5 Tips on How to Fall Asleep Faster & Sleep Better

It’s estimated that upwards of 68% of people struggle to fall asleep fast or get a quality nights sleep at least once per week.

The good news is that there are a few simple tips you can implement to greatly increase the quality of your Z’s.

Here are the best 5 tips to go to sleep fast!

1. Bedtime Consistency is Important

It can be extremely difficult in today’s world to get to bed at the same time every night.

However, your body actually wants a consistent rhythm and your brain wants to release chemicals and hormones including melatonin, to help you fall asleep.

If you do not help your body and brain out by training it to know “when” to release those chemicals it makes it much tougher to consistently fall asleep easily.

You do not have to have a strict deadline to help yourself out but keeping a 30 – 45 minute window every night will provide huge benefits.

2. Limit Blue light 60 Minutes Before Bed

Artificial light and especially blue light can greatly disrupt your ability to fall asleep (study, study, study) but most of us don’t have the option of changing out every light bulb in our house to the ultra expensive rest friendly options.

However, there are 3 areas we can address the most serious blue light issues and 2 of them are free!

Turn off your TV 60 minutes before bed.

Staring directly at TV screen can wreak havoc on your body’s melatonin production and by simply making a conscious effort to give your eyes and brain a bit of downtime, you can greatly increase your ability to fall asleep fast.
Download a blue light filter for your phone.

For many of us, turning off the TV is one thing but putting down our phones is a whole other issue. The good news is you do not need to give up your phone time if you don’t want to.

There are a lot of good, free options in the app stores which will help filter out blue light so you can continue to use your phone without having such negative consequences from it with regards to your sleep (study).
Swap out the lightbulb in your reading lamp.

If you like to read at night, it’s a smart move to invest the $20 in a low-blue light bulb for your reading lamp. It will help take the strain off your eyes and allow your natural melatonin production to kick in while letting you still enjoy your book.

3. Limit Carbs 4 Hours Before Bed

You probably know from personal experience that eating a heavy meal right before bed can affect your sleep.

However, there is a growing body of research showing that high carb meals before bedtime can be devastating to a quality nights sleep. (study, study, study, study)

Try to limit the amount of carbs you consume, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, white rice, etc… within 4 hours of bedtime.

4. Cut Out Caffeine 6 Hours Before Bed

Caffeine can be extremely damaging to your sleep (study, study) not only because it can give you a jolt of energy but it directly affects the neurotransmitters that affect melatonin secretion.

If you want to enjoy a hot beverage at night consider switching to chamomile tea which has been shown to help improve sleep quality (study).

5. Try a Natural Sleep Enhancing Supplement

There are natural supplements which can help you fall asleep faster and sleep harder by calming brain activity, aiding your body in recovery or directly boosting the production of sleep hormones.

Here are the best supplements to help you sleep:

Melatonin – You have seen melatonin mentioned many times throughout this article because it’s one of the biggest factors in being able to fall asleep.

Supplementing with melatonin has been shown to improve sleep quality and length as well as increase morning alertness (study).

However, melatonin is poorly absorbed in supplement form with only about 16% being absorbed on average.

This can be overcome by taking a liposomal based melatonin supplement which has an extremely high absorption rate and is absorbed almost instantly.

That means you can take it right when you lay down instead of having to take it 30 – 45 minutes before rest and hoping that the timing works out.
L-Theanine – L-Theanine is an amino acid which has been shown in multiple human case studies to promote relaxation (study, study).

It also appears to trigger the release of “alpha waves”, brain waves which are present during the REM cycle of sleep.
GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric acid) – GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter and actually helps limit the activity of neurons in the central nervous system and brain.

GABA is great at promoting relaxation as well as reducing stress and in a recent study it was found that there is a strong correlation between people suffering with insomnia and disruptive sleep and low levels of GABA (study).
Glutathione – Glutathione is considered a “master antioxidant” and is well regarded at stopping DNA damage and promoting younger, healthy skin.

It may also play a role in a quality nights sleep.

In a study on 30 healthy people and 30 people with insomnia it was found that those with insomnia had significantly lower levels of glutathione peroxidase activity (study).

However, glutathione is not well absorbed by the body so it’s best to take it wrapped in a liposomal formulation.
5 HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) – 5 HTP is a precursor to serotonin and is well absorbed by the body with upwards of 70% ending up in the bloodstream (study).

Serotonin tends to decrease as we age and is important for the body to make melatonin. Since 5 HTP is well absorbed and easily converted by the body into serotonin, it may be especially effective for older people.
Magnesium – Magnesium has been shown in 2 different human case studies to help improve sleep (study, study).

However, it needs to be clarified that it has only been shown effective in people over the age of 51 and there are some questions by researchers on whether low magnesium is a cause or effect of low quality sleep.

If you are over the age of 51 it may be worth giving a daily dose of 500 mg of magnesium a try.