7 Things You Can Do to Fall Asleep Faster

BY EMILY SHIFFER DECEMBER 14, 2017

“When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep, stuck in reverse…” Coldplay’s Chris Martin knows a thing or two about what it’s like to not be able to fall asleep at night.It’s frustrating when you realize the minutes—or hours—you spend tossing and turning at night are the same amount that’s going to be sliced off your sleep total for the night. And when you only have a limited amount of time under the covers to work with, you need all of it to be spent in dreamland if you want to be a fully functioning person the next morning.But some nights no matter how hard you try to force yourself to sleep, it just doesn’t work.”Inadequate sleep and poor quality sleep will affect every organ system,” says Men’s Health sleep advisor William Winter, M.D., author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It.

Case in point: Poor sleep messes with your brain’s waste-removal system—possibly raising your risk of Alzheimer’s—as well as impedes its other functions, leading to poorer cognitive performance, inability to read other people’s emotions, and even an increase in risk-taking behavior, Dr. Winter says.

And your brain isn’t the only organ at risk, either.

“Poor sleep makes us want to eat more and eat bad things, it affects digestion, cardiac functioning, hypertension risk, diabetes risk, immune system functioning,” says Dr. Winter (Here are 5 other crazy things that happen when you’re short on sleep).

You get it. Not getting quality sleep or enough of it wreaks havoc on your entire body. So we rounded up tips from sleep experts and scientific research to help you fall asleep faster and avoid another sleepless night.

“When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep, stuck in reverse…” Coldplay’s Chris Martin knows a thing or two about what it’s like to not be able to fall asleep at night.It’s frustrating when you realize the minutes—or hours—you spend tossing and turning at night are the same amount that’s going to be sliced off your sleep total for the night. And when you only have a limited amount of time under the covers to work with, you need all of it to be spent in dreamland if you want to be a fully functioning person the next morning.But some nights no matter how hard you try to force yourself to sleep, it just doesn’t work.”Inadequate sleep and poor quality sleep will affect every organ system,” says Men’s Health sleep advisor William Winter, M.D., author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It.

Case in point: Poor sleep messes with your brain’s waste-removal system—possibly raising your risk of Alzheimer’s—as well as impedes its other functions, leading to poorer cognitive performance, inability to read other people’s emotions, and even an increase in risk-taking behavior, Dr. Winter says.

And your brain isn’t the only organ at risk, either.

“Poor sleep makes us want to eat more and eat bad things, it affects digestion, cardiac functioning, hypertension risk, diabetes risk, immune system functioning,” says Dr. Winter (Here are 5 other crazy things that happen when you’re short on sleep).

You get it. Not getting quality sleep or enough of it wreaks havoc on your entire body. So we rounded up tips from sleep experts and scientific research to help you fall asleep faster and avoid another sleepless night.

A recent Japan sleep study on rodents found that active components in sugarcane reduced stress and lead to more restful sleep. The compound, called octacosanol, reduced their levels of a stress marker called corticosterone, which may have helped their shuteye.

Vanilla Muscle Ice Cream:

Octacosanol supplements have been shown to be safe in humans, the researchers say, and stress can be a major factor impeding sleep. So the researchers believe octacosanol can be used as an effective therapy for people suffering from stress-induced insomnia, they say.

It’s also found in other foods, including rice bran, wheat germ, and beeswax.

Your grandma knew what she was doing when she’d heat you up a glass of warm milk before bed.

“Milk contains the protein α-lactalbumin. This protein contains high amounts of the amino acid tryptophan, which produces melatonin, the hormone that induces sleep,” says Dr. Winter.

Studies show that diets rich in tryptophan (including egg whites and pumpkin seeds) help improve sleep. And an added bonus: “Milk’s calcium also benefits tryptophan’s absorption into the brain,” says Dr. Winter.

Your whole body will benefit from sounder shuteye

Central Jersey Dental Sleep Medicine