How to fall asleep faster

If you want to have a good night’s sleep, you need a cool head. While sleeping in the fridge is not the most environmentally thing to do, who are we to judge?

Seriously, though, you might want to make sure your bedroom is cool. Experts say the ideal temperature is between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius, which is well below the usual “room temperature”, between 20 to 23 C.

What is insomnia and what you can do about it

In addition, keeping a cool head can help you if you have trouble falling asleep, says exercise therapist Ingo Froboese, a professor at the German Sport University Cologne.

A cool head is meant both literally and figuratively, and people with sleep problems can actually try to keep their head cool on the bed.

This can be done, for example, by hanging your pillow by the window to cool it down and get some fresh air before you go to bed. If it’s too warm outside, you can even try putting it in the fridge for a few minutes. Also, it’s a good idea to have a few pillows to swap out when one gets too hot.

But it’s just as important to cool off the machinery at work in your head before you go to sleep.

Why you really shouldn’t pull an all-nighter

Froboese recommends meditating or reading for the last 30 minutes of the day, while avoiding exciting movies and TV shows or strenuous sports.

Smartphones and other devices should be left outside of the bedroom. The blue light they emit can inhibit sleep. Constant beeps and boops while messages drop and apps update are going to wake you up. And, if you keep on scrollin’, you’ll keep on finding reasons to stay awake.