Trouble sleeping?
July 22nd, 2009When we get caught up in everyday activities and life in general it can be hard to fall asleep at night.
Do you ever find your mind racing as you try your hardest to just let it go and head to dream land?
One of the best things we’ve discovered is to take a nice hot bath or shower before going to bed. This isn’t just any bath or shower though.
Here is what you can do:
Find some nice scented candles one or two should do the trick. Light them and make sure they’re not too bright. The point is to have a dim room. Either take your shower with a nice aromatherapy body wash or put some scented bubbles in your tub.
Take your time and just be in the moment. Let your stress dissolve with the water.
When you get out coat yourself in baby oil or any other lotion to keep your skin feeling smooth. Get into your jammies. Make sure the lights on in the house are also dim and not bright. Now you’re read to pop into bed. Just writing this is making us sleepy! 
Tip: Getting good sleep helps your body heal, keep extra weight off, and guarantees a more positive outlook on life.
Do you have tips for what helps you fall asleep easily?
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I find that attending carefully to prayer times has the good side effect of normalizing my biological clock so I get tired at the right time. But oddly, if I attend to prayer times in order to normalize my clock, it won’t work. It only works if I’m not trying to normalize my clock, but rather am saying prayers for Other, Larger Reasons
So that I found this out quite by accident, only after the fact. I’d also say that getting proper exercise is very helpful. I know if I do 45 minutes or so of mild aerobic exercise – going out for a walk, for example – it’s a lot easier.
Another note, just in case someone is reading this who lives far north or far south and has to deal with very short, gray or white nights in the summer: I don’t try to sleep a long time at night. I find it’s better to take a siesta sometime in the early afternoon to make up the difference. This also has the effect of beating the heat. And all of this, of course, applies doubly if air conditioning is not used in your country…
As Salaamu ‘Alaykum,
Ma sha Allah, Sis about making salaat on time. I get headaches if I miss salaat by even a few minutes. You should see me at work
I have found that making istighfaar to be extremely helpful in falling asleep, or even doing tahleel (la ilaha illa llah), or salawat on the Prophet (SAW), what’s more important is we get blessings for saying these things. Also, before I got married and pregnant, I used to burn lavendar essential oils with just a drop of peppermint or wild chamomile. Very relaxing…
Now that I’m married, I just ask my husband to give me a massage. He he
This comes at the perfect time. Last night, I was exhausted but could not fall asleep for the life of me. And of course, I woke up this morning equally exhausted. If I don’t get sleep tonight, you don’t want to run across me tomorrow.
this work for me, when you can’t sleep because you are thinking of a lot of things specially plans for the next day, get up, right them down on a paper to do them laters.. actually i watched it once on Oprah.
Mimie, In the interests of presenting a true picture of myself, I want to clarify that the content of my prayers makes them those of a ‘generic Person of the Book’, and my actual beliefs identify me as a Christian rather than a Muslim. Interestingly, as I have studied the matter, it has turned out that all of the Peoples of the Book have a notion of prayer times somewhere in their tradition – depending which particular tradition we are speaking of, anywhere from three to eight per day.
Massages are also a great way to wind down thanks for the tip Mimie
I seem to have several different methods for good sleep. My biggest relaxer is lavender! I use a lavender hydrosol (alcohol-free and with steam-distilled water added to water soluble Lavandula Hybrida Grosso oils) mix in a little pump bottle (taken from a larger bottle). I spray it on my bed sheets before bed and I can relax and sleep well. Just a quick misting…nothing wet. It’s also good for misting on after a shower or even spraying on your night clothes directly. After a long day it is very relaxing. I also have a lavender sachet under my pillow! I’ve used other alcohol-free scented oils I’ve found on the internet also and some mixtures/perfumes really do wonders for me. Lavender seems to work best though!
I’ve drank a cup of warm Cammomile tea also. It’s a very comforting drink. You can get this in the natural dried form and it’s very cheap.
I used to listen to soothing ocean or rain forest sounds from a little machine on my night table. This did work if you like that sort of thing. You seem to drift off to sleep with it and not notice the stream of sounds (on low) after a few minutes.
I find that reading for me does help and that goes along with prayer too. Ending your night with something good on your mind is comforting.
Jodi, Interesting what you say about lavender. I use a lavender-scented agent in, of all places, my cats’ litter boxes – as a deodorant/disinfectant. So my apartment, not to mention my cats, always smells faintly of lavender
Maybe it helps?
PS I read somewhere that the regular back and forth eye motion of reading is supposed to be conducive to sleep.
Caraboska, do your cats sleep well?
haha…sorry, I had to laugh a bit. Those cats are getting the benefit of the lavender. You should try it too. Try it in a sachet if you like to see if it works for you sometime. I wonder if a lavender bush (plant) would work near a bed! Honestly, it has helped me seriously! By the way, Walmart has dried Camomile in packets (from Mexico)! You use a whole bag in perhaps a 4 cup coffee maker/filter and brew it with fresh cold water. It’s wonderful. 
Since you’ve brought up the lavender topic
Here is an old post from Hijabtrendz
http://hijabtrendz.com/2008/05/29/the-calming-effect-of-lavendar/
Jodi, All cats sleep well by definition
But maybe mine sleep especially well? And I get the benefit from sniffing them when I give them hugs – many times a day! But if I can find some lavender, hey, why not? It certainly can’t hurt. And for that matter, I could wear lavender perfume, right? Some of that mist you were mentioning?