6 super popular sleep aid guides to help you sleep till dawn

Guideline 1: Don’t cover yourself with a heavy quilt

In winter, people wear thicker quilts. Some people even cover themselves with two or three layers of thick quilts, which affects sleep and causes damage to the respiratory tract. Moreover, if you cover yourself with a heavy quilt, you will feel oppressed and unable to relax your whole body.

In winter, windows are rarely opened, the oxygen content is relatively low, and thick quilts pressing on the chest can cause slight hypoxia. Thick quilts contain a lot of dust. The dust from several layers of quilts will be inhaled into the respiratory tract, causing a certain impact on the respiratory mucosa. Especially for patients with tracheitis and emphysema, this bedding method can easily cause recurrence of the disease.

Thick quilts are not breathable either. They are very warm at night, which opens your pores. If you get up suddenly in the morning, you are easily attacked by cold wind. The best bedding in winter is down quilts, wool quilts, etc. If you feel it is not warm enough, you can add a blanket on top.

Guide 2: Soak your feet before bed

Soaking your feet in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes before going to bed can promote the dilation of blood vessels in the feet and accelerate blood flow. At the same time, it will reduce the blood flow to the brain, which can help people fall asleep quickly. If conditions permit, you can add some blood-activating Chinese medicine to the hot water for bathing. It will make people more comfortable, feel sleepy faster, and improve the quality of sleep.

As the saying goes, "All diseases start from the cold, and the cold starts from the feet." Therefore, soaking your feet before going to bed at night can dispel the cold and activate the joints, which is of great benefit to your health. Since the feet are rich in acupuncture points and reflex areas, foot soaking has a very positive significance for health care, especially for preventing hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, myocardial infarction and other diseases. Soaking your feet can soothe your mood. After a day of study and work, your body must be very tired. A basin of hot water can give you a full body enjoyment and help you fall asleep faster.

Guideline 3: Drink less water before going to bed

Don't drink too much soup or water for dinner. It is cold in winter, the skin does not sweat much, and the water circulation is relatively less. Compared with summer, we urinate more frequently. If you frequently get up to relieve yourself during sleep, it will interrupt your sleep, and some people may take a while to fall asleep again. Moreover, the temperature difference between inside and outside the quilt is quite large, so it is easy to catch a cold when going to the bathroom. It is recommended to drink less water after 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening, especially for people with relatively poor kidney function.

Guide 4: Drink millet porridge

Tryptophan is metabolized in the human body to produce 5-hydroxytryptamine, which can inhibit the excitability of the central nervous system and produce a certain sense of drowsiness. At the same time, 5-HT can be further converted into melatonin in the human body, which has been proven to have a definite sedative and sleep-inducing effect.

Millet is the richest in tryptophan among all grains. It is a good idea to add some millet to your dinner, which helps increase the amount of tryptophan entering the brain. In addition, the tryptophan content in vegetables such as pumpkin seeds, bean curd sheets, tofu skin, dried shrimp, seaweed, and black sesame is also very high. In addition, tryptophan will smoothly enter the brain through the dietary combination of carbohydrates and protein (that is, eating carbohydrates first and then protein), giving you a good sleep.

Guideline 5: Eat walnuts

Walnuts contain a lot of melatonin, which can help you fall asleep. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the body's sleep rhythm. The human brain secretes a small amount of this substance during the day and more at night. The increase in melatonin at night is an important guarantee for a good sleep. But as we age, many people's ability to produce melatonin at night weakens, which often wreaks havoc on normal sleep patterns.

It should be noted that walnuts contain a lot of fat. If you eat too much before going to bed, it will affect your sleep. It is best to just eat a handful of walnuts, or drink a bowl of paste made from walnut powder and black sesame powder.

Guideline 6: Reduce light

Sleeping is related to a hormone called melatonin. In winter, it gets dark at around 5 or 6 in the afternoon, the light decreases, and the body's melatonin secretion increases, making you feel sleepy. Compared to summer when the sun rises earlier, it is more difficult to fall asleep again after waking up because of the suppression of light. Jiang Fan said that the environment in the countryside after dark is very suitable for sleeping, and there are still many light sources in the city. A good sleeping environment should minimize the impact of light. In addition, other environmental factors such as winter temperature are also more suitable for sleeping.