Creating a bedtime ritual aids sleep

Everybody battles a bout of insomnia now and then, and everybody has heard at least one horror story about medicinal sleep aids gone wrong.

How can someone get a good night’s sleep without resorting to drugs or supplements?

First of all, Dr. Mitchell Forman, dean of Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine, cautions that a sufferer of chronic sleeplessness should check with a physician or health care provider to ensure there’s nothing more serious going on.

There are sleep disorders that can have serious medical consequences, he says, among them obstructive sleep apnea, which needs to be diagnosed, because it has serious consequences — even death — associated with it.

Also, a doctor or health care provider will be able to rule out lesser conditions — bruxism, or teeth grinding, for example — that could lie behind someone’s inability to get a good night’s sleep.

But for minor, occasional sleep disturbances caused by temporary stress, overwork or changing work schedules, resist the urge to immediately resort to over-the-counter sleep aids. Even if you hit upon one that works, “they tend to be for the short term,” Forman says. “Over time, they lose their effectiveness, and are sometimes associated with side effects.”

Similarly, don’t immediately resort to prescription medications such as Ambien, which can have long-lasting side effects,” Forman notes.

Think, instead of developing strategies that can help to make your sleeping environment, and yourself, more amenable to a good night’s sleep.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine and stimulants several hours before bedtime. Not only is caffeine a stimulant, it’s a diuretic, Forman says.

“It makes you have to get up to go to the bathroom.”

Avoid alcohol, and resist the urge to nap during the day. Even short naps can affect nighttime sleep, Forman says.

Reserve your bed for sleep.

“There are probably only two reasons why you have a bed, and one is for sleeping,” Forman says. “So reading in bed, watching TV in bed, having a laptop in your bed, paying your bills, doing things other than sleep or sex, it’s probably the wrong place.”

Adopt relaxing bedtime rituals. “It may be a hot shower,” Forman says. “It may be exercising very lightly a couple of hours before going to bed at night. It may be shaving or it may be doing stretching.”

Make your bedroom absolutely dark, and take steps to minimize noises, whether it’s the ticking of a clock or neighborhood chatter coming in through open windows.

If you can’t get to sleep, don’t toss and turn.

“Don’t force yourself to sleep,” Forman says. “If you’re unable to get to sleep within a reasonable period of time — 20 minutes to a half-hour — then resume your agenda. Get up, rest elsewhere for a little while, then try to resume again. Don’t force yourself to sleep.”

Sample different strategies, Forman says, to find out what works best for you over time.