17 Proven Tips How To Sleep Better At Night Naturally

17 Proven and natural tips to help improve your sleep, get to sleep stress free and sleep better. Along with natural product recommendations to help promote healthier sleep. This is how to sleep better at night naturally.

I’m going to assume you are reading this article because you either had a terrible nights sleep last night, or you currently can’t sleep and are helplessly scrolling through online articles desperately trying to find a quick solution to help you sleep better at night naturally.. Well try not to stress about it. That’s tip one. I’m here to guide you with some natural remedies you can start right now.

We have all been there, I know I sure have. Laying in a pitch black room, eyes forced closed thinking “sleep, sleep, sleep!” to no avail. Thinking about how productive you could have been within the last 2 hours of your life that you’ve wasted spent laying in bed.

For me, the worst thing about not being able to sleep isn’t the fact that you’re not asleep. It’s the fact that in the morning when you have work to do you’re tired and all you want to do is sleep. Then when it comes to actually going to sleep you are wide awake. It’s like the two have been messed up, which just becomes highly frustrating, and that frustration makes you even more awake, in turn making you even more frustrated! Which is something I will refer to as the no-sleep cycle below.

The no-sleep cycle

Here’s how it works. You go to bed happy as can be but oh no, you can’t sleep for some reason. Maybe you had too much caffeine? Maybe you have a lot on your mind? These things happen, it's okay. Fast forward 2 hours and it's no longer okay. This is getting frustrating. You have things to do in the morning so you need to sleep for crying out loud! Fast forward another hour, now this is just super annoying, you can't sleep now because of how angry you are that you can't sleep. Forcing you not to be able to sleep.

The next night when you get into bed the first thing you think is “this better not be like last night” Just the thought that you may not be able to sleep starts to build pressure around sleeping, which causes you not to sleep, which causes you to get frustrated, which causes you not to sleep some more.

Now you’re at the point, at the beginning of the week you couldn't sleep for a very normal and understandable reason and now 1 week later you still can’t sleep and it has nothing to do with the first reason. Now you can't sleep because you can’t sleep. Such a paradox. 

How to sleep better cover photo- All rights reserved

Recommended products for natural sleep

Before I jump into the list of 15 natural techniques and tips to help you fall asleep fast and sleep better. I’ve done some digging on Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk to recommend some of the best products that will help you achieve better natural sleep in the future.

These are natural remedies, all to help you sleep better at night naturally. Here are those recommendations which when coupled with the below techniques will promote healthy natural sleep wellness.

1. Sleep masks

   UK recommendation - Alaska bear luxury sleep mask

   UK recommendation - Sleep headphone integrated mask

   USA recommendation - MZOO

1. Pillows

   UK recommendation - Soak and Sleep Goose down Pillow set

   UK recommendation - Luxury Pillow

   USA recommendation - Sleep and Beyond

   USA recommendation - Gel Memory Foam Pillow

2. Aromatherapy diffusers

   UK recommendation - Colour changing aroma diffuser

   USA recommendation - Aroma Diffuser

3. Pillow mist

   UK recommendation - Neom Organic

   USA recommendation - Soothing sleep mist

4. Sleep tea

   UK recommendation - Pukka

   USA recommendation - Slumber bags

5. White noise machines

   UK recommendation - Snooz

   UK recommendation - Magicteam

   USA recommendation - Dreamegg White Noise Machine

6. Ear plugs

   UK recommendation - Loop Quiet - Ear Plugs for Sleep

   USA recommendation - Wutan

Have a look through the above and see what stands out to you. Now that we have invested in our future sleep, its time to fix the here and now…

17 Natural sleep promoting tips and techniques

#1 Figure out the cause

The reason we can’t sleep isn’t because of a body malfunction. There’s a reason for our sleepless nights. As I mentioned above with the dreaded sleep cycle, the reason usually turns into the fact we can’t sleep. Which is a lot harder to help with.

So before it gets to that point, you want to identify the reason you can’t sleep. A lot of the time the reason we are struggling so much to sleep is because we don’t understand why we can’t sleep. Identifying that reason will relieve some stress, even if we don’t fix it, we still have a better chance of good sleep.

This might be something that you can’t help with, but just knowing the reason can go a long way to helping to drift off at night, and the majority of the time, the reason is something that we can fix, even if it means us getting out of bed to do so. Remember, losing 1 hour of sleep to do something that will help us sleep is better than us spending 5 hours laying in bed trying to sleep.

