, both physical and mental. Unfortunately, modern lifestyles are less and less inclined to accommodate this and easily create the conditions for insomnia.

Frequent exposure to stress, too little sleep, the demands of working life, the lack of time for relaxation, poor nutrition habits, smoking, and the consumption of excessive amounts of caffeine are only some of the reasons we go to bed exhausted and tense and end up sleep deprived.

A night of poor sleep that does not provide us with adequate rest only intensifies exhaustion and quickly becomes a viscous circle.

Let’s have a look at several — actually seven — ways we can ensure that we fall asleep peacefully at night, sink down into deep sleep, and wake up in the morning feeling rested and ready for a new day.

Natural remedy for sleep aid no.1: create a sleep-friendly environment

Purely physical discomfort can cause insomnia. Sleep experts recommend meeting the following conditions in order to create an environment that promotes quality sleep:

• Appropriate temperature: People sleep better at colder temperatures. Guidelines suggest that anything over 24°C (75°F) hampers relaxation.


• High-quality, comfortable bed: The bed should be as wide as possible, 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches) longer than your height, and should be equipped with a high-quality, comfortable mattress. Studies show that it’s best to change the mattress every 10 years.
  Why ? Because the materials it’s made of generally wear out by then. Additionally they also absorb the perspiration we excrete every night and the pound or so of skin we shed every year.


• Peace and Quiet: The combination of noise and vibration you’re exposed to if you live near a busy street has a negative impact on sleep.
  
  On the other hand, scientists are finding that sound recordings of ocean waves promote calm and help us sleep better.
  
  
• Darkness: Hang curtains or put blinds on your windows to make your bedroom dark. This helps with the release of melatonin, a hormone that facilitates the onset of sleep, in the brain. In the morning — and especially in the summer — a dark bedroom prevents the sun from rousing us too early and fooling our biological clock.
  
  It allows us to harmonize our sleeping patterns with the demands of our everyday routine.

2. Watch your sleep habits

You need a sleep routine in order to prepare your mind for sleep.

• It’s helpful to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, including weekends. It’s important to get enough sleep (7-8 hours a day), as trying to compensate for lost sleep with afternoon naps usually only makes things worse.
  
  
• Frequent or excessively long naps interfere with your body’s natural biorhythm. If you have to nap during the day, make it for no more than a refreshing 20 minutes.
  
  
• One of the key principles of sleep involves training the mind to associate the bed with sleeping. For this reason, it’s best to avoid activities such as reading or watching TV in bed, as well as taking your work to bed with you.
  
  
• It is also advisable to stop doing any work that involves mental stress or active exercise several hours before bedtime so that you’ll be relaxed enough for sleep.

3. Get rid of poor eating habits

Another natural remedies for sleep aid no. 3 are good eating habits. What we eat has a significant impact on how we sleep.

Don’t eat too much at the end of the day and finish your last meal at least three hours before going to sleep.

It’s important to maintain proper nutrition for health, since digestive problems such as heartburn can otherwise infringe on your sleep.

Also, see to it that you’re getting enough vitamins from food.Research indicates that

• magnesium and 
• B-complex vitamins (especially niacin, pantothenic acid, and vitamins B6 and B12) have a profound effect on sleep, and deficiencies can lead to sleep disturbances.

Additionally, be mindful of the quality of the food you eat.

Organically processed foods are recommended, as is the avoidance of ready-to-eat, processed foods, since the latter contain harmful additives that can negatively impact sleep.

Insomnia can also be the result of dehydration, so it is extremely important that you drink enough water.

Replacing the fluid that the body naturally loses every 24 hours, you’ll need to drink between 1.7 and 2.3 liters of water a day.

4. Maintain physical well-being and schedule it

Natural remedy for sleep aid no.4 - physical exercise.

Physical exercise has numerous beneficial effects on the body, and especially on the brain.

It helps the body release the excess adrenaline that intensifies restlessness, increases the body’s production of endorphins (chemicals that reduce pain and create a feeling of natural well-being)...

...and promotes muscle relaxation and the release of frustration.

It brings with it a new sense of

• self-confidence,
  
• alleviates anxiety, and
  
• promotes an increasingly positive outlook.

There is no doubt that it also contributes to that pleasant tiredness in the evening that leads seamlessly into sleep.

Dr. Perlmutter in his Book Grain Brain recommends aerobic activities such as

• running,
  
• swimming,
  
• cycling,
  
• hiking or fast walking at least five times a week for a minimum of 20 minutes per session.

If you’ve been living the couch potato lifestyle for a while

• start with a daily 20-minute walk and work your way up by gradually adding minutes and increasing intensity. Once regular exercise becomes routine
  
  
• begin planning a variety of exercises in advance right on your calendar (for example, you could dedicate Monday, Wednesday and Friday to an hour on the stationary bike, go to yoga classes Tuesday and Thursday, go hiking with friends on Saturday, and set Sunday aside for rest and recovery).
  

On days where you don’t have time for exercise despite your planning, try building movement into your work day (e.g. by parking as far away from your workplace as possible and walking, using the stairs instead of the elevator, limiting the amount of time you spend sitting, etc.).

