10 Helpful Tips for Insomnia - Getting to Sleep & Staying Asleep! with Lulu Peelle, Yoga Therapist

Do you have problems falling asleep? Or do you wake up in the night or the early hours of the morning and can't get back to sleep? You may be dealing with insomnia. Then this information may be relevant for you. Hi, I'm Lulu Peel. I'm a yoga therapist and an Ayurvedic counselor. I'm going to give you a few tips that may help you. Good sleep hygiene is really imperative in order to get over insomnia. First of all, if you are a person who exercises a lot, it may be really beneficial to exercise earlier in the day. So preferably between three and six hours before bedtime so that it's not stimulating you. It's important when you eat dinner, it needs to be at least three hours before bedtime and your dinner should be light and easily digestible. Shut off all your devices, computers, iPads, iPods, any other kind of device at least an hour before bedtime. The light from these is very stimulating and that could be one of the reasons you're staying up. Your sleep routine should be that you go to sleep at the same time every day or every night and you wake up at the same time every morning, preferably going to bed between 10 and 11 at night and waking up between six and seven in the morning. And then the last is no reading in bed. Bed is for sleeping and sex and that's it. If you do wake up during the night, a good way to stay out of your head is to focus on your breathing. We're going to address this in the practice that I give you. If you cannot fall asleep or you've woken up and cannot get back to sleep, rather than trying to fight it, just make relaxation your goal. Don't worry about sleeping, just relax. However, if you've been awake for more than 15 minutes, it's a good idea to get out of bed and maybe go and read a little bit, not on a device, a book or a magazine that's a little calming. The other thing you can do is make yourself some chamomile tea which helps to relax you. The last thing is a warm sesame oil massage on your feet before you go to bed or if you wake up during the night. You'll be using unrefined pure sesame oil, not wok oil, but pure sesame oil. And then you can just place them on your feet, warm it up before you start massaging and then just giving yourself a relaxing reflexology massage on the base of your feet and using the oil on your toes and in between your toes and rubbing all over your feet. This is really relaxing. Of course, doing the massage on both feet and then you can put your feet in socks and then you should have a good night's rest.