Have Trouble Sleeping?

40% of Americans struggle with meeting the minimum advised hours of sleep. We have a number of techniques that might be able to them and you.

Calm down your mind:

If your mind is racing, it's probably still taking in a little of information and making you think - and when you're exhausted and ready to sleep the day away, you want to do the opposite. To calm down your mind, the first thing to do is remove stimulus. This means your phone, tablet, TV - anything that is electronic or connecting you to the world. Checking your Facebook, or even Email, before bed distracts you, makes you think more, and the harsh light tricks your brain into thinking that it's not time to sleep.

Next, if you're still thinking about the hundreds of items on your to-do list or what happened during the day, try to tell yourself to calm down because you can worry tomorrow. Also, try some breathing exercises. Close your eyes, take some deep breaths feeling your diaphragm expand and contract. By doing exercises like these, you shift your focus away from the thoughts buzzing around inside you and you also slow down some of your internal processes.

Finally, a few stretches can help relax the muscles and make you feel more at ease.

Change up your sleep schedule:

Your brain is a creature of habit and it loves patterns. While this can be beneficial - our brains are overwhelmed with the vast quantity of data it constantly receives so it sometimes "shortcuts" what is happening and fills in the gaps when it can't catch up - but when it comes to sleep, this can actually be your worst enemy.

If you've had a number of nights of interrupted sleep, your brain starts making an expectation from the patterns it is starting to see. The trick is to interrupt this flow. You can change your pre-sleep rituals, sleep on the opposite end of the bed, sleep in another place, anything that will make the brain say, "Wait, what?! This isn't normal."

Try some muscle relaxation techniques:

1. Find a comfortable place in your bed, preferably on your back.

2. Start with your toes - tense up and release your muscles for 10 seconds.

3. Move up to your calves and repeat.

4. Move up to your quads.

5. Continue up the rest of the body.

Relaxation techniques and image credited to Aetna.com