Originally posted by nightingale8472
you can't sleep after martial arts because it gets your adrenaline going, and adrenaline makes your body awake, alert, and wired. Cooling down doesn't do a whole lot to help with this, because you're going to be wired until the adrenaline your adrenal gland has already secreted works its way out of your system. A good cooldown may stop you from secreting more adrenaline, but it doesn't help for what's aready there.
Some things to try:
Chamomile tea or warm milk.
they're both natural sedatives (they make you sleepy) and can help you calm down enough to sleep. Hot Cocoa doesn't count because chocolate has caffeine (sorry, folks) but you can put one of the coffee house style flavor syrups in the milk if you want to. I like the Irish Cream flavor. (you can get this drink at coffee houses. its called a "steamer" and is just warm milk and a flavor shot)
Some things NOT to try:
alcohol, artifical sedatives (tylenol PM and sleep aids), nyquil. They will make you fall asleep, but the sleep you get won't be very restful and you'll wake up feeling either groggy or exhausted.
hope that helps
-N-