By Elise Moreau
Trends Expe, about.com
Ah, sleep. We all need about 7 to 8 hours of it every night, and yet
so many of us don't get it thanks to work, school, family, and general
distraction–including the internet!
If you're someone who
struggles to get offline at a decent time of night, perhaps you can
start to slowly shift your bad habit of using the internet as an excuse
to stay up by visiting some of the following websites. They're just a
few fun (and surprisingly popular) sites that offer tools to help you
sleep better.
Bookmark
them, read them, use them and watch how your sleep improves. While they
certainly don't offer a complete solution for anyone with more serious
sleep problems, they're at least helpful for some of those smaller
sleep-related issues that we don't always think about.
SleepyTi.me
Not getting enough good quality sleep can lead to some painful
mornings as you struggle with finding enough strength to resist hitting
snooze again and again and again. Lucky for you, SleepyTi.me is a tool
that may be able to help you fix that.
It's just a simple
calculator that gets you to type in the time you need to wake up, and
then uses it to offer you suggested times that you need to fall asleep.
(Or you can just press the "zzz" button if you're planning on going to
bed right now.)
You'll
get a few suggested times based on counting backwards in sleep cycles
from the time you put into the calculator. So if you don't want to
struggle to wake up, aim to align your sleep with one of these times to
stay on track with your sleep cycle.
Rainy Mood
Whether you're at home, at work, on school campus or maybe even
waiting around in an airport, a nap can help you pass the time and help
you feel refreshed when it's time to get back to whatever you need to
do. Rainy Mood is a great website to have bookmarked for some soothing
music you can listen to for free with some headphones.
As you
might've guessed, this website is just a simple one that plays a
constant stream of rain and thunderstorm sounds. There's also a link at
the bottom labeled "Today's music," which changes day to day and gives
you the option to play a suggested YouTube video of instrumental music mixed with the rainstorm sounds.
Brain.fm
Like Rainy Mood, Brain.fm is another sound effect/music service
designed for people who are more serious about using sounds to help
them sleep. In fact, the tracks included on Brain.fm have been
scientifically tested and proven to improve sleep. When you choose a
sleep track, you can select one for a short nap or for a full eight
hours of sleep.
Brain.fm
is a premium service, but you'll get to try a few tracks for free
before you decide to pay for unlimited use. In addition to improving
sleep, it also has tracks that help improve focus and relaxation.
F.lux
Your computer monitor and mobile device screen might
automatically adjust its brightness according to how much light is in
the room, but F.lux is a tool that enhances this effect. It actually
mimics the light according to the time of day, automatically changing
the tint when the sun sets so that it looks more like indoor lighting.
Why
is this useful? Well, the blue light emitted from screens tends to mess
with your body clock, which is why F.lux is so handy. When exposed to
blue light at night, it can trick your body into thinking that it's
daytime, creating a response that essentially keeps you awake. F.lux
tints your screens to a warm hue so that the light you're being exposed
to at night doesn't affect your body clock as much.
Caffeine Calculator
Are you a caffeine lover? Everyone knows that caffeine is a
stimulant that can negatively impact sleep, and Caffeine Informer's
calculator is a little tool that may just give you a good idea of where
to draw the limit on certain beverages that contain caffeine.
Just
pick a drink, enter your weight and see what the calculator recommends
as a daily safe maximum intake. And for fun, the calculator even
includes just how much might kill you (as if you could ever find it in
you to consume such a ridiculous amount).
