How to
Sleep Better

If you want to sleep better you are always told to buy an expensive bed and not eat late at night.

This advice is fine but it is not the only way to better sleep.

People have been sleeping on the ground since the beginning of time and eating right up to going to bed. The type of bed and when you eat do not matter that much.

A great bed is just however much you can afford and when you eat is up to you.

The easiest way to sleep better is to be more organized with your evenings and even what you do all day.

Sleep Better Not To's

Let's look at a list of what not to do first in order to sleep better:

1) You did not make the bed in the morning, so when you get to your bedroom you are faced with an unruly tangle of blankets, sheets, pillows and comforters that you have to straighten up. You are exhausted so making your bed perfectly is not happening so the bedding is not really straightened nicely so the blankets fall off in the middle of the night and you have to get up to put them back on over and over again.

2) You did not put on your lounging clothes or pajamas an hour or two before bed. You wrestle with your tight work clothes when you are exhausted and have to put them away properly instead of just crawling into bed with your pajamas already on or easily taking off your lounge wear.

3) You did not go to the bathroom a half hour or so before you go to bed. You have to take the time to do that now.

4) You did not brush your teeth in the evening after your snack or dinner. Now you have to do that.

5) You did not have your home picked up and straightened as you went about your evening. Now on your way to bed you feel like you have to work on those things before bed.

6) You did not remind your children to do their homework or ask them if you need to do something earlier in the evening. Now when you are ready to go to bed, they say they just remembered some homework that has to be done or some papers that you have to fill out and sign or something you have to get at the store.

7) You did not work with your children on all these things so they straggle into bed taking so long that you resent them.

Going to bed should be easy. When you are tired in the evening you should just be able to walk to your bed crawl in and shut off the lights. This process should take less than 30 seconds. I am not kidding. Taking any longer than that is far too long.You go to bed every day, it should not be difficult. There should be nothing hard about it.

Somehow when you have children, going to bed becomes difficult. Parents create these elaborate routines that take a superhuman effort to go through night after night year after year. This is so stupid.

What you need to do is create a very simple bedtime routine for your children that only takes a few moments. This will be the key to your sleep better routine. You make sleep a priority for you and your children. You make it fun and not something to avoid.

The better way is to prepare during the day to make going to bed as painless as possible.

Sleep Better Tips

Here are the steps:

1) Make your bed in the morning. I do not make it right when I get up but it is made before I go to work or fairly early in the morning on weekends and days off. There is nothing as demoralizing as facing a mountain of blankets and sheets on an unmade bed late at night when you are exhausted. I make my kids beds too. My kids are busier than I am with long school days and activities. I am hoping that someday they will see the value of a made bed, but for now it is easy for them to go to bed and it is easier for me to sleep better knowing that they are comfortable and can just go to bed without a lot of fuss.

2) I do more during the day. I want my days to be full and my nights to be relaxing. I hustle during the day, not at night.

3) I keep my bedroom picked up. I put away the clean clothes right when I finish the laundry. I never have clean clothes lying on my bed. I have clothes baskets for the dirty clothes so I never have dirty clothes on the floor. I keep my pocket stuff in a special place. Everything has a place in my bedroom. There is never anything out of place.

4) I put on my lounge wear in the evening. Usually I am wearing light sweatpants or shorts and a t-shirt and sweatshirt and cotton socks as soon as I get home from work. I cannot stand to wear jeans or even any sort of pants when I am in my house. I save all these clothes for when I go out. I just make it a point to dress comfortably around the house. I can easily put regular clothes back on if I need to go out. What I want is the feeling of relaxation in my home. I want to be able to go to bed at any time in the clothes I have on.

5) Have your kids do all these sleep better tips. Make it a game to see how fast they can get ready every night. Have them in their pajamas with their teeth brushed, a drink of water, the stories read and anything else before you need them to go to bed.

I always have to laugh whenever I see a movie that portrays a man relaxing in the evening. The guy will get home late at night and the only thing he will do to relax is loosen his tie a little and fix a drink.

That is not relaxing at all. Take off the tie, take off the jacket. Take off the shirt, take off the shoes, socks and pants. Put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt and either slippers or socks. Don't bother with the drink either. Drinking alone is not that relaxing. Drinking with friends is fun, drinking alone is just a bad habit. I suppose my way would be pretty boring for a movie. But what is boring in a movie makes for a good life for you.

5) I pick up and straighten my home as I am going about my evening. When I get up from my comfortable recliner from working on the computer or watching tv to go to the bathroom, I pick up on the way there and back. This only takes a few seconds.

6) I prepare by bedroom early in the evening. I turn on the light, open the window a crack to let in cool air, set my alarm and turn down the covers. Then when I am ready for bed all I do is get in. The bedroom is ready.

7) I do as much preparation for the next day early in the evening as I can. I do not want to do any of this right before bed or think about it at night. I set out things for the next day either done or as reminders for the morning.

Even if you have a big home with your bedroom upstairs you can relax as soon as you get home.

I live in an apartment now. So I can just easily go to my bedroom and change right when I get home.

Some of you probably live in a home where your bedroom is upstairs. You do not feel like going all the way to the bedroom right away when you get home.

The solution is to have your relaxation clothes right near the door where you come in. Change into those clothes right away and leave your good clothes there. Then you can immediately start to relax. You just get into the habit of moving those good clothes to your bedroom in the evening.

In order to sleep better you have to make sleeping a priority. It has to be one of the most important things in your life.

Sleep is vital to your health. You can easily do what I describe. You do not have to go out and buy an expensive bed you cannot afford at this time. You just change your mindset and daily routine enough to make sleeping better happen for you.
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