Trouble Sleeping? Here Are 5 Drug-Free Ways to Fall and Stay Asleep

Having trouble sleeping may be one of the most frustrating health struggles.

It’s no fun to spend a night tossing and turning, finally falling asleep to only wake up a few hours later, or barely getting a few solid hours of rest before that alarm goes off in the morning.

You wake up groggy, unfocused, and can’t be your best self for your life or relationships. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can enjoy a wonderful night of rest, every night.

In this post, you’ll learn 5 simple rituals I recommend for regular, healthy sleep so you can rest easy, catch those Zs at night and experience better, brighter days.

[Disclosure: I only recommend products I've used myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains affiliate links and if you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission.]

Trouble Sleeping Means Trouble for Your Health, Mood, and Relationships

Research has shown that getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night is the best thing for:

• Improving and maintaining memory
• Sustaining energy during the day
• Supporting a positive mood and happiness

If you’re having trouble sleeping you already know what a challenge it can be. And yet, so many people today are not getting enough sleep.

So if you’re struggling with:

• Falling asleep
• Staying asleep
• Falling back asleep after waking in the night
• Waking up not feeling rested

This post will help you find ways to address these troubles without taking sleep drugs.

While many people are taking sleeping drugs to fall asleep, they are not the healthiest option. These drugs come with unpleasant side effects, may cause dependency, and do not improve the condition of your sleep or your overall health.

So what will?

Here are five rituals that you can do to naturally improve your sleep.

Ritual 1:
Go to Bed at the Same Time Every Evening

The first thing I suggest whenever someone is having trouble sleeping is this: start going to bed at the same time every evening! Your brain is amazing, and it just wants a habit.

When you begin to go to bed at the same time every evening, your brain adjusts to that habit. It gets used to falling asleep at that time, and will then produce the right chemicals to help you fall asleep naturally. But you have to choose your bedtime and stay consistent for this to work.

It’s the most effective and foundational natural ritual to begin immediately.

You’ll also want to make sure that before bedtime arrives, you've done this too...

Ritual 2:
Use Up All Your Energy Throughout the Day

When you use all of your energy throughout the day, you tend to fall asleep better at night.

To begin using all of your energy, start in the morning. You want to get up and do some kind of aerobic exercise routine that will allow you to feel tired.

I suggest committing to this ritual for one month to start. The reason is that if you get up in the morning and exercise to exhaustion, it will help you fall asleep at night.

When you use your body in the morning, you will sleep better at night.

Supplement Spotlight:

To amplify this ritual, take NADH to oxygenate your system. This will help you sustain your energy levels throughout the day so you are active, productive, and using the energy you have without relying on caffeine sources that can disrupt sleep habits.

Exercising in the morning will also produce positive brain chemicals that help you manage stress, which is vital to produce the right chemicals so your body naturally falls asleep every night.

Because stress depletes your body of critical chemistry to the sleep process, I recommend introducing stress management solutions like mindfulness and supplementing your diet with key nutrients to balance hormones and brain chemistry.

While we’re talking about the brain chemicals required to help you fall asleep...

Ritual 3:
Help Your Body Produce Melatonin

In order to fall asleep, we need melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that gets produced naturally in the brain when there’s darkness. So when you’re having trouble sleeping, chances are you’re not producing enough melatonin to naturally fall asleep.

According to our evolutionary needs, normally the sun would set, then there's darkness, and then our bodies naturally fall asleep. One of the reasons we have so many sleeping problems today is that we're experiencing light in the evening.

Normally, when darkness comes, our brain converts the feel-good chemical serotonin into melatonin. Then, that melatonin causes you to fall asleep. So in order to fall asleep naturally, you need to have both serotonin and some time in the darkness to start converting your serotonin into melatonin.

The problem is that a lot of us are watching TV, or going to bed and scrolling our phones, and being in bright light before we try to sleep. And with TV and computer screens, we’re looking at a blue light that actually inhibits the production of melatonin and causes trouble sleeping.

So what you want to do is try to avoid bright lights in that last hour before bed.

You can avoid the TV and your phone, and start dimming the lights one hour before sleep.

You could still…

• Have a light on a book to read
• Listen to music
• Talk to people

But beyond that, you want to let the lights come down. This gives your brain a chance to start converting serotonin into melatonin, so when you close your eyes, you will fall asleep.

Now, when it comes to natural melatonin production, it could be that you’re either:

• Not producing enough serotonin throughout the day

• Or burning through too much serotonin via stress response throughout the day

to convert into enough melatonin.

If that’s the case, you’ll want to add supplements.

Supplement Spotlight:

#1. You can add a natural form of melatonin in the evenings. This can help your body get into this new bedtime routine in a natural, gentle way. I recommend a supplement called Tranquil Sleep chewable tablets or softgels that has 3 ingredients to help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and if you do get up in the night, fall back asleep, and wake up refreshed. You simply take it 30 minutes before bed.

#2. Magnesium is another great option that will help relax your mind and your muscles. You can absorb magnesium through your skin. One great option that can help you relax and get some magnesium is to take a hot bath with 10 to 12 lbs of Epsom salts.

But this will be an uphill battle if your body is too busy digesting food!

Ritual 4:
Make Your Dinner the Lightest Meal of the Day

If you make dinner the lightest meal of your day and you eat earlier in the evening, then you can prevent any trouble sleeping by giving your body a chance to digest thoroughly before you fall asleep.

Ideally, give your body at least three hours without food before you go to bed.

By doing that, you will also create a rhythm where your body will fall asleep. Because rather than using its energy to digest food, the body can start relaxing, producing melatonin, and helping you get some solid shut-eye.

While we’re talking about foods, you also want to make sure that your coffee habits aren’t derailing these other efforts.

Ritual 5:
Watch Your Caffeine Intake

So many people drink caffeine throughout the day, and that will certainly give you trouble sleeping and keep you from falling asleep.

If you’re drinking caffeine, here’s what I recommend:

Make sure you give yourself eight hours between your last caffeinated beverage and bedtime.

I have coffee in the morning and I enjoy it. But I make sure to do it in the morning so I have plenty of time before I fall asleep.

Caffeine only stays in your system for eight hours. So you don’t have to eliminate the caffeine you love, you simply need to stop your caffeine use eight hours or more before bedtime. This will help you make the most of your other rituals, and ensure you get some deep, uninterrupted sleep.

These five rituals will help you say goodbye to any trouble sleeping and you won't have to depend on drugs.

Grow in love,