3 Reasons Why You Can't Sleep Well

Many things influence our sleep, and mental health is a key point. Progress does not stand still, and there are special apps like «Impulse - Brain Trainin‪g» for those who want to train the brain and keep it healthy. What else can affect your night’s rest and how to get a good sleep? Read on to find out.

Worry And Anxiety Problem.

You had a long hectic day and finally made it to bed. But instead of so desired sleep your brain doesn’t shut off, and you lay not sleeping. Does it sound familiar? Do you often find yourself thinking about every possible trouble that happened during a day instead of falling asleep? Then the reason your brain won’t let you sleep is worrying, or, more precisely, the developed habit of thinking through the day when laying down. In other words, sleepy time becomes associated with worry time.

How to solve the problem?

Our brain is built to rewire itself. Also, it can pair and unpair any associations. All you have to do is retrain your brain to associate the bed with sleeping. How to achieve that purpose? The antidote to worrying when you are trying to fall asleep is to process emotions and worries when you are awake. Face your anxiety during a day and let your brain have time to process through the worry.
If a person keeps himself too busy or distracted during the day, his brain just hasn’t time to work through concerns. Slow down, spend some time away from your devices and let your brain deal with all background tasks like worries. Another solution is worrying deliberately. Whether you are worried about a big trip or unfinished work, make a plan and address your anxiety each day right on schedule.  This way, you send a message to your brain that you are going to take care of all the problems. Be sure that worries won’t pop up at night after such practice.

Bright Light Problem.

The light that enters humans’ eyes sends a message to the brain about how awake we need to be. Bright blue light environments can trigger our brain to be alert or to be active. Increasing light exposure in the evening hours leads to losing sleep. If you use the computer or watch TV close to bedtime, it can cause insomnia. The light from gadgets hampers the melatonin secretion, which is crucial for falling asleep.

How to solve the problem?

The good news is dark cool light environments have the power to turn on sleep signals and help us to fall asleep. Avoid electronics starting an hour before your bedtime and stay in dim light to help with the sleep onset process. A consistent routine like wearing a sleep mask also helps a brain start to turn on those sleep hormones like melatonin. That is how a paired association works: when an outside stimulus is linked to a reflexive response. A bedtime routine gets paired with the feeling of sleepiness.

Nutrition Problem.

Have you known that some products can keep us out of sleep as well as stress, worries, and bright light? Caffeine, alcohol, and hearty late suppers are on the list. Let’s start with caffeine which is in a class of drugs called psychoactive stimulants. It has some hidden features not everyone is aware of.  The duration of caffeine’s action is five hours (for an average middle-aged person). It means that coffee will stimulate your brain and body five hours after you had a cup of this bracing drink. Also, caffeine has a quarter-life of about 10-12 hours. In other words, if you get a coffee at 1 p.m., the quarter of it will still swill around in your brain at midnight. For that reason, coffee drinkers often have problems with falling asleep.
The second issue of caffeine is that it changes sleep quality. Even a little cup of coffee can decrease the amount of deep, non-rapid sleep. And we know that sort of deep sleep is the most important for a full night’s rest. As a consequence, people wake up in the morning and don’t feel refreshed and ready for the day’s activities.
What’s the problem with alcohol, how it affects our sleep? Many people think of alcohol as of sleep aid. Partly, it can be true because alcohol is in the class of sedatives. But sedation is not sleep. Drinking alcohol you are switching off “the firing of the brain cells” in the cortex. It has nothing to do with natural sleep. During deep non-REM sleep, our brain produces big powerful brainwaves made of hundreds of thousands of cells – firing and going silent. 
The next problem with alcohol is it fragments sleep. Alcohol can trigger, activate the nervous system during sleep and wake a person up frequently throughout the night. Also, alcohol increases alerting chemicals released by the brain, once again fragmenting your sleep. The final issue with alcohol and sleep is blocking the rapid eye movement or dream sleep. This way, it has a bad influence on creativity, emotional and mental health.

How to solve the problem?

Luckily, there are a few nutrition tips to reduce the risks of insomnia. A cup of chamomile tea helps both body and brain to switch off and fall asleep. So you can boldly drink chamomile tea instead of coffee before you go to bed. As for alcohol, there is only a piece of advice. Try to avoid it if you want to have a restful sleep. And finally, remember, that sleeping and eating are not compatible. Make sure your late dinner doesn’t consist of food that can irritate your digestive system. This applies to tomatoes, chilies, cheese, any hot and spicy products.