Yahoo Lifestyle 
Five simple hacks to help you fall asleep faster
It's day five of the What's Up? mental health challenge and tonight you will be aiming to get an eight-hour sleep.
It may sound easy, but often thoughts swirling in your mind and daily stresses can keep you up at night.
According to Calm, which is an app that works to ease your mind and manage these distracting thoughts, a good night's sleep is important for both our physical and emotional wellbeing.
"But it's not always easy to come by," a spokesperson told Yahoo Australia as part of its What's Up? mental health series.
"If you're consistently missing out on the sleep your body needs, you're likely to experience symptoms including fatigue, weight gain, lack of focus or forgetfulness."
Calm says it creates mindfulness audio to help listeners sleep, relax and focus.
"At its core, mindfulness teaches us to calm the mind, develop concentration, and increase awareness," the spokesperson said.
"With greater awareness of our thought patterns and emotional habits, we can improve our mental health by learning to relate to our circumstances in a more objective, compassionate and skilful way."
Calm's top 5 tips for falling asleep
1. Sleep stories
It's like a classic bedtime story with a twist. Calm says sleep stories mix soothing tales with whimsical music and narration.
"The audio experience helps listeners relax their bodies and quiet their minds, mindfully soothing them to bed," Calm says.
2. Counting the breath
"Focusing on your breath can help calm your sympathetic nervous system and ease into rest," Calm says.
"Counting 'one' for an in-breath and 'two' for an out-breath consecutively can help calm you down and prepare for rest."
3. Have a wind-down ritual
A wind-down ritual is all about telling your body it's time for bed, getting it ready to fall asleep. Calm says however, it doesn't need to be complicated.
"It's a matter of doing the same things in a similar order before sleep," according to the spokesperson.
"It might be a bath, then doing some gentle stretches, using a sleep mist on your pillow or listening to sleep music in bed."
4. Try a guided meditation
"Guided meditation is another popular way to help listeners fall asleep," according to the spokesperson.
"In a guided sleep meditation, the meditator is gently talking through a series of relaxation techniques to unwind and transition to deep sleep."
5. Limit light before bed
According to Calm, our brains secrete more melatonin – the hormone that makes us feel sleepy – when it's dark and less when it's light.
In order to prepare our bodies for sleep, we should limit our exposure to unnatural light.
That means no more watching TikTok in bed, Facebook messaging your mates or rewatching your favourite TV show for at least an hour before you plan to sleep.