So think about your day, ask yourself why can't you sleep? A lot of the time it’s because we are stressed about something. Maybe we have work that we’re behind on, in which case you want to get up and write a list of how you can be productive and get that work done, relieving some of that stress. 

Maybe the reason you can’t sleep is because you had too much caffeine or haven’t burnt of any energy. This is hard to fix in the dead of night but just identifying that reason and understanding it will help relieve the stress of not knowing why you can’t sleep.

Sometimes the reason is really simple. You’re not sure if you locked the front door or your kitchen is a mess which is stressing you out. These are perfect reasons because we can get up and quickly rectify the situation by cleaning the kitchen or checking the front door.

#2 Put yourself in a good mood.

One thing that deprives us of sleep is being in a bad mood - being frustrated, angry or sad just plays on our mind, making us unable to sleep. Especially when you already can’t sleep. As soon as you feel yourself getting angry at the fact that you’re not sleeping, get up and do something that will put you in a good mood.

That might be watching a program you like, reading a chapter or two of that book you love, doing a bit of sketching, reading about a subject you love or checking out what new articles are on Smartblend…

#3 Burn of some energy

Sometimes the reason we can’t sleep is as simple as a build up of energy or caffeine. You had one to many coffees or spent the whole day lounging around and now you have too much energy to fall asleep.

The remedy for this is simple. Get up and spend 30-60 minutes burning of some energy. Do a quick HIIT workout, clean your house, do some online brain teasers or puzzles. Spend a good half an hour to an hour burning some energy and not focusing on sleep, then try to sleep again.

#4 Create the optimal sleeping space

Creating a space perfect for sleeping is going to go a long way to making you sleep better. You will fall asleep faster and won’t spend all night in a cycle of waking up, tossing and turning.

To do this comes down to personal preference, some people prefer a little bit of noise from something like a bedroom fan or white noise machine to help them drift off. Some people prefer complete silence. For me, I need a nicely plumped pillow, a cold room, complete darkness and just a little bit of noise. Enough to drown out any birds chirping early in the morning that would wake me up.

#5 Concentrate your thoughts

This one is super effective and super simple. Anyone can do this because you physically don’t need anything apart from your own thoughts. What happens when we can’t sleep is our mind starts racing, thinking about not sleeping, stressing over little things throughout the day or coming up with fake and usually embarrassing situations that would never happen.

We’ve all been there, trying to sleep then getting caught up thinking “the other day I almost got run over crossing the road without looking. What if I did get run over? What if I got run over and died? What if I got run over then became paralysed, and I was so angry that I was paralysed that I became a bottled up angry shell of my former self, friendless and familyless. Then a happy-go lucky individual managed to get a job as my personal carer even though they were incredibly under qualified and even though it was hard at first, we ended up falling in love and someone made a movie about it”

The trick is to concentrate your thoughts on something that is easy and sleep inducing. A good one and a go to of mine is to imagine I’m on a beach, swaying in a hammock. I then concentrate on the “noise” of the waves coming in and out. I think about the hammock swinging softly, I think about trees in the distance blowing. I can spend as long as it takes imagining this fake sleeping scenario and for the most time, it helps me quickly fall asleep.

#6 The Military method

The military method is a popular method of falling to sleep extremely quickly that is used by the US military and comes from the book “Relax and Win: Championship Performance.”

The United States Navy Pre-Flight School created this routine to help pilots fall asleep in 2 minutes or less no matter the situation, background noises or comfort level. It took pilots about 6 weeks of practice. After the 6 weeks it’s said that 96% of people can fall asleep in less than 2 minutes.

Don’t be frustrated if this doesn’t work right now. Remember this takes 6 weeks of practise to get it down perfectly.

Here's how you do it;

1. Get into a comfortable position and relax your entire face, including the muscles inside your mouth. It helps if you first tighten your face, then let it relax.

2. Drop your shoulders to release the tension and let your hands drop to the side of your body.

3. Exhale, relaxing your chest.

4. Relax your legs, thighs, then calves. At this point your whole body should be limp and fallen in whichever position it naturally would.

5. Clear your mind for 10 seconds by imagining a relaxing scene such as the beach hammock scenario I mentioned above. Here's a few other ideas for your relaxing scenario: Sleeping in a treehouse, being in your childhood bedroom or being in your made up billionaire mansion. Just think about whatever is relaxing to you.

