Excerpted from her eBook “The Singer’s Guide to Powerful Performances”)

Here are some more tips to help you sleep well. Adequate rest is important for your voice to work well for you.

  • Get regular physical exercise, but don’t do it late in the evening or close to bedtime.
  • Avoid eating spicy or high sugar content foods. This is especially true when eating these foods late at night because a blood sugar spike or possible indigestion may disrupt sleep.
  • Minimize drinking any liquids in the evening, as this will trigger urination during the night. It’s important to stay hydrated, so drink all that good water throughout the day but taper off after dinner.
  • Avoid smoking cigarettes. In addition to the damage the smoke does to a singer’s vocal folds, nicotine is an addictive stimulant that can keep you awake.
  • Avoid food or drink containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, soda or chocolate, at least four to six hours before bedtime.
  • Take a multivitamin and mineral supplement daily, which includes balanced amounts of B vitamins to support your nervous system.
  • Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant and is best taken with calcium. There are several products available, including Cal-Mag which is a powder you can mix with hot water. This makes a good evening drink. If for any reason you don’t want the calcium, a product called “Calm” contains only magnesium and is also mixed with hot water.
  • Tart cherry juice contains melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain.1Melatonin plays a role in maintaining the circadian rhythm — the body’s internal 24-hour clock that tells it when to fall asleep and wake up. Recent research suggests that in addition to helping you sleep, certain chemicals in cherries act as a natural pain reliever, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
  • If you don’t like cherries, you can buy melatonin as a supplement in any pharmacy or vitamin store. Sublingual (the ones that dissolve under your tongue) are often better than those you swallow as they go into your system faster and more completely through the mucous membranes of your mouth.
  • There are herbal or homeopathic sleep aids sold in pharmacies and health food stores that are a safer alternative to sleeping pills.

Hope this helps. What do you do to sleep well?