There are many different ways you can help your body with cold prevention such as getting enough sleep, avoiding contact with sick people, building up your immune system, and washing your hands or using anti-bacterial spray /gel. Many people tend to have problems with not getting enough sleep, and after a long stretch of that, end up with a nasty cold. Here are five tips to help you get improve your sleeping habits.

Tip #1: Limit caffeine intake

Even if you have a high tolerance for caffeine, drinking it too close to bedtime can drastically reduce your ability to fall asleep quickly. A good rule of thumb is to avoid caffeinated beverages after 6:00 pm.

Tip #2: Drown Out Your Thoughts

Sometimes it is hard to calm our brains down once we are in bed. Thinking about tomorrow’s to-dos, our financial woes, or analyzing our children’s poor behavior can all keep us from being able to fall asleep. Listening to a soothing cd or watching a familiar movie can be helpful for some people. It helps them to tune out their thoughts and just veg out to the background noise. If these methods are too engaging for you, try turning on a fan or humidifier to distract your thoughts. As a final option, it may be helpful to simply keep a notebook by your bed and jot down any thoughts, concerns, or scheduling items before trying to get to sleep.

Tip #3: Exercise

Getting enough exercise throughout the day prepares your body to be more tired and relaxed and ready to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. However, avoid exercising too close to bedtime as it can get your heart and mind racing and have the opposite affect.

Tip #4: Limit screen time

Sometimes it can be difficult to get to sleep if your brain has been too involved in stimulating activities right before bed. Adjust from computer or television time can be difficult. The best thing to do is pull yourself away from those types of activities as it gets closer to your bedtime. Engage in some of the relaxing activities listed in tip #5.

Tip #5: Engage in relaxing activities

One of the best ways to get to sleep is to read something BORING. Reading can help you calm down, but if you are too involved in the book (think Twilight or Harry Potter) it can just cause more problems because you will stay up too late to finish the story. Some people don’t have that problem, but if you do, grab a few non-fiction books to keep on hand for this purpose. Other relaxing activities such as knitting, just sitting and chatting, playing a calm board game, taking a hot bath, etc. are all great ways to calm yourself down right before bed.

Hopefully some of these tips might be useful for you in getting some better sleep. I know I prefer to use natural cold remedies for prevention and cold treatments instead of always pumping over the counter drugs into my body.