If you have found that you are tired during the day, maybe do not want to get up in the morning, or even wake up very early and unable to breath in a relaxed normal way you may be suffering from poor sleep habits and there are thing you may be able to do to improve your condition.  Quality sleep is very important for your mental and physical health.  I have seen a few cases where someone may not be able to sleep for 3 or more days which has lead to confusion, disorientation, and even death from suicide.  Your body goes through many cycles that are also related to your environment.  For example. when you sleep certain hormones are released during the time when the sun is down (MT₁ and MT₂) and other hormones are released when the sun is up.  These hormones help you sleep or stay alert and any type of problem or change may lead to a circadian rhythm sleep concern.

Understanding that humans have this daily cycle based on their environment which slightly changes each day will help you to realize the benefit of a consistent sleep schedule that is based upon daylight hours in your area.  Organs like your liver cells are said to respond to feeding and may be able to rest hours after you have eaten.  It has even been mentioned that, “disruption of the circadian rhythm may increase the risk of developing cancer.”

You may have heard the quote, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
~Benjamin Franklin

This seems to be the case and by eating an early light dinner before 5 and having a schedule and routine to go to bed by 8:00 PM you may be able to improve your liver function and allow your body to sleep during the night hours. 

Things that have helped others before bed:

~Reading before bed

~No sound or light in room

~Warm bath followed by body cooling

~Ice Sauna shortly before going to bed

~A cool room of 65 F or slightly below

~Light unrestricted clothing

~Air cleaners or humidification if necessary

~”White noise” if there are distracting sounds

~Consider  L-glutamine or other recovery agents if needed after trauma.

Thing that have helped when rising:

~Consistent time to wake at almost exactly the same moment each day

~Long strenuous exercise shortly after rising

~Rising when the sun comes up and by filling your area with light

~Playing or listening to music shortly after rising

~An active day which includes a variety of tasks with friends, loved ones, work, and leisure time

~Quality fresh nutrition first thing in the morning including essential vitamins and minerals.

Sometimes, after jet lag or other disruptions in your sleep cycle, you may need to force your body to wake up at the same time for a few days or more to get back on your schedule.  Even though this may be hard at first it will get you back into a necessary cycle that will improve your alertness and overall health after a few days.  Short naps seem to be fine but take them early in the afternoon and for no longer than 15 minutes or it may disrupt your ability to fall asleep in the evening.

Let us know if you need any help with your sleep habits or insomnia after trying these techniques and we may be able to suggest other ideas to improve your habits.  These are only opinions and we are not medial professionals however these ideas have helped to improve the sleep of many people in our community.