6. If this doesn’t work or you’re not good at creating scenarios in your mind then instead try saying the words “don’t think” over and over for 10 seconds.

7. Within 10 seconds, you should fall asleep

#7 4-7-8 Breathing method

This is a breathing technique that combines both meditation and visualization. Basically, it’s counting breaths in a certain pattern. It works best when you practise it enough to be able to do it without thinking too much about it. However, being mindful of the repetitive counting is something that will help you fall asleep as well. In some ways, this repetitive counting will bore you to sleep before the breathing does.

Here's how to do it;

1. Let your lips part slightly and make a whooshing sound as you exhale through your mouth.

2. Then close your lips and inhale silently through your nose. Count to 4 in your head.

3. Then hold your breath for 7 seconds.

4. After, exhale (with a whoosh sound) for 8 seconds.

5. Avoid being too alert at the end of each cycle. Try to practice it mindlessly.

6. Complete this cycle for four full breaths. Let your body sleep if you feel relaxation coming on earlier than anticipated.

#8 Stretching and yoga

Sometimes the reason we can’t sleep is because our muscles are tight. Keeping us from peacefully drifting into a good nights sleep. To fix this you want to get up and do some light stretching. Yoga works best for this and will help relax your muscles which in turn will help you drift off to sleep. The yoga method also helps clear your mind and put you in a meditate state which helps relax both your body and mind.

Simply search YouTube for a quick 10 minutes sleep yoga, bedtime yoga or evening yoga video to follow along with. Below is a video from ‘Yoga With Adriene’ which is great for beginners or pros.

#9 Let your body determine when you sleep and not the clock 

This one is difficult because it's easy to say “go to sleep when you’re tired” But if you’re not tired at 5 in the morning and you have work at 8 then the clock becomes very important. But at times when you don’t have work to necessarily think about (such as in a global pandemic) It might be a good idea for you to go to bed when you're tired, not when it's a certain time.

If you usually would go to bed at 10 and wake up at 7. But you have no reason to wake up at 7 then why go to bed at 10? Go to bed whenever you want. There seems to be this stigma about waking up past 11 or going to bed late. As if waking up later makes you some how lazy or unproductive, but that’s just not true. Some of my most productive times are at 1AM when I'm not trying to go to sleep. When everything is peaceful. A Lot of the food and drink photos I have on this blog are actually taken at that time because it's when I have the best lighting (or lack off) for my moody looking photos. 

That being said, it is a tricky one because having a routine in the long run will help you sleep better, but for the here and now, if you have no reason to be up early tomorrow, don’t stress to much.

# 10 Paradoxical intention - Tell yourself not to sleep

When we try relentlessly to go to sleep, constantly telling ourselves “sleep, sleep, sleep” it creates a whole lot of pressure which in turn makes us unable to sleep. The paradoxical intention is something similar to reverse psychology. It can help ease that pressure and reduce performance anxiety about falling asleep. If you’re the kind of person who quickly gets frustrated not being able to sleep or the lack of sleep can make you feel anxious about trying then this is perfect for you. 

Research on this sleep method isn’t solid but seems so you don’t need anything for it, it's worth giving it a try.

For this, lay in bed, get comfortable, close your eyes as if you would every night, but instead of thinking to yourself “go to sleep, you need to sleep, sleep, please sleep” think to yourself “stay awake, you don’t need to go sleep, sleep is for the weak, stay up and think about staying awake” Contradicting yourself like this can actually help you fall to sleep quicker.

#11 Drink to good sleep

Now, this blog is about food and drinks. Mainly the latter. So I wasn’t going to give you tips on how to naturally sleep without mentioning how certain drinks and ingredients can help you sleep was I? Here are a couple of drinks that will promote good sleep.

Golden milk

Golden milk is a turmeric based beverage that helps promote good digestion and sleep. My full recipe can be found here.

Sleep tea

A good sleep tea will help promote good sleep. Here's my Amazon UK recommendation and here's my Amazon USA recommendation.

#12 Create a bedtime routine.

Having a bedtime routine tells the body that it's time to start getting ready for sleep. Have yourself a set routine that can be as simple as brushing your teeth, changing into your pyjamas (whilst on the subject of pyjamas, most people will change into their pyjamas way before they intend on going to sleep. I myself pretty much live in mine. But only wearing your pyjamas when you’re intending to sleep lets the body know its time to sleep)

This routine doesn’t have to be simple either, you can make it as complex as you like. You can go as far as having a certain flavoured tea which you only have before bed and only out of a certain cup, a cup which you will only use when going to sleep. These little things will soon pay of and become triggers for sleep.

