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With such a stressful life that we lead, it is not surprising at all the majority of us don’t get the quality of sleep that we should or deserve. Finding ways to shut off your brain is important because only then will you actually be able to get a good quality of sleep.
Shutting off your brain at night before bedtime is quite important to ensure that you get the sleep that is enough to cope up with the stress throughout the day. It is hard to often get the sleep that helps rejuvenate our mind which is why disabling the onslaught of thoughts is often helpful.
By the end of this article, you will have a fair share of idea regarding the ways to turning off your brain before bedtime.
How to Shut Off Your Brain?
Given the fact that majority of us often struggle with the so much issues on a daily basis, it does become a lot harder for us to get the much-needed bout of sleep for proper rest through the day.
All that being said, it is not at all surprising that it is important to clear your mind before sleep to bring about peace to your mind.
Let us look at some of the ways to shut off your brain, shall we?
1. Realize The Importance Of Sleep
With so much anxiousness and stress crawling around in our mind, it is not surprising that sleep is often the very last thing on our minds. This is where we go wrong.
It is important that you understand for a fact that sleep is important for both your physical as well as mental well being. When we are stressed and have deadlines to meet, we often tend to forget about sleep as well.
Sleep deprivation is a real issue and the faster you realize this, the better. If you have been struggling to get proper sleep, it is important you realize how important sleep is. Then, the rest will gradually fall into place.
2. Use the Bed Only for Sleep
We often have the tendency to bring forth our entire life on the bed. That is not something favourable if you wish to clear your mind before sleep.
The best way to get a good quality of sleep is by ensuring that you use your bed just for the sake of sleeping and not anything else. Several of the activities like watching TV or even reading books tend to stimulate the brain.
If you are looking for ways to shut off your brain, the best way to do so is by using the bed only for sleeping. Keep the distractions away and that should keep a check on some of the factors all the more. By doing this, you effectively train your brain to listen to the fact that it’s time to switch it off before bedtime.
3. Prepare a List of Things
Often times the lack of sleep and the overdrive in the brain stems from the stress of work around us. It has been seen a number of times that people who stress about work and things that need to be gotten done tend to have a much-hampered sleep cycle.
Worries have been found to keep people awake. A study (R) which was conducted recently found that writing down a to-do list in the morning or before bedtime can prevent the overdrive of stress and help you sleep better at night.
According to the study, it is believed that writing down the prospects on a piece of paper does help a lot in managing the stress and helps clear up the mind. This itself is often more than enough to turn off your brain to sleep.
4. Switch off the Electronic Devices
One of the best ways to shut off your brain is by switching off the electronic devices. Laptops and mobile devices are one of the biggest distractions which make it hard to concentrate on certain things.
If you wish to concentrate on your sleep and just relax and let go off of the stressful thoughts, the best way to do so is by switching off the devices or keeping them away from you. Once you push these aside, bring your mind to calm and stop with the constant onslaught of thoughts all the more.
5. Have a Regular Sleep Cycle
Our body and minds are subjected to and prone to routine and habits. Developing a habit can definitely be a hard task but developing a sleep cycle is often quite easy to abide by. Once you train your mind to fall asleep at the designated time, it does become a lot easier from there.
The circadian rhythm in the body along with the biological clock in our body which is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus is definitely very sensitive to the habit that you instil in it.
The best way of shutting off your brain at night is by syncing your brain with the internal clock in the body.
6. Meditate
Meditation is amazing not just for practicing mindfulness but is quite effective in helping regulate the overall functioning of the body.
Practicing meditation on a regular basis does have a number of benefits that many people don’t even have any idea about.
Given the fact that it brings about peace and tranquility to one’s mind, it is thus considered as one of the best ways to shut off your brain before bedtime. If you have been feeling restless throughout the day, the best way to get over this is by ensuring that you practice some meditation.
7. Read a Book
It is actually very hypocritical to think of reading books as a way to shut off the brain when just a few moments back we told to keep the distractions away.
Often times, it has been seen that distracting the mind with something neutral like reading a book helps calm it down which, in turn, is definitely helpful in shutting your mind before sleep. Try and ensure that you are reading an actual book and not the digital version of it.
The main reason behind the same is because of the fact that the blue light from these digital devices ends up disrupting the quality of sleep even more so.
8. Take a Warm Bath
One of the primary reasons behind the constant unrest in the mind is because of the fact that the body is either in a mode of stress or there is a lot going on in your mind at the moment.
The best way to fight through the same is by taking a warm bath and letting all the stress and the stress seep away from the body.
What this does is help ensure that you get a proper night’s sleep because it relaxes your body and brings in peace and tranquility. It is believed that raising the temperature of the body makes the body to feel sedated and thus ensures that your entire system is relaxed and very calm as well.
9. Do Some Mental Exercise
Busying the brain with some form of mental exercise has been found to be quite effective in helping get rid of the stress and is one of the best ways to shut off the brain to sleep.
There isn’t any limit to what you can or cannot think about; it could be anything from fruits to even the foods that you like eating.
Additionally, yet another effective way to do so is by focusing on some of the objective prospects, be it colour or even the shape and size and what not.
10. Leave Work at Work
We often have the tendency to drag out work stress to our homes too. This is where we often tend to go wrong. Instead of simply just bringing along the stress from work, keep your work at work.
It is very important to have a healthy work-life balance that many people often tend to complain about. Having no stress of work with you does help in ensuring that you can clear your mind before sleep and relax it before bedtime.
This is often one of the best ways to train your mind to become peaceful and sleep well at night.
11. Listen to a Podcast
Listening to a podcast is possibly one of the best things that can help turn off your brain to sleep. There are a number of soothing and calming podcasts which do come along amazingly in helping you sleep through the night better.
These are also quite amazing in keeping your mind off of the worries that have been swirling around, thus making it an even better version for a peaceful night’s sleep.
Don’t expose yourself to the blue light, thus enjoy the soothing sounds and talks via your earphones.
12. Try Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are quite amazing when it comes down to help in getting a better knack at your quality of sleep.
We often have our mind running haywire when we are struggling along with the stress and such. The best way to combat that is by ensuring that you do practice some breathing exercises before sleep.
This helps in bringing back the focus back to the present and thus helps prevent any further issue all the more.
When it comes to administrating ways to shut off your brain, the possibilities are quite extensive. If you have been struggling with your sleeping patterns and not getting quality sleep, it is best suggested to ensure that you do try out ways to help clear your mind and get yourself some peace as well
