Have you ever gone through a phase where you had a lot of trouble sleeping?  It is the worst.  I have struggled with this off and on and it can really affect you for the worse.  When you’re tired everything seems hard.  For me I get anxious, irritable, lethargic, and emotional…it’s no good.

Inevitably we go through stressful periods of life or maybe your body sometimes gets into an annoying rhythm and wakes up randomly at 3:30 a.m. for weeks. Am I the only one who’s experienced that? Sleep is such an important factor for good health and being a nice mom is so much harder when you’re operating on only a few hours sleep.

I’ve compiled a list of 15 ways to improve your sleep naturally that will hopefully help anyone who’s struggling with getting a good nights sleep.

15 Natural Ways To Promote Sleep

1. Develop A Routine: Set a consistent time to go to bed and wake up, even on weekends.

2. Exercise: Try and get moving at least 3-4 times a week. You don’t want to work out within 4 hours of going to sleep or it may wake you up instead of make you tired!

3. Clean Up Your Diet: Reduce or eliminate soda, processed foods and sugar, especially before bed!

4. Drink Less and Smoke Less: Drinking and smoking has been proven to have a negative effect on sleep, reduce or eliminate them all together.

5. Put Away Electronics: 1 hour before bed turn off your electronics, TV, phone, computer and so on.  They can stimulate your brain making it harder to wind down.  Instead, pick up a book before bed.

6. Don’t Share The Bed: Try not to let kids or pets sleep in your bed.  I for one have a very hard time sleeping when the kids come in to our bed, it happens every now and then.  As for the dog, no way!

7. Temperature: Keep the temperature cooler at night.  Somewhere between 55-70 degrees.

8.  Keep It Dark:  The less light the better.  Even a small amount of light can disrupt the production of melatonin.  Keep electronics out of your bedroom, turn off your TV if you have on in your bedroom and ditch the nightlights.

9. Save The Bed For Sleep: Don’t work in your bed, or watch TV or eat in your bed.  Keep it a sacred space for sleeping, reading and intimacy.

10. Warm Bath: Taking a warm bath before bed can help you relax, try adding a cup of epsom salt (also a source of magnesium)  to relax muscles and a few drops of lavender oil for its calming effects.

11. Aromatherapy:  Essential oils can help instill a sense of calm and relaxation making it easier to fall asleep.  Some good oils for sleep are lavender, neroli, clary sage, vetiver, and cedarwood which can be used to diffuse in your bedroom or spritz on your pillow before bed.

12. White Noise:  This one is so important to for me.  We always have a fan going in our room for some white noise and the kids have a white noise machine (check it out here) that I love.  It’s great because it plugs in (no batteries!) and we can bring it when we travel so the kids can sleep better.

13. Write It Down: Sometimes it’s difficult not to start thinking as you’re laying there trying to fall asleep.  That’s why it’s really helpful to make a to do list for the following day. Get your thoughts down on paper, and then realize there’s nothing you can do about it now and the best thing to do is to set that thought aside and get some sleep so you can handle all of your tasks the next day.

14. Sip: Before bed when you’re winding down with a good book, or while you’re making a to do list and organizing the next day, sip on some warm milk or herbal tea.  It’s soothing and calming and can work wonders.

15. Magnesium: Last but not least,  I take a supplement called Natural Calm  which is so helpful.  It’s a really great source of magnesium that’s really easy for the body to absorb, and I can feel it work so quickly to help relax nervous tension and stress. Again, I take this daily, sometimes morning and evening and I can feel it. If you suffer from any amount of anxiety or stress….which is probably most people, then I bet you could benefit from adding this supplement to your diet.

I hope that you can find some helpful tips here to improve your sleep.  I’d love to hear what else helps you sleep better, comment below!