Crazy little thing called....Sleep??

Sleep, there are so many articles out there about it, how much should you be getting, how important it is for the body, how to get to sleep, the best way to sleep...the list goes on. When you're a infant your parents are begging you to sleep more, then as a teenager you can somehow sleep all day, work comes along and you find yourself losing the ability to sleep-in on the weekends, then maybe as a parent you become the one begging for your babies to sleep more, before you know it you're getting older and wake up at the crack of dawn everyday!

I think I am currently at the teen stage of sleep (even though I am 25!), I can usually sleep at any time of the day, on the couch in broad day light, in the car, on a plane - easy peasy. Unlike Alex I need at least 7 hours of sleep to function properly, left to my own devices I can easily sleep 10-12 hours a night, not something I am proud of but I have come to accept it. I am also an intense over thinker and like to be insanely organised and in the lead up to the wedding I found myself tossing and turning trying but failing to get to sleep until the early hours of the morning. There were still months to go until the big day and I knew I wasn't going to make it alive if this continued. I still had to manage to get through the work days and try to eat healthy, all easier to do when you aren't sleep deprived. That's when I found this app for the iPhone. 

Relax and Sleep Well is a hypnosis recording by the UK’s best selling self-help audio author Glenn Harrold. It wasn't recommended to me, I simply searched for sleep apps and selected this one from the list. There are probably many out there, some maybe even better than this one but this one has been an absolute life saver for me. I used it in the months leading up to the wedding and even the night before the wedding with mum listening too, we both fell asleep like cats (I had babies here but then realised babies don't fall asleep that easily)! I have even been using it post wedding too, I hope I don't become reliant on it but it hasn't failed me yet. Seriously every time I play it I fall asleep, without fail! Some nights I have tossed and turned for hours and then I have finally played the recording and fallen asleep within thirty minutes. If you have trouble getting to sleep I highly recommend you give this a try, what have you got to lose? Certainly not a good nights sleep!

I have my phone by my bedside when I am asleep, as well as a really bright alarm clock and a TV and DVD player in my bedroom, all things that aren't recommended by the experts but I just don't want to give these up. I also look at my phone (facebook, instagram etc) before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up, bad I know! I sleep on my stomach even though I wish I didn't (I have tried everything to combat this one). I would love some help to continue getting good quality sleep. What are your tricks for getting a good nights sleep? Do you have a bedtime routine to support your sleep? 

Talk soon,