Sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep. It's not an every night thing, but it happens. My grandmother also has difficulty with falling asleep sometimes too. I figured if we both had issues with it, there must be others out there too.
There are so many reasons why people have a hard time falling asleep. The biggest sleep prevention, I believe, are the thoughts that dance through our minds. Google "statistics on how many thoughts we have a day" and you'll see numerous articles that state humans have anywhere between 12,000-70,000 thoughts a day. That is a lot. So, if you have tons of thoughts running through your brain constantly, it can be hard to quiet them down so you can get to sleep.
I have tried numerous things to fall asleep faster. The one thing I have really had success with lately is breathing better. I have done guided meditations for a while now, and have learned to breathe better through doing them. After trying several techniques, I have found a rule of 5 to work best for me. I created the graphic (below) to easily explain how to do it.
I call it Marshmallow Dreams sleep because marshmallows are soft like clouds and clouds make me feel dreamy and when I feel dreamy I get sleepy. Actually, I'm kidding. I only called it Marshmallow Dreams Sleep because I have been craving marshmallows lately. After I do this breathing, my body almost feels like it has been tranquilized. It's a very strange feeling of total calm. I believe that the breathing also gives you something new to concentrate on, which helps quiet the mind by distracting you from thinking all the thoughts (score!).
I challenge you to try either the rule of 5 technique or research breathing/meditation and find other ways that may work for you. The whole point is to fall asleep faster. The faster you fall asleep, the more sleep you get. And we all should know by now how important sleep is!
Bonus idea: Use breathing to help calm you down in tense situations. I have used it numerous times and it works. I also believe children can benefit from using breathing techniques to help them calm down when agitated.
Now, I'm off to make some rice krispy treats.