Sadly, stress is part of life. At some point, everyone experiences stress. Physical, emotional and other types of stress take their toll on our minds and bodies. That’s why sleep is so important. Sleep is an antidote for stress.

Our bodies use sleep to restore and recover. While we sleep our bodies carry out important restorative functions. Our brains rid themselves of toxins and sort out the events that happened throughout the day. Our bodies repair and restore themselves as well. It’s pretty amazing how much our minds and bodies remain active even when we are sleeping.

Stress comes from everywhere. Worries abound in all areas of life. Fretting about work, family, and obligations can become overwhelming. Running everything through your mind without an outlet for stress can make it hard to sleep. When you need to rest, your mind gets hyper-focused on stressful things making it hard to fall asleep. During the day it can be easy to push worries down and think about other things but it’s much harder to distract ourselves when we are lying in bed trying to end our day.

Stress has a way of making itself known when we want to go to sleep. Somehow, we can shove our stressful thoughts aside most of the day but the moment we try to clear our minds and go to sleep, BAM- stressful thoughts overwhelm us. There are times when it’s really hard to clear our heads and go to sleep. Thankfully, there are ways to help.

Meditation is an ancient practice that uses mindfulness to center thoughts, reduce stress, and help calm the mind. Meditation emphasizes focus and self-awareness to rid the mind of stress. Meditating prior to bedtime can help prepare your mind and body for sleep and get control of stressful thinking.

If you haven’t experienced meditation in the past it can seem intimidating, weird, or even boring. Starting a meditation practice may feel awkward in the beginning, but soon you’ll experience the benefits first-hand and sing the praises of meditation. Learning to meditate is like working a muscle. The more often you use it, the easier it becomes.

One of the biggest reasons people experience stress at bedtime is failure to plan for a restful night’s sleep. Like most things, failure to plan is a plan to fail. It seems simple enough, gets in bed, turns off the lights, closes our eyes, and fall asleep. If only it were that simple. The key to getting to sleep is to prepare for sleep ahead of time.

Having a bedtime routine can help combat stress and prep our minds and bodies for rest. The hour before you go to sleep is as important as the moment your head hits the pillow. Here’s why-

Going to bed stressed won’t help you fall asleep. If anything, being stressed leads to insomnia and a horrible night’s sleep. Doing what you can to reduce or eliminate stress before bed can make a big difference. Activities like journaling before bedtime and having a bedtime routine can help, but there are other ways to reduce stress so you can sleep better too.