#13 Bedtime journal

This works great to reveal some issues that may cause you to lack sleep. One of the first things we spoke about was identifying the reason you can’t sleep. Writing before you go to bed can identify and resolve that issue before you even try to sleep. 

For this method, have a notepad and pen next to your bed, before you go sleep just write something down. This can be anything, you could write out what you did today, what you plan to do tomorrow or just some thoughts and feelings you’re having. Getting all those things out and on to paper helps in a big way when it comes to resting peacefully at night.

#14 Stimulus control

Stimulus control is a term used to describe situations in which a behaviour is triggered by the presence or absence of some stimulus. Stimulus control can either promote or inhibit a behaviour. To use in an example, if you always eat whilst watching TV then whenever you watch TV you’re going to feel hungry out of habit. 

How this works with sleep is that if we constantly get into bed to think about our day then we won't sleep. When we get into bed we will automatically stay awake to think about our day. If we are use to not being able to sleep, then when we get into bed our bodies will automatically not sleep. Make sense?

We need to use the bed as a symbol to tell our bodies it's time to sleep. To do this, if you have been in bed for more than 40 minutes without sleeping then get out of bed. Go sit on the sofa or read a book for 20 minutes before getting into bed.

Eventually our bodies will know that bed = sleep and anytime we get into bed, even if we are not tired we will instinctively go to sleep due to the bed being a trigger for sleep.

- Beds should only be used for sleep and sex. Not watching T.V or resolving our daily issues.

#15 Aromatherapy 

Aromatherapy involves the use of essential oils. It’s commonly practiced by those who have trouble falling asleep, as it may help with relaxation. For this you will need an aromatherapy oil diffuser. Here's the one I recommend from Amazon UK and here's the one I recommend for Amazon USA.

Popular scents that will help promote sleep are lavender and peppermint.

You could also use lavender scented sleep sprays as an alternative.

#16 No phones in the bedroom

Phones are a stimulus, more then that, phones have lots of apps that are also a stimulus - Apps like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are designed to try keep you engaged with them as long as possible, so using them at night is going to keep us up for, well, as long as possible!

Now you could say “okay, i’m going to take my phone to bed but I wont use it” and that would be great don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a complete fix. Just having the phone next to us in bed keeps us up with situations like “I’ll just check the time” “I’ll just see if I’ve got any notifications” the little flashes when we do have something going on, all these little urges keep us awake.

One minute you’re half asleep, the next your phone is flashing so you check it because hey, who the hell is texting you at this time, right? turns out it was just an app notification and well you have your phone now, might as well check it… 3 hours later you’re still scrolling through TikTok. The best thing you can do is to leave your phone in a completely different room.

Not to mention that phones, tablets, TVs, and other gadgets with LED screens give off what's known as blue light—a type that studies suggest can inhibit the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and disrupt our circadian rhythms.

If you absolutely must take your phone to bed, its best check your settings for a night mode which will dim the stimulating lights or even check for downloading third party apps to supress the blue light.

#17 Don’t Eat At Night

Lastly it’s all about night time snacking. When we eat late at night, the muscles that digest and metabolize our food have to keep working when they should be resting. I’m a sucker for this one, I just love a late night sandwich or two even though I know its not good for me. The times I eat a lot at night are always the times I struggle sleeping.

You need at least 3 hours after eating to let your body digest.

Final Notes

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to help you naturally sleep better. Not all will work for you, not all will work right now. Its mainly about thinking ahead and kickstarting a routine where you sleep better, sure, that routine might not help you right away, but it will pay off eventually.

Sometimes the trouble with sleeping is that we are away from our own beds - at families houses or on holiday. If during those times you have a set routine, its going to help you massively.

As for the here and now, if you’re reading this because you can’t sleep and you’re looking for a quick fix. Try out a few methods and try not to stress or have high expectations of them working immediately. Finally, I told you not to look at screens, so why you still reading? You better not be reading this on a phone whilst in bed, if so, get rid!

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Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend. Thank you for stopping by, if you’ve enjoyed this article and found it helpful, check out more using the top navigation or below for some similar health and wellness articles you would enjoy!