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A staggering 69 percent of Americans suffer from a sleep disorder. Whether you have trouble falling asleep or wake earlier than you'd like, you can use a wide variety of natural approaches for a better nights sleep.

Conventional sleep drugs will knock you out, but leave you with that almost unavoidable morning grogginess. Long term use of these drugs can also lead to a dependency for them. To sleep more deeply and awaken refreshed, try some of these natural options for a better nights sleep.

A good night's sleep is the culmination of many small changes you can make. Lifestyle choices such as:

Establishing a regular routine for going to bed and getting up ? this reinforces your natural sleep/wake cycle. Avoid caffeine and nicotine. One cup of coffee in the morning does no harm ? stay away from these stimulants at least six hours before bedtime. Take it easy on alcohol. One drink might help you relax, to much however, can cause you to awaken to early. Eat enough but not too much ? it's hard to sleep while your body is digesting a heavy meal. Exercise early in the day, but not within 3 hours of bedtime. Create a sleep friendly environment. A completely dark and quiet room, comfortable bed, and a room temperature between 60 to 65 degrees works great for most people. Stay away from computers, televisions, and work related tasks an hour or two before bedtime. Cultivate spirituality in your life, try to turn around that lack of control feeling you may have over your life, and release it to a higher power. This will relieve your need to control every aspect of your world.

Herbs and nutrients can help you get a hold on sleep disturbances too. There are many products that contain multi-combination formulas that include ingredients like:

Valerian root, passionflower, skullcap, and chamomile are most helpful. Nutrients like inositol, gaba, taurine, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin B6 work well too. Meletonin a hormone secreted by the pineal gland, it can help regulate your sleep/wake cycle.

Meditating to a relaxing audio technology that uses binaural beats can increase electrical and energy activity patterns in the brain. This will train both hemispheres of your brain to resonate to the binaural beats resulting in ?whole brain synchronization?. You can train your brain to relax naturally and this will improve your ability to sleep.

Drinking plenty of water throughout the day keeps your brain hydrated and running in peak performance. Dehydrated brain tissue equals a stressed organ that can not function properly. If you are having difficulty sleeping at night try drinking a glass of water and use a pinch of salt on your tongue. Usually within a few minutes you should notice a calming effect. It is believed that this combination alters the rate of electrical discharge inside the brain, thus inducing sleepiness. A cup of yogurt before bedtime seems to help also.

The benefits of regular consistent sleep include looking younger, feeling more energetic, controlling body weight, and improving mood and memory. It's no exaggeration that sleep's benefits can add volumes to the quality of your life. But sleep is often the first thing to go when we get overworked or overwrought and stay up just another hour or two to finish a project, do the ironing, read a report, scrub the bathroom floor . . . You can't miss sleep without somehow cheating yourself.

There are so many natural alternatives to explore to increase your success in getting a better night's sleep. Try some of these, one or more of them might just be your ticket to many nights of more consistent and permanent blissful sleep!