If there’s one thing that is going to impact your health in a major way, sleep would be it. Sleep influences everything from your energy level to your fat burning potential. It really pays to log 7-9 hours each and every night.

But, what if despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to get the sleep you need? What if you lay awake in bed at night tossing and turning for what seems like hours?

If insomnia is influencing you, frustration will no doubt be setting in. The good news is that with a few smart tricks, you can take steps to overcome it.

Here are a few tips and strategies to help you beat insomnia.

Create A Wind-Down Hour

One of the biggest reasons that people struggle to fall asleep at night is because of high stress levels. If you are tossing and turning as your mind races from one topic to another, this is going to cause issues with getting to sleep.

One great way around this is to create a wind-down hour. Do something in this hour that puts your mind and body at ease.

Take a hot bath. Read a book. Do some deep breathing or meditation.

Whatever you do, don’t do things that stimulate you like exercise, house cleaning, or browsing the internet on the computer or your smart phone. The screens from these devices stimulate the brain and can make it very challenging to fall asleep.

Check Your Caffeine Intake

Next, check your caffeine intake. Are you drinking coffee late into the afternoon? If so, that could be your problem

Remember that while the half-life of caffeine is just 6 hours, it can take up to 14 hours for caffeine to entirely leave your system. So if you’re drinking coffee at noon and trying to sleep at 10 pm that night, it could still be influencing you.

Keep your caffeine intake to the early morning hours only and try and avoid consuming more than around 200 mg of caffeine.

If you can, switch over to herbal tea instead to completely avoid caffeine altogether.

Remember to also check for caffeine containing foods or beverages you may be having during the day as well such as chocolate, energy drinks, or green tea.

Prepare Your Bedroom For Sleep

It’s also a must that you prepare your bedroom for sleep. This means turning down the room temperature as best as possible (as a cooler environment will promote deeper sleep), keeping all light out by using blackout curtains, and if possible, reducing or minimizing any irregular noises.

Even the sound of cars passing by can be enough to keep some people awake, so if that’s happening to you, a white noise machine could be very beneficial.

This white noise is steady so is not disruptive of your sleep like the irregular noises are.

Watch Your Food Intake

Finally, be sure that you are taking into account all that you are eating throughout the evening as well. Heavy meals can make it harder to sleep if you then lay in bed with heartburn or indigestion.

Too much food before bed causes your body to sit awake as digestion takes place and blood is sent to the abdominal region.

A light snack is often a good idea as you don’t want to be hungry either or that to can make it hard to sleep. Stick to easy to digest foods that aren’t spicy for best results.

Some yogurt or warm milk are both great options, as is a small bowl of unsweetened oatmeal with some nut butter.

So keep these quick tips in mind if you are battling insomnia. With the right approach, you should be able to get past it and start getting the rest you need again.