The human body needs three things in order to function at optimal levels. Those three things include good nutrition, plenty of good exercise on a regular basis, and a good night's sleep every night. It’s relatively easy to put together a good diet and exercise program.

Conversely, it's not always easy to get a good night's sleep. There are hundreds of things, big and little, that can interfere with your ability to get the rest you need.

If you are tired of being tired, it might be time for you to do something about the quality of sleep you are getting. In fact, you might be open to some unique ways you can improve your sleep. Assuming you are ready to implement almost anything, here are some serious tried and true hacks that you might want to consider.

Focus on Your Environment

Take a look around your bedroom. Does it look like it's conducive to you getting a good night's sleep? If not, it might be time to do something about the environment in which you sleep.

While you might have to invest a little time, effort, and money into creating the perfect bedroom for sleeping, it would be worth the investment if it improves your health and well-being. Here are some things to consider:

• You need to make sure the room is decorated in soothing colors like tan, light green, and brown
• You need to make sure you have noise and light levels under control
• Your bedding should be comfortable
• Your bedroom furniture should feature a bed with a mattress that you sleep best on.

The Military Method

Consider for a moment the circumstances under which our military personnel need to learn to sleep. In a wartime environment, the stress is oftentimes unbearable. Still, our soldiers have been taught how to sleep under difficult circumstances. Considering you live in a reasonably safe environment, the military method of relaxing for sleep should work for you.

The process of relaxing goes like this:

• Relax the muscles of your face
• Drop your shoulders and let the relaxation move into your shoulders
• Drop your hands and let them relax by your side
• You can now relax your core by slow inhaling and exhaling
• Let the calming effects of relaxation now move unto your legs
• Clear your mind for 10 seconds and then start repeating "don't think" until you feel sleepy

The 4-7-8 breathing method

If you want to learn to relax your body, you need to learn how to control your breathing. The amount of air you inhale and exhale will play a role in determining how quickly your body can go from an excited state to a calm, relaxed state. The key is to establish a consistent and relaxing breathing rhythm. The 4-7-8 breathing method is a very good breathing technique for relaxation. Here are the five steps you would need to follow:

• Open your lips and breathe in as though you are trying to do an inhale whistle
• Close your lips and quietly exhale through your nose over a count of 4 seconds
• Then, you would need to hold your breath for a count of 7 seconds
• Exhale that held breath over 8 seconds
• A complete cycle would include 4 iterations of this sequence

Muscle Relaxation Technique

Tension and stress can cause your muscles to tighten up. It's nearly impossible to get a good night's sleep if you have muscle tension throughout your body. If that seems to be a symptom of your sleeping issues, you could benefit from using an isolated muscle relaxing technique.

This technique would start with the muscles in your forehead and slowly work towards your feet. The key to using this technique successfully is focusing on each muscle group one at a time. The process is the same for each group of muscles.

You start by tensing the muscles up for a count of 5 seconds, then releasing and relaxing the muscles for a count of 10 seconds before moving to the next set of muscles. Use the following groups of muscles (in order) for this process: Forehead, cheeks, eyes, neck, shoulders, triceps, chest, stomach, hips, thighs, calves, and feet. By the time you get to the end, your whole body should be free of tension.

Getting a good night’s rest each night is an essential component to the human body’s ability to function at optimal levels. Not getting enough sleep on a consistent basis can lead to various adverse health effects in the short and long term. Incorporating these sleep hacks into your sleep regime can help make getting a good night’s sleep easier.