Two or three ten-minute periods of exercise are worth a single 20-minute session.

5. Herbal teas as natural remedies for sleep aid

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

You can also use herbs to improve your sleep, as they help fight mental and physical afflictions.

Anxiety, physical pain, colds, flu, and upset stomach are common causes of poor sleep.

In such cases, herbs can be an effective solution.

Some of the best-known and most effective of herbs in connection with sleep are: 

• Hops: from hops a brew can be produced that alleviates anxiety and stress, relaxes, improves digestion, and reduces the craving for alcohol.
  
  Use of this herb by people suffering from depression is not recommended.
  
  
• California poppy: used in solutions as a tranquilizer.
  
  
• Lavender: Promotes improved sleep among people with depression and helps with insomnia, especially among the elderly.
  
  
• Peppermint: Peppermint tea is used to relieve digestive problems, cramps and headaches, unclog breathing passages, and cure nervousness, insomnia and dizziness.
  
  
• Roman chamomile: The flowers are used to prepare an herbal tea that has a soporific effect and reduces anxiety and sleeplessness.
  
  
• Valerian: Herbalists recommend valerian for treating insomnia, nervousness, anxiety, headache and intestinal cramps. The roots are used in various solutions.

Consider the above suggestions, incorporate a cup of herbal tea into your evening routine, and sleep well!

6. Caress your senses with aromatherapy

Pleasant aromas are next in the row among natural remedies for sleep aid. Aromas and their positive effect on feeling and mood are the basis of aromatherapy.

This treatment method for enhancing physical and mental health makes use of aromatic vapors from natural sources such as tar and etheric oils. It works by stimulating the olfactory nerves and conveying their impulses to the brain.

Most commonly used as an oil in vaporizers, as a massage oil, or as a bath additive. If you want to relax before bed and cradle your body to sleep, use etheric oils from

• mandarin,
  
• lemon balm or
  
• lavender.

You can make your own solution at home with three drops of lemon balm, three drops of lavender, and three of mandarin.

7. Calm your mind with tapping

Learn and practice this natural remedy for better sleep each day.  Why is tapping so effective ?

The most common reason for sleeplessness is mental discomfort. Sleep expert Ruth Stern believes that if you want to put insomnia behind you, you have to address the basic anxiety that underlies the problem.

Once you’re able to release that anxious feeling and re-establish the body’s energy balance, you will simultaneously improve your sleep dramatically.

According to Stern, in addition to adequate sleep hygiene and meditation, the most helpful technique is that of EFT — Emotional Freedom Therapy, and she cites her own battle with insomnia — which lasted more than 19 years — as evidence.

After committing to tapping every night before bed for thirty consecutive days, her problems with sleep disappeared completely after a total of only six weeks.

The EFT technique is based on the recognition that all negative emotions are caused by a disturbance in the body’s energy system.

The basic process consists of gently tapping certain meridian points while simultaneously reciting certain words that we use to bring ourselves into harmony with the disturbance.

This stimulates the flow of energy and restores systemic balance.

Daily use of this not very known natural remedy should also lead to improvements in sleep...

...as it releases short - or long-term concerns

If employed every evening before bed or upon waking during the night, it will at least provide you with enough pleasant relaxation to take the next steps.

Preparatory statement and tapping the karate point (repeat three times):

• Although can’t sleep, I love and accept myself.
  
• Although I’m afraid I once again won’t be able to sleep, I love and accept myself.

Tapping along the remaining meridian points:

• I won’t sleep at night. 
  
• Sleep eludes me. 
  
• I never sleep through the night. 
  
• I don’t deserve to sleep.

When you’re relaxed, you can add affirmative words:

• I am pleasantly relaxed.
  
• I accept the fact that I need rest.
  
• My body is heavy.

Keep in mind that the sentences above are merely suggestions.

You should always use the words that best describe your current feeling state.

8. Visit an EFT therapist

If none of the 7 natural remedies for sleep aid described above works for you, then I recommend making an appointment with an EFT therapist.

There is apparently too much stress in your mind and body, and you need help to permanently cleanse your mind of all the things that are making you restless and preventing you from getting enough rest and relaxation.

Every unpleasant memory, whether in your personal or professional life, has left a trace in the mind and been recorded in the body as well.

Even if you believe you’ve worked through these stressful situations at a conscious level, at the level of the subconscious they are likely still alive and well.

So when night falls and you relax and let go of the day’s activities, the unconscious is activated. The dramas you experienced during the day — or those from many years ago that continue to exert an unconscious influence — are given free reign to run through your head at night.

Emotional Freedom Therapy can help you erase those hidden dramas in the unconscious and neutralize their impact.

After three months of EFT, you’ll sleep peacefully through the night and wake up in the morning feeling rested and refreshed.

Vlasta Kuster, holds an MA degree in Basic Medical Sciences and uses her 3-month EFT therapy in her work to help people to do away with panic attacks and anxiety for good. She has more than 10-year experiences in EFT therapy and achieves at least 90% success in permanently eliminating anxiety and panic attacks. You may contact her through her website freeofpanic.com