One night you fall asleep instantly. The next you find yourself staring at the ceiling, counting sheep, or reaching for a cup of chamomile tea, just hoping you can nod off. Sleep holds power over many aspects of our health and well-being, from mood and memory to weight and even immunity.

Establishing healthy sleep habits are essential to ensure you get the restful sleep you need and wake up energized in the morning. Whether you’ve suffered from sleep issues before or your sleep schedule has gone off course recently, these tips can help you create a new and soothing routine.

Take an evening bath or shower. Research has shown that a warm bath one or two hours before bed can improve the quality of sleep, as well as reduce the time it takes to fall asleep. Our bodies naturally drop in temperature to initiate sleep, and bathing can help hasten the signal to our brains that it’s time for bed as we cool down afterward.

Write it out. If you tend to think about everything you need to do the next day, or you replay the day’s events in your head as you try to sleep, you may benefit from keeping a journal. Having a notebook by the bed can help you to get all your thoughts down on paper and out of your head. Write a to-do list or something that bothered you that happened that day. Once it is out of your head and on the paper, you can try to focus on relaxing, and sleep should come.

Keep it cool. As mentioned above, body temperature plays a critical role in sleep quality, but so does ambient temperature. The National Sleep Foundation recommends setting your bedroom thermostat between 60 and 70 degrees for adults and between 65 and 70 degrees for babies and toddlers. You’ll want to put on socks or use a hot water bottle, as cold feet can have the opposite effect of disrupting sleep.

Have a snack. Some nutritionists recommend having a small, light snack to curb nighttime hunger pangs. Snack on low-fat and nutrient-dense foods like nuts and seeds, whole-grain crackers, or warm milk. Bananas are high in the minerals magnesium and potassium that help relax muscles and may ward off troublesome leg cramps.

Go melatonin free. Although considered a natural solution, many melatonin supplements are synthetic and regular use could cause daytime drowsiness, dizziness, and other unwanted effects. SleepCalm, a homeopathic sleep medicine, is uniquely formulated with plant-based and other pure active ingredients to calm occasional sleeplessness, restless sleep, and intermittent awakening.* It’s available in meltaway tablets for ages 12 and up, and pre-measured liquid doses for kids ages 3 and up.

Find SleepCalm by Boiron at your local Mother’s Market store.

*Claims based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence. Not FDA evaluated.

+These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.