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of improving them. The over the counter sleep aids give you the illusion of a full night's sleep, but in actuality, they interrupt the REM stage of sleep, causing you not to feel as rested when you wake up as you normally would. If you do use over the counter sleep aids, I would advise you to use them sparingly and not for several days in a row.

Since most of the causes of insomnia are behavioral, it should follow that most of the solutions require a behavioral change. The first thing I would suggest would be to set a time to wake up every morning. If you normally wake up at around noon, I would say that this is what is causing your problem. The body achieves its most restful sleep at night time. Our circadian rhythms usually cause us to feel sleepy at around 11:00PM. Thus we go to bed, and wake up at around 7:00AM after a full restful night's sleep. Thus, the first step would be waking up early enough to be able to go to bed at around 11:00PM. This will help to get your body back on schedule so that it can have the most restful sleep possible.

Still having trouble falling asleep? There is a little thing called progressive muscle relaxation, which allows you to call attention to each part of the body, and relax it, until the entire body is a heap of mushy, relaxed jello. Start with your feet and work your way up your body, tensing and releasing the muscles. Tense the muscles for 10 breaths and then release for 10 breaths. Do this until you have worked your way throughout your entire body. It's kind of hard to think about all the conversations you had that day when you are both focused on counting your breath and focused on relaxing each muscle in your body. Maybe before you even get up to your knees, you will be fast asleep. And in addition to helping with insomnia, progressive muscle relaxation is also great for stress and anxiety.

So, I hope this little article has helped you on your way to a more peaceful night's sleep. I myself used to struggle with insomnia and have tried all of the above techniques with varying levels of success. There are different techniques for everyone, it's all in just finding the right one for you. So, give them each a try and good luck!

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